This game is still in Early Access and therefore the points in this review could change.
Hell Let Loose is a squad-based WW2 FPS that emphasizes on communication and cooperation, developed by Australian studio Black Matter and published by Team17.
Communication is intended as a central gameplay aspect by the developers. Each army needs a commander that has a dedicated voice chat with all the squad leaders, who in turn have a dedicated voice chat with their squad. This hierarchy makes for an enjoyable experience when everyone is on board and cooperating.
The maps are 1:1 scale of actual battle sites from WW2, the objectives are randomized which makes for sometimes slow start of matches but eventually lead to many intense battles all across the map. The playable maps in the game are designed based on historical WWII theatres of war by combining satellite imagery, archival aerial photography and street-level recreation.
The graphics are very good. I am running this game on my aged system: I7-4790, 16GB ram and GTX 1660 super. I get a steady 60 fps @ 1080p with frame drop to around 40 when the battle gets very hectic....... and it can get quite hectic when 5 or more squads on each side are attacking the same control point and you got strafing runs and artillery strikes bombarding you.
Talking about the artillery strikes, they are one of the prettiest and scary I’ve seen in a video game. All in all the graphics in this game are very well done. The sound design needs some praise as well. Blasts and gunfire sounds really good and as far as I can tell quite authentic though I am no expert in that field as I have never been fired upon.
The gameplay is not like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor as most hits will kill you. Leg hits and some body hits will wound you, and if you do not bandage yourself, you will bleed out and go into a downed state. Most body hits will put you into a downed state as well. A medic can revive you from a downed state and patch you up so you do not bleed out again. Headshots will kill you with no chance of being revived. After you die, you can redeploy at your HQ, garrison or a squad outpost. HQ is at the beginning of the map which means a long trek back to your squad’s objectives.
Garrisons are respawn points that squads can deploy and anyone in your army can use them to redeploy. Garrisons need supplies and therefore need cooperation to be created. Outposts on the other hand are squad only deployment and are very useful for squads when they are behind enemy lines. All deployment points can be destroyed by the enemy and need to be protected at critical points in the game.
There are different kinds of squads as well, there are the normal squads for 6 people and these squads have numerous roles ranging from: squad leader, rifleman, engineer, medic, machine gunner, support, marksman, anti-tank and automatic rifleman. Roles are limited, so each squad has to arrange their members for the roles needed, depending on that squads’ objectives.
Then there is the recon squad which is a 2-man squad: spotter and sniper. Then we have a tank squad which is a 3-man squad: Driver, Gunner and Support.
Matches play out as 100-player battles between two teams, each consisting of multiple smaller units of up to six players.
As of October 2019, two game modes exist in the game: Warfare and Offensive. In both modes, the map is divided into sectors that each team seeks to capture and control. In the Warfare mode, the game is won by either controlling all sectors at a given point in time, or by controlling a majority of them when the timer runs out. In the Offensive mode, a defending team is in control of all sectors at the beginning of the match, and the objective for the opposing side is then to capture all of them before the timer runs out. A match can last anywhere between 10 minutes to 90 minutes.
The combat is exhilarating and tense, where some mini skirmishes become massive battles of attrition with both sides desperately trying to capture a zone so they can either advance or halt the attacking army. Of course, as is the case with any online game there are bad apples that do not play the game as it is meant to be played but most of the time the community is quite fun, friendly and cooperative. I would recommend though to join a company/clan for the best experience. There are quite a few friendly ones out there that play quite frequently.
I highly recommend this game as some of the best multiplayer fun you can have in 2021 and if the developer keep adding to and refining the experience it will most likely become the best experience you can have online.....if you like this kind of gameplay that is.
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