One player on Steam spends 8,000 hours in difficult strategy game, says first 1,000 are just the tutorial

1000 hours of learning, that's what a Hearts of Iron 4 player recommends to Paradox strategy fans who want to improve their skills in the game.

The Swedish publisher has long made a name for itself in the strategy game market. Mostly as a company recognized for titles with complexity that can be "slightly" higher than even standard strategies. Not that the publisher has anything against this "criticism."

A recent Steam review pretty much sums it up. Its author has spent over 8,000 hours playing HoI 4. As he put it, 100 hours is only enough to learn the absolute basics of gameplay, and understanding the remaining elements requires another 900 hours (via Mein-MMO).

The user is by no means the first HoI 4 player to point out this issue – other internet user even stated that it's because of Paradox games that he is "lonely." However, while for him it's just a formality, other players see it as an issue. Especially since, as the author of another Steam review writes, the game is clearly balanced around DLCs, and without them, many systems seem "incomplete."

These expansions continue to be released, even though they often get a lot of pushback from players—like the recent Expansion Pass 2 (mainly because of the price, of course). However, this doesn't stop the game from attracting crowds. Yesterday's record on Steam was over 65,000 people playing at the same time (via SteamDB).

Hearts of Iron IV

June 6, 2016

Rate It!

• Overview
• Guide
• Review

• games trivia
• Paradox Interactive
• grand strategy games