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Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2016
Hearts of Iron IV
Developer Paradox Development Studio
Hearts of Iron IV is a 2016 grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It is the fourth installment in the Hearts of Iron series and the sequel to 2009's Hearts of Iron III. Like previous games in the series, Hearts of Iron IV is a grand strategy wargame that focuses on World War II. The player can control any country in the world, starting either in… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
313 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 5, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
75
LovedLoved
183 positive · 60 negative
95% range 70–80%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 183 | 60 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
70 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
324,850 of 361,628 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Players are deeply split: many love the depth, others hate the DLC model and learning curve.
Many players praise the game's depth and addictive nature, even after hundreds of hours. One player notes they have "3k hours and still finding/learning new things" (R3), while another says "only game where even after 1k+ hours, you have very little clue of what's actually happening" (R7). The complexity is often cited as both a pro and a con. [3][7]
A significant number of players criticize the game's reliance on expensive DLCs, alleging that core content is locked behind paywalls. One player states, "The game requires DLC to get the full experience" (R30), and another says "Core functionality can be found in DLCs" (R36). Some also allege that Paradox moderators have made offensive remarks about historical figures, calling the company "straight up racist" (R31). [30][36][31]
Praised Deep strategy and replayability · Addictive gameplay
Criticised Expensive DLC model · Steep learning curve · Allegations of moderator racism
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 7, 2026. Method
Reactions
60 of 313 · most liked firstMaalesef HOI4 Discord moderatörünüzü hala savunabildiğiniz için bir daha Paradox oyunları almayacağım ve sizi desteklemeyeceğim. “Merhaba, Hearts of Iron IV moderasyon ekibiyle iletişime geçtiğiniz için teşekkür ederiz! Atatürk; tıpkı Karl Marx gibi, modern siyasetle yakından ilişkili, kutuplaştırıcı ve tartışmalı bir tarihi figür olması nedeniyle yasaklanmıştır. Endişelerinizi ve sorularınızı duymaktan memnuniyet duyarız; geri bildirimleriniz bizim için değerlidir.”
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When i bought this game it's an mild strategy game i love to play but it got progressively worse after "No One Step Back" dlc. Its just simulation slop, UI madness and worst of all content is vague. This game is just an overpriced garbage, I wouldn't bought it at this time with that price. We really shouldn't feed Corporates like this. Even making an tank origami with your money rather than buting this game will give you more fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot recommend this nor any paradox game for one simple reason: The game requires DLC to get the full experience. I have spent money on many of the DLCs, and I can tell you, I like the game, but you have to play specific ways, and it just gets too expensive.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Paradox community team members banning people based of ethnicity and profile pictures of certain politicians/generals specifically turkish politicians/generals, straight up racist company dont buy the game EVERYTHING BESIDES BUYING is better proof: https://prnt.sc/tjIwSFH6Bu5A , https://prnt.sc/f5N8jPmhD7eQ
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hearts of Iron IV Those who have not played the complex strategy game of Hearts of Iron IV are ignorant and delusional, unaware of what truly matters in life. Hearts of Iron IV is not a game, it is a logical masterpiece that only super geniuses can understand. The average simpleton may be able to download this masterpiece and even play it but they will NEVER understand the complexity. I pity those idiots who have never played Hearts of Iron IV, so foolish and ignorant. They quarrel over…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Earlier, Hearts of Iron IV DLC felt like true expansions. Things like tank design, espionage, and special units added depth—but the base game still stood on its own. That’s no longer the case. With version 1.17, core systems like doctrines are clearly built around DLC content. You’ll see bonuses tied to units you don’t have, and entire parts of the system feel incomplete or non-functional in the base game. Even the variety is affected. Where DLC users get many sub-doctrine choices, base-game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will never buy or support any paradox game again
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot recommend this nor any paradox game for one simple reason: The game requires DLC to get the full experience. MOST if not ALL game content is locked behind a DLC. If you want any up to date mechanics, you need to pay $250 on the DLC AFTER paying $50 for just the base game. This is not a game I can recommend without DLC. I have spent money on many of the DLCs, and I can tell you, I like the game, but you have to play specific ways, and it just gets too expensive. If you have money to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am deeply disappointed by the offensive and groundless accusations made by Paradox Interactive moderators regarding Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey. Labeling a globally respected historic leader with defamatory terms is completely unacceptable and disrespectful to millions of players. As long as Paradox Interactive fails to take strict official action against those responsible and offer a formal apology, I will no longer support, purchase, or play any…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have played this game long enough to know: Cons - It will destroy everything you know, all that you've loved and owned Pros - You will have the most WW2 trivia knowledge in the entire homeless shelter - The game's pretty fun More pros than cons so you should play this game for a thousand hours and still not know how the navy works
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This week on the blog! more Hearts of Iron IV. Having discussed the game's military simulation in previous weeks, this week we look at how HoI4 understands politics and...it's rough - design streamlining leads to an incomplete and authoritarian political model. acoup.blog/2026/10/02/t...
