Hearts of Iron 4

Projects Paradox Interactive praise for their stunning meticulousness and unique game experience. Series Hearts of Iron -No exception, but from the very first part it was distinguished by several annoying shortcomings-which in the coming fourth part, apparently, will finally fix it.

Signal to the attack – three whistles up

► In each "arrow" the number of divisions is indicated. But will they follow the doctrine? If only they did not spread throughout the direction of the attack ..

Paradox tried in every possible way to force the player to feel that he was waging a real war, and as much as possible to reflect everything related to hostilities and supplies – well, unless the soldiers had a cigarette paper. However, this did not always work on the credibility.

The main headache was the process of command itself (however, this is just very vital). With each new part there were more provinces on the map, more divisions at your disposal. Hearts of Iron 2 offered to simply merge several units into one large. Three divisions – corps, six divisions – army. Thanks to this, three hundred Soviet divisions (at the beginning of 1941 are usually) symbolized only twenty -five chips, which are already easier to control.

Hearts of Iron 3 again she chased for honesty and almost buried the whole venture. A clear hierarchy appeared: the brigade became the smallest unit, a division was compiled from three to five brigades, from five divisions-the corps, then the army, the Army Group and the theater of military operations went on. There was no centralized management. Or you trust this business to a computer commander (who loved to drive the tanks into a forest thicket), or yourself with hundreds of divisions yourself. The pleasure is peculiar, and preparation requires.

► It seems to us that the division into the brigades went into scraps, but it is poorly visible from a height.

Hierarchy of troops in the new Hearts of Iron 4 We have not yet been shown, but the shameful staff cards with the inscription "HQ", blocked throughout Europe, we did not see. And they saw the division dispersed in Germany and East Prussia, belonging to only two formations – on the western border of Poland and on the southern border of the same Prussia.

This wealth was controlled extremely simply: we draw a cursor along the right provinces, as if we draw a line with a fingernail on the map, we take the game from a pause, and the troops briskly take positions. Then we indicate the direction of the attack direction, and arrows appear. Voila! We have a completely presentable attack plan for us.

Doubts, however, still gnaw. Yes, the soldiers rushed into battle with one click on the battle and even win … but they win at the insignificant Polish forces. And if it is the Barbarossa plan? How the armies will behave – they will suddenly allow themselves to take themselves in a ring and will perish or climb on powerful redoubts? Whether the divisions will fight in agreement – to create “boilers”, synchronously attack from the flanks, consolidate the successes of breakthrough tank wedges with the help of infantry? We will definitely find out when the closed beta testing begins.

Flight of the Valkyrie

► The list of tasks for pilots is noticeably impoverished – there are two buttons left on the squadron. Why the bomber cannot destroy the infrastructure?!

If you do not have air superiority and control over the sea, all the efforts of the commanders risk being in vain. Therefore, Paradox introduce a new system of air missions. Before the tasks of the squadron were issued strictly by areas – pieces of card, including several provinces, or within the framework of individual provinces, if it is necessary to wean a well -fortified position.

Now the card is divided into huge regions: for example, Eastern Poland and Western Poland. How to regulate aircraft behavior? And if we need superiority in a small section of the front? How to avoid air defense systems (otherwise the pilots adored flying under an invigorating shower from anti -aircraft fire)? So far, only developers know this.

Let's look at this on the other side: try to distribute tasks to all the Luftwaffe forces, manually sorting through the French cities! And here everything is simple and clearly. Here is the region itself, it is written on top how much we and the enemy have the Air Force and anti -aircraft guns, below the list of our airfields, from where it is easy to transfer to the target region how many cars are needed. Obvious and very big minus – lack of point control. That is, if you, conditionally, decided to bomb Warsaw, you will have to bomb the entire territory of Poland. Not very pragmatic, but a new audience that Paradox intends to attract, perhaps, will not consider this a disadvantage.

Relatively brave sailors are known even less. Classes of ships c Hearts of Iron 4 set up in four parameters: armor, guns, engine and reliability. It looks unusually arcated, in addition, it is impossible to indicate the distance of the battle – and this is no less important than the skin and howitzer! Beginners very often underestimate the distance, and then they are surprised that their invincible armada from some aircraft carriers go to the bottom to visit the sea devil. We hope this key to the Navy will still be added.

