Obviously, this is not an easy role to play, which means that you can have incredibly fun and immersive matches when the faction leader and the squads are playing properly, but also incredibly frustrating and boring ones if squads are just doing whatever they want. The faction leader is a key figure in a match, since he is able to direct the various detachments inside the faction and also to call-in recon planes, tanks, bombardments and supply drops. This squad-based organization has a small hierarchy: squads are captained by squad leaders, which can talk via radio to other squad leaders and the faction leader. From there, you can choose where to spawn and the your teammates positions. The squad and deployment view is shown as a map. This also means that if you actually want to play as a recon squad, it’s basically impossible to do it, since they always get rushed before spawning at the start of the match. Fortunately (and unfortunately), recon squads are capped at 2 per faction, so you don’t see factions entirely made by snipers. Recon squads are composed instead by two men, one sniper and one spotter. The mechanized squads are instead those able to drive and repair tanks and are limited to three men (one driver, one gunner and one tank commander). Infantry is the one I just described: a squad made to fight on foot, cover diverse roles like rifleman, machine gunner, medic and AT. Squads are also divided into three categories: infantry, mechanized and recon. Oh, and people tend to cover their roles instead of just shooting the enemy.

The diversity created by this makes for greater realism and, unlike other games like Battlefield, you do not see packs of 20 medics running around the map. Every other class is capped at one or two maximum picks, forcing players to cover different roles.

Hell Let Loose’s squad system divides the fighting factions into 6 players detachments, with limited class availability: this means that, inside a squad, the only fighting role that can be picked at will is the base rifleman. There’s a lot to learn about and, with the growing experience gathered by playing the game, you will really feel like going from a conscript to becoming a veteran of the game (which hasn’t happened to me, yet). Then, you’ll have to understand the game mechanics, how resources work (yes, the game features actual supply chains where you have to move resources from your main bases to your FOBs), how respawns work and so on. Get prepared for a tough fight and forget Battlefield’s run and gun: you first hour(s) in Hell Let Loose will be mostly spent understanding from which direction the bullets are coming from, which isn’t always obvious. The first experience with a game like this is never easy and Hell Let Loose is no exception. Understanding where the enemy fire is coming from is not always easy. This means that maps go all the way from Utaha Beach to Kursk, always re-created in a very realistic way, some more than others: the Sainte-Mere-Eglise map, according to the devs, is a 1:1 recreation of the original 1944 battlefield, which is surely impressive. This means that the fighting takes place on two fronts: the western front in France and the eastern front in Russia. Hell Let Loose features three main factions, divided in the usual Axis and Allies: the Axis is represented by Germany, while the Allies are instead represented by the USA and the USSR.

Games like hell let loose