unlabelledView post →Oh hey this is finally on sale?!?!?! ♥♥♥♥ yea. *plays it* Where's the whole game?????? Oh... that's right. It's Paradox. You'll have to buy the game in pieces. Core functionality can be found in DLCs. Not just a DLC, DLCs. Expect to pay $30-50 more for a full game. Base game is a handfull of key players having content and then the rest of the worlds nations having a default tree and maybe a short 4 year unity adventure before not being able to involve much in the world war. It just feels so…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is no such thing as the Armenian genocide, you cannot call Atatürk a genocidal person
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. Can do war crimes from the comfort of my home. 3k hours and still finding/learning new things. But i am also stupid so idk.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Notices bulge uWu" is a "transvestigation" bullshit meme. "Ciao bella" is an Italian anti-fascist song, but it also plays over a famous meme video of Hitler taking over Europe in the video game Hearts of Iron IV.
unlabelledView post →As much as I love this game, Paradox's increasingly overmonetization of this game can't be ignored at this point. The Devs are constantly rushed to pump out more DLCs for minor countries, and then Corporate slaps ridiculous price tags on them. They also have made DLCs that literally overwrite other DLCs, and will pair giant features with minor DLCs in order to make an excuse to bump up their prices; Features that should be in free updates. The base game is incredibly bare bones, the DLC is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lowk this game is a trap, you enjoy playing until 1942 and then you realise you wasted 8 hours min maxing on a map simulator when you could be playing something actually enjoyable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When I first bought this game I had a girlfriend, within half a month of me playing we broke up. I haven’t managed to get a girlfriend since. But that may just be a necessary sacrifice. 10/10 I still consciously reject learning navy and despite all this wasted time I am still ass.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What playing this game took from me: ▸ Mental Health ▸ Money ▸ Time ▸ Appetite ▸ Geographical Awareness What I still have: ✹ My Virginity.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#ChakRESIGN This man should be punished, and Paradox should apologize to the Turks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →once this game was the ultimate experience, now its being DLC salvaged slop by slop. You're not EA bro, you guys weren't always like this i don't know what happened to this company also its been ten years, would you mind fixing the dogshid performance now perhaps? and another thing, if buying isn't owning then doing that "thing" isn't stealing so you guys know what to do don't pay for the transformation of this masterpiece into slop
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We will not forget the disrespect you showed to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. If you were to gather all your Swedish ancestors together, they wouldn't amount to a single Atatürk...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Before I bought this game, I had a loving family, a normal sleep schedule, and a healthy relationship with sunlight. I knew that World War II involved tanks, planes, and a guy with a bad mustache. That was the extent of my knowledge. Then my friend sent me a Discord message: "Hey man, HOI4 is on sale. Let’s do a quick coop game." That was 1,250 hours ago. I don't remember what my mom's voice sounds like. I only hear the screeching air-raid sirens of the main menu music and the subtle click…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's way to hard and I don't understand a thing about how to play it. It feels like I'm sitting in the cockpit of an airplane.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ruined my life.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →only game where even after 1k+ hours, you have very little clue of what's actually happening in other words, buy it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I still don't know how combat width or the navy works, but I just keep spamming infantry, light cruisers and destroyers and it just keeps working.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love when DLC I bought and paid a decent amount of money for to get access to what should be core mechanics of the base game becomes free because future DLC wouldn't work without it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Would rather drag my ballsacks through glass for the rest of time than play multiplayer
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its been 10 years and you still cant kill civilians... IN A WW2 GAME 5/10 for gameplay 0/10 for realism #paradoxaddgenocides
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has ruined my college experience, it has made me distant from my friends, my girlfriend is disgusted with me and my parents are at their wits end. 9/10 would grind another 1000 hours
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This took my life it took my dog it took my girlfriend it took everything if you have any respect for yourself do not buy this game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No tutorial what so ever. It's like getting placed in a boss fight with no gear at all. Truly a painful experience 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →That's completely normal—the navy is widely considered the most confusing part of Hearts of Iron IV. Unlike the army, there are a lot of different ship types and missions. Here's a simple way to think about it. The 4 jobs a navy does Your navy mainly exists to: 🚢 Protect your convoys (trade and troop transports). 🚢 Sink enemy convoys. ⚔️ Defeat enemy fleets. 🌊 Gain naval superiority so you can launch naval invasions. Everything else is just different ships helping with one of those jobs.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A warning to those seeking to purchase this game. It is an irreversible act which will drop an iron curtain between you and a thing called real life. Buying the game will send you into the world of insanity anguish and agony. Like a drug, it starts of good and then turns to literal nightmare. It would gradually turn you into a sociophobic isolated semi-schizophrenic creep. It will take and drain your soul. It starts easy. It always does. Just one German playthough, just a simple mod. You do…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is like an abusive relationship. At first everything is sunshine and rainbows, and you feel like you're having a great time, but after you get to know it you start to realize just how bad it really is. This game is such a huge time-sink for so little reward. It's been reworked to death at this point, and honestly, I don't even know what they changed this time. Paradox Interactive has developed some of the best Strategy Games ever made. With Hearts of Iron IV they revisited one of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have no clue what im doing. I Constructed a bunch of nuclear research facilities and researched nuclear things . I then dropped 10 nuclear bombs On myself and punched my computer. 