Hearts of Iron IV: La Resistance is the next DLC pack coming to the WWII sim, Hearts of Iron IV. With this new DLC players will be given the chance to take on a variety of new content and missions within the wider framework of bringing espionage back into HOI 4. Those who played Hearts of Iron III will remember how much more robust the intelligence-gathering and spying was in that game. Sure, the graphics were simple and other areas of gameplay needed refinement, like controlling armies, but the overall idea of spying on your enemy is a huge part of warfare. And with Hearts of Iron IV: La Resistance, Paradox is bringing it back into their flagship franchise.
When Hearts of Iron IV: La Resistance was announced at PDXCON this past year, folks were pretty excited. The prospect of bringing a beloved element back into the franchise was a wonderful aspect for fans to take part in. Instead of just relying on the passive bonuses from Encryption, Decryption and a handful of other techs that replaced spying in the base game, Hearts of Iron IV: La Resistance will expand all of this into a new system built around a crucial intel resource.
Gathering this resource both represents the roleplaying aspect of gathering intelligence and daring spy missions, but also the in-game effectiveness of your spying network. The more of this resource you have, the more daring missions you can undertake, There’s scout planes, dedicated scouting missions, and various other elements and gameplay loops that can build up this resource.
Once you have the resources in place, it’s time to pick and choose your targets. Obviously, there will be an increasing scale of difficulty based on the complexity of the mission and its targets. Learning about enemy troop movements and plans is much easier than inserting spies or partisans behind enemy lines. There’s a new UI as well, for controlling all of this.
Paradox Interactive is working to both balance the system, as well as making the system fun to manage. The espionage system integrates with multiple other parts of the game, so keeping it all in check is a challenge. Part of the balancing lies in both the time and resource restrictions of planning and executing missions, so time management when planning invasions will have a new layer in Hearts of Iron IV: La Resistance.
If you would like to see some gameplay footage of the new expansion, check it out down below.
