One of the most needlessly obtuse and moronic interfaces I've ever come across.

*89 hours later because I seem to hate myself I've come to the terrible conclusion this game is a visual novel. Focus trees used to be about vague strategic focuses so you'd have an edge in certain areas. As I go through the eras of DLC I'm finding more and more they're now little stories that very easily break when the AI throws up on itself, which is often. This is especially bad when focuses target countries and not territory, which was usually the real goal, and that country no longer has the territory you want.

Other GS games evolve as you play them meaning no two playthroughs are the same. HoI4 meanwhile is on rails, unless you turn off historical at which point the game collapses in a heap because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ focus trees again. There's no organic evolution it's just a series of alt histories all bugging out against each other.

And this isn't even getting into the other issues. Your frontlines constantly redrawing themselves wrong. The god awful performance any time after 1942. And the aforementioned broken interface.

I keep thinking "this time I'll have fun" and every time it turns into a battle against the game's systems as opposed to the actual enemy. I need to stop.

**370 hours later and the real strength of the game is mods. Modders know more about the game than Paradox does. Sad really. Still a negative because Paradox didn't do this, someone else did.

One of the most needlessly obtuse and moronic interfaces I've ever come across. *89 hours later because I seem to hate myself I've come to the terrible conclusion this game is a visual novel. Focus trees used to be about vague strategic focuses so you'd have an edge in certain areas. As I go through the eras of DLC I'm finding more and more they're now little stories that very easily break when the AI throws up on itself, which is often. This is especially bad when focuses target countries and not territory, which was usually the real goal, and that country no longer has the territory you want. Other GS games evolve as you play them meaning no two playthroughs are the same. HoI4 meanwhile is on rails, unless you turn off historical at which point the game collapses in a heap because of the god damn focus trees again. There's no organic evolution it's just a series of alt histories all bugging out against each other. And this isn't even getting into the other issues. Your frontlines constantly redrawing themselves wrong. The god awful performance any time after 1942. And the aforementioned broken interface. I keep thinking "this time I'll have fun" and every time it turns into a battle against the game's systems as opposed to the actual enemy. I need to stop. **370 hours later and the real strength of the game is mods. Modders know more about the game than Paradox does. Sad really. Still a negative because Paradox didn't do this, someone else did.