Hell Let Loose Review: A realistic and simulation shooter

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Hell Let Loose Review: A realistic and simulation shooter
hell let loose review: a realistic and simulation shooter

After more than a year in Early Access on Steam, the Hell Let Loose war simulator is available in its final version.

Hell Let Loose
Review: PC

While the most popular shooters on the market such as Battlefield and Call of Duty, with the last few chapters, have increasingly aimed at the immediacy and frenzy of action (here you can find our preview of Battlefield 2042), there are also software houses that want to satisfy the requests of a public niche more accustomed to simulative experiences. Among the titles that follow this philosophy we find Hell Let Loose, a shooter developed by Black Matter and published by Team17, which, after a long stay among the products in Early Access on Steam, has finally landed on the Valve client in its definitive version. We spent quite a few hours at the front and tried all the mechanical details of this shooter, and we are ready to tell you all the details in our review.

War is not for everyone

Hell Let Loose is an online-only first-person shooter, set during the Second World War and characterized by a decidedly complex gameplay. Without any kind of tutorial, the player immediately ends up in the trenches and must independently learn the mechanics that concern every single aspect of the production.

Net of a gunplay that turns towards the arcade, just as we saw in Enlisted (our Enlisted test is just a click away), and the absence of limits to running, all other aspects are geared towards simulation, including the time to kill practically null which allows players to eliminate themselves even with a single gunshot. What makes the game unique, however, is the structure of the competing teams, both composed of 50 users: each team is in fact equipped with a Commander and the rest 49 soldiers they are divided into smaller teams, which are assigned an officer. And this is where the peculiar comes into play communication system, since the Commander can speak via radio with the officers, who in turn can interface with the subordinates and coordinate the actions in the various checkpoints around the map. Coordination is also important for the purposes of resource management, thanks to which emerges the strategic component by Hell Let Loose: whether it is gasoline or building materials, all accumulated during the game, these can only be invested by the Commander.

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This squad member, who must have reached Level 10 in order to take on this role, has a unique menu through which he has the ability to manage resources and activate bombings, call up aerial supplies or build small support structures for the squad.

In such situations, constant communication between team members is therefore required, since only in this way is it possible to keep the situation under control and to know the movements of allies at all times (in fact there is not a mini-map always on the screen and the map of the area is not easy to interpret). If this aspect represents a virtue of Hell Let Loose, it must also be specified that not everyone is able to find a group with which to fully exploit these game mechanics: after all, through matchmaking it is not always easy to meet users willing to collaborate and to communicate.

Equally important is the choice of role, since in the title Black Matter there is no deep customization of classes, with the exception of some aesthetic elements and the choice of the weapon (not customizable with accessories): each player does not have the right to freely choose which class to use, since each of them can only be selected by a predefined number of players and, except the rifleman, they all tend to be busy pretty quickly.

In fact, during our tests we struggled to select the sniper, since this role is very popular and the very few available slots are immediately chosen by teammates. On the one hand these limitations contribute to creating balanced factions, but on the other hand they can make the experience of those who want to play in a specific role frustrating, perhaps to increase the level and unlock the other primary weapons. If the general experience rank is only for the purpose of allowing the player to get more uniforms to change the aesthetics of the soldiers, it is the level of the class that impacts the gameplay and gives access to extra guns.

The long march to victory

In the background to the matches we find one full-bodied series of maps made with great care and through the use of satellite images, which have contributed to making each single scenario very credible. After all, it is a product that wants to give players the opportunity to live an experience as close as possible to the Second World War and allows them to go to war in locations such as Carentan, Foy, the Forest of Hurtgen, Kursk, Omaha Beach And Stalingrad.

It must also be said, however, that these are huge spaces, in which the pace of the action is very dilated, and it is often necessary to wait a long time before getting into the heart of the battle. For an inexperienced player, Hell Let Loose therefore risks turning into a long lonely marathon with a tragic end, perhaps at the hands of a ‘camper’ positioned among the trees. However well done then, the maps are incredibly static and they don’t give the player any way to interact with the environment – we’re not just talking about absence of destructible elements, but also of doors or common explosive barrels. To make the experience quite frustrating, i think about it long waiting times between one respawn and the next, which can take place at any of the conquered control points.

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Speaking of which, Hell Let Loose only includes two game modes: Warfare And Offensive. In the first, the two teams each control 50% of the map and must do everything possible to overwhelm the enemy by conquering the control points that are procedurally placed.

In Offensive, on the other hand, a team has total control of the arena and the opponents have to fight tooth and nail to progressively tear away portions of the map.
As you can guess, Hell Let Loose is a game in which the goal is to go and conquer the checkpoints and the elimination of the opponent is important but not essential: Whether you hit or kill an enemy, there will be no indicator on the screen to signal to you or other squad members that someone has fallen in battle. This is a very specific choice by the developers, since killing the soldiers of the opposing team is just one of the many ways to accumulate points and contribute to victory.

A few burrs too many

The least curated aspect of Hell Let Loose is undoubtedly his technical sector, which has numerous more or less serious defects. Excluding the excellent models of the weapons, the discreet realization of the troops and the environmental textures that contribute to giving the product a remarkable glance, we also find a rather poor quality of buildings and vegetation, not to mention the annoying pop-up effect of the grass and other elements of the scenario that in certain situations is not very pleasant and breaks the involvement.

It is as if the developers have not taken the same care in every single aspect of the game and the result is a fluctuating graphic sector. There is also no shortage of small bugs linked to collisions between players or to the system through which you can climb over small obstacles that contribute to annoy the player in the most excited moments. To close the circle we find a level of optimization that leaves a lot to be desired and which makes it difficult to achieve constant framerates even on high-performance PCs. Let’s be clear, these problems do not make the title unplayable and do not ruin the experience, but in a product of this kind it is important to be able to identify thoroughly, and the aforementioned problems could make the most demanding players turn up their noses.

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Hell Let Loose
Hell Let LoosePC Analyzed VersionHell Let Loose is not a game for everyone and it is very likely that those looking only for a shooter set in the Second World War may not appreciate it. It is in fact a product designed exclusively for a hardcore audience that is not afraid of the long times that elapse between one death and another and that cannot be categorized as a simple first-person shooter. Hell Let Loose is an experience that aims to recreate situations as similar as possible to those of a real conflict and this involves a slow and reasoned approach that is in stark contrast to other modern productions, which focus everything on immediacy and chaos. If you’re ready to turn a blind eye to some annoying glitches and that’s the kind of simulation you’re looking for, then you might find hours and hours of fun with your most trusted teammates in Hell Let Loose.