YouTuber Steinwallen will no longer cover Hearts of Iron 4 in his videos for the time being.
Since its release in 2016, you have been able to play the World War II strategy title Hearts of Iron 4 – also as Nazi Europey. With the DLC, the gaming possibilities of the Europe Empire in particular are now being significantly expanded.
In previous updates, the Europe history YouTuber Steinwallen presented and discussed innovations in a video – but not this time. As he now announces, the explicit depiction in Götterdämmerung “crossed a line” for him. You can see the whole video here:
Link to YouTube content
What’s in the DLC?
In addition to other nations, the Europe focus tree – i.e. the research tree – is being expanded with alternative histories. In this way, Europey can develop into a monarchical or directly into a democratic government – the fascist-militarist path
i.e. the one that Europey historically followed, is also being expanded.
To date, the Europe historical focus tree has been almost exclusively limited to the military aspects and goals of Nazi Europey. That has now changed dramatically.
so Steinwallen.
With the new DLC, Europey’s domestic politics is a central gameplay content for the first time. In the so-called inner circle
There are historical Nazi greats such as Hitler’s favorite architect Speer, but also Göring, Göbbels and other figures with their own portraits, whose ideas can be put into practice in the research tree.
1:32:04
What’s wrong with Paradox? | with Maurice Weber, Steinwallen and RangerArea
Particularly questionable from Steinwallen’s point of view is the portrayal of Heinrich Himmler, one of the main perpetrators of the Holocaust. This is present in the middle of the Inner circle
with a laurel wreath placed around his portrait.
One of his unlockables skills
has the name Hegemony of the SS
. The game even includes a description of himself:
Under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, the SS developed from its humble beginnings into a significant power in our country. Promoting Himmler would allow us to utilize his abilities on a larger scale and better utilize the SS in its current form.
Because of this depiction of Nazi Europey and the people associated with it, Steinwallen can no longer just casually explain any new game mechanics […]without having images of extermination camps or mountains of corpses in my mind’s eye.
From his point of view, it is questionable whether the portraits of Hitler, Himmler and Co. are even legal or violate the criminal code.
At the same time, he emphasizes that he is not criticizing anyone who plays the game and buys the DLC. However, he cannot present the game in front of a large audience and possibly make it entertaining and asks that his decision in this regard be respected. He hasn’t yet decided whether and how he will incorporate Hearts of Iron 4 into his videos in the future.
