Even though this is a mod for Hearts of Iron IV, Im logging it as a full ass game because it may as well be. TNO uses HOI4's game as infrastructure to tell horrifying, inspiring, hopeful, nihilistic, and optimistic stories about the human spirit through the usually tired "nazis win" althist. The autism (honorific) is on full display here, with a world that has no business being so incredibly polished, detailed, and realistic to the subject matter, while still being intriguing and entertaining. In TNO, you don't play HOI4 in the sense of building up a massive army and slogging it out in a great war against an opponent that is also trying to beat you. Instead, you play HOI4 with an emphasis on the focus tree and decision making to build paths that will cascade off the decisions and paths of other countries to end up on one of literally dozens of outcomes/endings. Each interaction feels natural and realistic, and nothing I saw ever conflicted. Its a miracle of storyboarding. You still fight wars in TNO, but they are much smaller scale, and mostly scripted, which is kinda fun in its own way.

The mod is on workshop. If you have HOI4, play it. If you don't have HOI4. Seriously consider if you are HOI4's demographic, and if you are, buy HOI4 and play TNO after the vanilla game.

Reviewed on Jun 27, 2023


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