Copyright: hell let loose
Hell Let Loose is a multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Australian studio Black Matter and published by Team17. Players fight in iconic battles of the Western and Eastern Fronts of World War II at the platoon level.
The game was announced via a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2017, where it raised US$220,000. It was initially released for Microsoft Windows as an early access title on 6 June 2019, with full release in July 2021. It was released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 5 October 2021.
Matches are 50 vs. 50 combined arms battles between two teams of Germans and Americans, and, more recently since the full release of the game, Soviets. Each consists of multiple smaller rifle squads of six soldiers, armoured squads of three soldiers, or recon squads of two soldiers.
Communication is intended as a central gameplay aspect by the developers. Each unit may be led by a single officer, who can communicate with other officers and the commander through a "leadership" voice channel. Similarly, there are unit-only and proximity voice channels as well. As an alternative to voice communication, players also have access to team-wide and unit level text chat.
Hell Let Loose also features a RTS-inspired resource-based strategic meta-game. Each of the two factions fighting will also be assigned a commander, and the commander is in charge of not only the team and squads, but tank deployments, air strikes, and orders, however these orders cost resources. Resource nodes can be built using supplies by engineers to bolster resource production, and be able to deploy more tanks, air strikes and orders in order to help the team fighting on the battlefield, however they can be taken down if found by the enemy team.
The playable maps in the game are designed based on historical WWII theaters of war by combining satellite imagery, archival aerial photography and street-level recreation. According to the developers, the map for Norman town Sainte-Marie-du-Mont is "a 1:1 scale battlefield" recreated through the aforementioned methods.