While it won't appeal to every shooter fan out there, Hell Let Loose's complex interplay of FPS action and real-time tactical planning rewards communication, coordination, and genuine leadership in a way few other games even attempt.
One of the best WWII Game experience i've witnessed in my entire gaming career.
Even though it can be frustrating sometimes,we still have to remember that this is a game and not a race.
If I’m being honest, I would have given this an 8/9 rather than a 10/10, if the overall Userscore wasn’t so low. But I genuinely believe this to be one of the best multiplayer WW2 shooters currently around. There are multiple issues still mainly with performance and balancing but overall it’s a great game with a nice community and passionate fans as wells as developers, despite the takeover by Team17. HLL is not as well polished as industry leaders like CoD and Battlefield, yet, but is has still room to grow and I don’t think that temporary setbacks like the original British Faction will have a long lasting bad influence on the game itself, seeing as they obviously can be removed or remade as the development in the last few months shows. But anyway I’ve played HLL for over 600 hours now and I’m still having fun, even though like most 0/10 reviewers here, I wasn’t as good at playing the game in the start as I am now. Shocking, I know. However unlike the 0/10 reviewers I didn’t immediately quit after 5 hours and concluded that Hell Let Loose was a bad game, because I wasn’t any good at it. Quite contrary: while in the first, let’s say 20 hours I probably had an average K/D of 2/25 or so it’s unusual for me to have fewer than 30 kills per round, which to be honest still doesn’t sound to much… but anyway. What this shows is, that even though the game seems very tough at first skill and the willingness to improve can make presumably every player good enough at this game to enjoy in the long term. You just have to accept that this game is harder than most multiplayer FPS at first. But if you don’t want a challenge from begin with, this game might really not be for you. Still, playing the game expecting it to have no learning curve at all it seems and giving it a bad review is just juvenile. So because HLL is actually a great game and the opinions of frustrated beginners shouldn’t way it down, it deserves a 10/10.
Btw whoever complains about an authentic WW2 shooter containing campers might want to look up actual squad and sniper tactics back in the day. There wasn’t a whole lot of slide-cancelling and wall running back then…
Hell Let Loose can be frustrating and impenetrable. But it rewards perseverance, commitment and trust with a compelling experience not replicated anywhere else.
If players are looking for a quick fix of World War Two shooting action, then Hell Let Loose won't be for them. The pace, length, and harsh combat conditions dictate that players dedicate themselves to teamwork and victory. If players are willing to communicate over voice, work together to achieve local and broader objectives, and have the patience to play slowly, Hell Let Loose can be amazing. It may not happen every session, but a full game of Hell Let Loose with a dedicated, communicative teams is a must-experience gaming moment for any fans of tactical shooters.
Hell Let Loose keeps fine balance between realism and action: it’s inclined towards hardcore gameplay, but adepts of run’n’gun style won’t feel useless either. [Early Access review - Issue#242, p.52]
Now, getting to the main question that you would probably ask: “Is Hell Let Loose worth the price?” Well, it depends. If you are a patient gamer against minor bugs and issues, and you love hardcore games, then you should get it. On the other hand, if you think you might not like the realism of the game or you don’t have any squads, then you’d better wait for a free weekend opportunity or a discount on the price.
Ultimately, Hell Let Loose is a hardcore shooter in every sense of the word. Though it’s very easy to get discouraged at the beginning, those committed to seeing it through will likely have a great time. Though the niche focus won’t appeal universally, providing you know what you’re getting in for, anyone after a tougher World War II shooter would do well to take a look.
PT-BR
O jogo é muito bom e vale a pena o preço SE você gosta de jogos extremamente realista, eu dei nota 7 porque esse não meu estilo de jogo, mas o jogo é muito bom e bem feito mas muito dificil e as vezes você passa varios minutos andando procurando uma briga, como eu ja disse não é um jogo arcade
I would have given a 8-9 before Update 14, but now things are very different with Team17 handling all development.
I've played this game for 260 hours since I started playing it 3 months ago. I LOVED this game, it was a great middleground between simulator (e.g. ARMA) and arcade (e.g. Battlefield).
While it wasn't super historically accurate, it's generally been credible enough, so that maps, weapons, uniforms etc looked somewhat realistic and generally appropriate.
Unfortunately, Team17 has taken over the development of the game from the original developer (Black Matter). Since then it's all been going downhill. They have recently pushed Update 14 which has sparked a lot of controversy for its low quality.
Just to name a few things:
- The 2 new maps released, Driel and El Alamein, have constant stuttering for most players
- Hilariously, they even got the dates on the maps wrong on the loading screens - El Alamein 1944 and Driel 1942. It should be the other way around
- The British infantry only has 1 uniform
- Neither the Germans nor the British have desert uniforms, they just stroll around in heavy winter coats. It's also possible to choose winter camo in El Alamein
- Not a single one of the few buildings in Driel can be entered. Lazy map design!
- They increased infantry runspeed by 15% without even mentioning that in the patch notes. This has a huge effect on the game mechanics (garrison / op meta, ease of countering tanks, recon effectivness etc etc). It's also a lot harder to shoot players at a distance now. There is no stamina system or proper physics to make the movement credible at all
- There's a very frequent bug about the panting sound produced when sprinting; it's no longer properly synchronized with the new run speed, so it starts clipping once you run for a little while (extremely easy to reproduce)
- The new prone mechanic, while being smoother and better in some ways, allows for constant dolphin diving (like old battlefield games) without any stamina limitation
- The British loadouts are outright ridiculous, for some wild reason they chose weapons that had seen little to no combat usage (P14, Lanchester, Jungle carbine) as standard loadouts when there were plenty of obvious choices (Thompsons, hello?)
- None of the British infantry have hair (neither head nor facial) ... ???
- Somehow, the new British tanks list the Firefly as a "Heavy" tank, while in reality it's just an upgunned regular Sherman
- Panthers, Cromwells and Fireflies never set foot in North Africa, yet the game has all those tanks in El Alamein
- The XP system is heavily bugged now; it's unclear whether it's intentional or not, but XP gain is reduced by 80 pct
- They introduced a "bug" (or feature?) where you can no longer keep the map open while giving up or performing other actions
- There has been NO PLAYTEST SERVER for this update, unlike the previous ones
- They had the audacity to increase the game's price by 5 USD or GBP
Bottom line - Team17 has pushed a very low quality update. They seem to not have tested it at all (or they did and deemed it "good enough"). It's an incredibly amateurish and demeaning attitude toward us players.
My feeling is that the investors (at least 30% of the board members of T17 are big investment groups like Blackrock, Lloyds etc) have now decided to milk the game, turn it into a more arcade product and spam paid DLCs.
I will stop playing this for the time being - I am happy to return if things improve, but given the current situation I have little hope that will ever happen.
SummaryHell Let Loose is a realistic World War Two first person shooter with open battles of 100 players with infantry, tanks, artillery, a dynamically shifting front line and a unique resource based strategic meta-game. This is World War Two at a scale you’ve never played before.