Hearts of Iron 4 remains a titan of the grand strategy genre. Nearly nine years after it launched, the Paradox-developed WW2 game continues to pull in tens of thousands of players daily, remaining among Steam's top games thanks to the unparalleled level of depth in its recreation of the globe-spanning conflict. With its next DLC, however, HoI 4 is getting a little experimental, delving into prototype creations that, in most cases, never actually saw the light of day. Set to round out the game's first expansion , Paradox announces that Prototype Vehicles will now be launching sooner than expected.
best grand strategy games on PC, focusing on several of its major players including alternate-history paths for . The Graveyard of Empires country pack, however, sits at an 'overwhelmingly negative' Steam rating, with players left tremendously underwhelmed by the pack introducing more aspects to Iran, India, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The Prototype Vehicles unit pack that rounds out the is a smaller piece of the puzzle, but one of the most experimental additions yet. It introduces "vehicles from a time when the arms race was in full force, and any means of getting the upper hand on the enemy was a battle within itself." These designs, concepts created to solve certain problems, improve on existing models, or "purely out of desperation," mostly never made it to the battlefield, although a few saw limited action.
"In some cases, we will never know what the final designs may have looked like," the team at Paradox writes, noting that its developers have studied original blueprints to create illustrations of what they might have been had they made it to full production. Among them is the 'Grasshopper,' a tank fitted with twin helicopter rotors to allow it to make short jumps over obstacles, and the Modra Revolving Tank with its circular, rotating hull designed to deflect any incoming projectiles.
The pack allows you to employ these models in-game, although sadly they're only visual replacements rather than complete mechanical overhauls – I suppose there's a reason most of them never made it to reality. The good news is that the pack is "almost ready to roll out," and so instead of its planned third-quarter release it will now be coming in the second quarter of 2025, meaning we can expect it in either May or June.
The Hearts of Iron 4 Prototype Vehicles unit pack is now set to launch in the second quarter of 2025. You can read through the full developer diary for a look at some of the other models that will be included, such as the long-form Perrinelle-Dumay Amphibious Heavy Tank and the tremendously oversized cannon of the 2B1 'Oka' heavy mortar that was hampered by its impractical specifications and immense recoil.
If you need something to tide you over until then, take a look through our pick of the best best WW2 games on PC.
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