Hell Let Loose was on my radar from the moment I saw it announced, my interest in it only growing as I watched it flourish within the PC gaming space. There was no way I wasn’t going to be doing an article on it, which was apparently what some of you felt as well after I saw a few comments calling for it. So here it is, Hell Let Loose in all of its unfiltered glory, along with my personal opinions about the experiences I had in only my first few hours with the game. Spoiler alert… I’m quite possibly the worst soldier to have on your team.Let’s get one thing straight before we dive too deeply into this stunning example of a World War 2-inspired game. There are no arcade elements whatsoever in Hell Let Loose. You take a round to the head — dead. You get blown up in any way: dead again. Ended up under the tracks of a tank? Yes, you guessed it… dead! It’s simulation at its finest, and if you can get on board with the fact that you won’t be charging across the battlefield like a bullet sponge, you’re going to find a deeply immersive warfare experience waiting for you. It’s not hardcore simulation, though, due to the fact that a few odd bullets to the body can be healed with bandages, or put you into a downed state that allows you to be revived by your teammates. Much like Insurgency: Sandstorm which I wrote about last week, Hell Let Loose focuses heavily on simulation over arcade gameplay — which the team at Black Matter has implemented perfectly. With the focus of simulation on your mind, now will be a great time to mention that the game offers a much slower-paced experience compared to other titles in the genre. With no crosshairs, enemy targeting — aside from a player ping system — limited health, true-to-life weapon recoil, and authentically cumbersome movement, your journey along the warpath is a slow one. Matches are objective-based and see the United States and Germany fighting for control of expansive areas. The gameplay in Hell Let Loose stands out from the crowd with the ability to change the flow of the battle by making an offensive push in another direction. By attempting to capture an outpost location you can fortify the new line with fresh player spawns and create a whole new way to attack a dug-in enemy. It’s an awesome concept that I found really switched up each match due to the adaptive nature of the game.Matches feature 50v50 PvP and allow for the use of a wide range of vehicles, equipment, and classes. I became rather fond of using the artillery during my initial matches, although it took a little while to master, and there may have been some friendly fire involved on many occasions — if you can call bombarding your team with massive and highly explosive shells “friendly.” It’s a learning curve, that’s for sure, having to work out trajectory levels and mixing it in with pinpoint accuracy. When you do hit an enemy defence with it and hear the “ping” noise that signifies a successful hit, the whole experience becomes extremely rewarding… unless you were the person that was blown into chunks. Whether you’re firing Howitzer shells through the air or are neck-deep in the action as one of the 13 available classes, co-op is the absolute key to playing Hell Let Loose well. Squads answer to an Officer, who relays commands by communicating with the other Officers and the Commander in a private chat channel. They also have the ability to place battlefield deploy points like Outposts and Garrisons, which allow the team to spawn closer to an objective area or defensive line. No matter what class you play as, everyone has a role, and the teams that communicate the most will be the most effective unit. I’ll be interested to see how a full, unified team operates, so send us those clips if you manage to pull something off.Other available units are spread between Rifleman and Medics, to Tank Crewman and Spotters. When deciding on the class you want to play as, you really need to know where you want to be focussing on the most during the battle. If you’re picking a class and not performing the required duties your team will suffer for it. Hell, they might even shoot you in the head just to hammer home their frustrations. Honestly, I love everything about Hell Let Loose. The visuals are beautiful, weapons fire is a threatening ordeal, and the sound of controlled gunfire really helps set a scene that other large-scale FPS titles should look at for inspiration. Black Matter’s well-crafted warfare simulator is at the top of my list for authentic World War 2 experiences. There is definitely an underlying appeal here that will garner a hardcore following, so don’t expect the game to disappear any time soon. If you do decide to jump in and see what everyone is raving about, just know that the achievement list is going to require your time and effort to complete… there is no easy win on the field of battle.A review copy of the game was provided by the publisher and played on an Xbox Series X.
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