At night all sulfur tanks

► Figures of soldiers are more and more detailed, even a shadow is thrown and crushed by a foot. True, experienced commanders still replace them with strict, but informative cards with symbols.

Many claims to Hearts of Iron grow from misunderstanding of the mechanics of the game. So, all players know that at night any troops receive negative modifiers, and therefore the attack with a high probability will choke. In addition, weather and relief are important.

But in order to evaluate these factors in the previous Hearts of Iron , I had to look at the "clock" and switch between map modes. Together with manual control of each division, this repelled the hunt to verify attacks. So it turned out that they crawled, say, well done de Gaulle at the first hour of the night on rocks in heavy rain – and they were surprised that this German did not flinch?

We definitely figured out one of these problems – the change of day and night is displayed directly on the game map, moreover, it is very beautiful. But forests are lost against the background of texture plains. But the mountains and web of city streets are visible in any situation. Obviously, we will not miss the snow either, but we don't know about the rain yet.

► The borders are phosphorescent at night, but for some reason the USSR is not illuminated.

THIS IS INTERESTING: The flag of Nazi Germany, which, in order to avoid complications, was previously replaced with a less famous old banner (black, white and red stripes), now generally removes from the game. Instead there will be a military flag, but with a heraldic cross instead of a swastika. Such is political correctness. On the other hand, China refuses to allow the sale of games of the series Hearts of Iron On their territory, until Paradox includes the game Tibet in the composition of the game China, and this is the requirement of the Swedes in no hurry.

Cabinet war

► Photo cards of leaders and ministers were replaced by drawn portraits.

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For a year now, connoisseurs of the series Hearts of Iron They are lamented that the country's industrial potential is not tied to its plants, and that the capacities aimed at casting cutlery are instantly reoriented to the production of tanks. In the interests of gameplay, of course. This is not for you Victoria 2, where each factory has only one "specialty"!

IN Hearts of Iron 4 at least a division into factories and shipyards appeared. Well, so that the submarines no longer rivet somewhere in the swamps of Belarus. Previously, the entire industry of the country, regardless of the geographical location, at any time switched to the needs of the fleet (a striking example-the USA; they need a strong Navy to the cut, and the factories are scattered throughout the territory). It remains to find out whether Paradox will further “crush” industry in the industry and how much these industries will be interconnected.

Little is known about diplomacy. The glorious ideas of the third part (such as the scheme of party support) were preserved, but whether it was completely? Spying became only a line in the list of diplomatic actions, and in the same third part was very important: the undermining of national unity, for example, allowed to deal with the enemy noticeably faster.

But there were national goals and ideas spied in Europa Universalis 4. For example, Germany among the possible goals contain all sorts of “achievements” of Hitler's policy: Austria Anschlus, the annexation of the Czech Republic, the solution of the Polish issue and the like. Will we see alternative-historical goals? I would really like, because it will give a greater strategic scope.

Finally, the cabinet of ministers has changed unusually. There are five regions – a state, armed forces, economics, science and espionage, and some of them can be appointed people. And in the research field there are design bureaus that came from Hearts of Iron 2. Again, we are waiting for beta testing to find out the details.

* * *

From a short demonstration Hearts of Iron 4 on Gamescom 2014 It was not possible to squeeze out a lot, Paradox only fluently illuminated the most important, in their opinion, progress, leaving a lot of food for thought. But we are ready to forgive them if the declared opportunities do not lock the curve of artificial intelligence!

Success factors

Risk factors

• more convenient and visual troops control;

• potentially greater strategic scope:
• The night "fines" at the troops became clearly visible.

• The quick -witted AI is in question;

• lack of spot management of military operations;
• Marine vessels cannot indicate the distance of the battle;
• Removing the role of espionage.

We will wait?

The greatest strategy about the Second World War is about to return to duty, and even re-equipped with the latest technology. You can’t miss!

Waiting rating: 85%