Darkest Hour: Hearts of Iron IV - WW2 Grand Strategy Game Download for PC | Historical War Simulation & Military Campaigns - Perfect for Strategy Gamers & History Enthusiasts

Not sure where to start on how much of an enjoyment this game is. As a fan of many WW2 PC games, I can say this one is hard to beat, especially in terms of sheer strategies one can employ. There is even a WW1 scenario in this game for double the experience, but I'm focusing on the WW2 scenarios. This review is based on a non 'exploit the A.I.' viewpoint. I play for fun as major Axis nations (Germany, Italy, Japan) nearly always. I use hard difficulty and aggressive A.I. options.PROS:The map is my personal favorite new feature over vanilla HoI2. The extra provinces for every country on the map helps playability and strategy infinitely. As Germany attacking the Eastern Front seems daunting with the extra areas to control and attack. The provinces are set up so you have to think ahead, move troops carefully, and keep a stable front. Haphazardly moving them just to grab an area you fancy will cause you to risk getting surrounded and cut off. All in all, Darkest Hour provides a great map that forces the player to pay attention to how he is going aboutThe A.I. is uncanny, and very adept as putting up a good fight in offense and defense. Its important to guard your beaches, deal with blockades, patrol the air over important provinces, etc...something that you seldom worried about in vanilla HoI2. For example, playing as Italy, vigilance is needed because the A.I. will probe your defenses, amphibiously assault various beaches that you control, attempt to find an opening, and when siphoning off your units troops to the Eastern Front to help Germany (assuming Germany needs help), this gesture of solidarity often opens the Italian Mediterranean up for some harrowing campaigning against Anglo-American forces that will inevitably come for you.The USA has some great A.I. in my opinion. My Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere was handily dismantled from 1942-1947 (Germany and Italy fought on until 1946) in one game by a combination of American air power and marine landings. Their navy sunk so many of my desperate troop reinforcement transports I had no recourse left than to basically sit in Japan and keep my fleet in port, too afraid to send my mangled navy out into action. My air force was the only thing resembling a force worth reinforcing. The A.I. is awesome, and unpredictable for all countries in the game.CONS:Hmm. Not too sure here. Sometimes to A.I. will garrison a beach with 50 units or something, while getting their tail beat in some other region of the map. I wonder why the A.I. will not ship these units to other fronts though. Maybe because I have sunk their transports? Not sure, but I see this phenomenon here and there and it kills some of the immersion.Many of the cons players have are designed to give our superior human reasoning and intellect some degree, no matter how great or small, of a challenge against the A.I. (as impressive and well done as the A.I. is). Long battles, slow tech research, organizational losses when moving from province to province, and other perceived 'con's I can live with, if only for the truth that for each game I begin I never know if I may win or lose, nor what the outcome may even be. That is worth it for my own tastes. Your mileage may vary, of course.________________________________Overall, this game is very satisfying for getting a grand strategy, WW2 fix. The Decisions that the main countries (Britain, USA Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, etc) receive are uniquely tailored to each country to let the player guide their country how they see fit. You can tell the game was made by passionate modders because you can mod nearly every aspect of the game. Modding teams and persons have taken advantage of this and made some impressive mods covering WW1 to modern decades.