![]() You must decide which way to sculpt your wartime nation via several mutually exclusive tech trees that need climbing, and you need to research a different national focuses every couple of months. You can play as any country, but the research options (and there's a lot of them) are geared around the major players in the war. There's a different pace to peacetime, to the extent that it feels almost like a different game. There's a fair amount of watching timers run down, but there's so many different buttons to press, and such varied directions to take your growing military force, that the wait between decisions is eased by the fact nearly all of them are interesting. The first part of the game is gently paced, and you'll click through menus, researching this, building that, and generally having a jolly time as you go about your business. There's options aplenty, from politically-charged decisions that define the government of your country, to the choices you make regarding military appointments and the infrastructure of your industry. There's no getting away from the inevitable conflict, but you can choose exactly how you want to setup in advance of it. ![]() Begin your campaign in 1936 and you have time to prepare for the coming storm. There's two starting points, and each offers a different experience. Compared to the studio's century spanning titles that we've been playing of late, this is much more focused, with all the action concentrated around the decade that housed WW2. The studio has crafted a complex sandbox simulation, packed with a dizzying array of options for armchair generals to pick their way through. If the recently released Stellaris is the most accessible Paradox game to date, then we reckon HOI4 might well be one of the hardest to penetrate, at least for newcomers. The most recent addition to the family of games built with the Clausewitz Engine is Hearts of Iron IV, and this one is all about the simulation of war, and juggling the micro and the macro. Stellaris is about seeking out new life and new civilisations. Europa Universalis IV is about diplomacy and new world conquest. Crusader Kings II is a personable and lively family tree simulator. Every one of Paradox Development Studio's strategy games scratches a different itch.
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