10/10 game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Chudiest game of all time, also the most historically accurate. You can make the good guys win.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Takes hours just to understand the basic game mechanics, but once you get the hang of it, it's addictive.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got addicted so hard that im spending more of my life playing this game then studiying for my upcoming exams. 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hearts of Iron IV offers a captivating experience for strategy and history enthusiasts. Despite its positive aspects such as deep strategic options, historical recreation, and military planning, the steep learning curve and certain mechanical shortcomings might be challenging for some players. However, for those who appreciate the complexity and details, it can provide a rewarding war strategy experience.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you wanna spend the rest of your life without social sh or showers, this game is perfect for you
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game might be fun, yes, but my issue with it is the Paywall of DLCs, that completely block out every fun thing from the game. You must pay a huge sum, added to the game cost, just so you can spend more on the DLCs. If you really get the game, play Mods, like The fire rises or Kaiserreich, or the great war and wait until an anniversary to get the DLCs into the base games (hopefully). Also, I still dont know how to create a navy, even with 600 hours.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has taught me much, like never to trust game developers when they say there making a good dlc.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →:) I nearly teared off my skin learning this game and just once I thought I understood everything, navy appeared... 400 hours just to learn navy. You will need help if you buy this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Paradox feels way too focused on milking money instead of supporting its community. They released what’s basically a sandbox game that feels incomplete without DLCs—and those add up to around $200. It’s frustrating because the core game just isn’t enjoyable on its own. Can't believe I’ve spent 3.5k hours on this crap.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Finished the tutorial yesterday. Feeling ready for the game now. Still don't know how navy works. Pros: You can pause the game to raise a child in the meantime. Cons: Italy. France. But not always in that order. Edit: I think I finally know how the navy wor..., ...nope. Never mind.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought HOI4 thinking it was going to be a serious historical strategy game. After way too many hours, I've realized the playerbase is basically three groups: Fascists, communists, and democrats. The fascists want to conquer everything. The communists want to turn everything red. The democrats are femboys. And somehow all of them think they're military geniuses. Every lobby has that guy with 4,000 hours who knows every focus tree, division template, production ratio and exploit, yet still…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →UNPLAYABLE! This game is so broken that it crashes when it just launches and acts like a virus consuming so much RAM to even make some other apps in your PC crash and it makes your entire graphic card go apesh*t giving the feeling like your PC is about to explode. Long story short DON'T BUY IT and f*ck you Paradox, you will go bankrupt soon...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the most complicated video game ever made. it will infuriate you at times, but you will look up and you have been playing for 12hr straight.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good game but content that should be in the main game is locked behind overpriced dlc
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →-pick poland -think you can beat germany -get to 1940 -ally with czech -go to war with hungary -hungary joins germany -gets absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 10/10 game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it is a fun game. because i get to nuke birmingham for many years with ICBMs
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Paradox, make a Tung Tung Tung Sahur DLC and my life is yours.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Took me a long time to realize that there isn't actually anything fun about this game at all. >I want to play a historical war game! Then this game is not for you, because it flattens the interesting social dynamics of the time into a Bethesda-esque, two-option choice that invariably leads to the exact same outcome, plus or minus 0.04% recruitable manpower. >I want to play a cool alternate history scenario! Then this game is definitely not for you. The allure of alt-history collapses when you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For the love of god take it out back already Its been almost 10 years now. the game at this point has been hacked together like Frankenstine's monster. You cant keep adding things to a decade old game and expect them to work. You cant add new seperate mechanics for nations and expect them to roll into the game well. nations either become BROKEN strong or get NUKED into the ground with each DLC. some nations have fun content others dont. Japan JUST got a new focus tree after 10 years. untill…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →War. War never changes. Except in this game where he USA can be owned by Greenland and Germany falls to Australia. 11/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very good game if youre willing to spend 500 hours just to learn how to play it and dont even get me started on navy or world conquests with Buthan or Luxembourg
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its a good game but the dlc cost way too much, the base game is unplayable compared to having the dlcs
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Continual downward decline. Don't feel like writing a novella about the copious amount of issues plaguing the game or the racket that is the DLC to support it. Unless you've already are bought in and know what your dealing with, I wouldn't bother trying to start now, with this or any Paradox title. Used to love it, can't get myself to play a campaign anymore.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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