Hell Let Loose Gameplay Shows There’s Another WW2 Shooter in Town

If you’re itching for an old school shooter and don’t think Battlefield 1 or Call of Duty: WWII will scratch that itch, then maybe this will. Here’s “Hell Let Loose,” a WW2-era shooter in development by Australian studio, Black Matter. 

The game is up on Kickstarter (I know, I know, stop groaning!), and it’s already gotten over $63K (AUS currency) of its total $136,00 goal (also in AUS currency), which is a very achievable feat given the studio has 28 days to go. So what makes this different from your standard shooter? A lot, it seems. The studio says that there will be 100-player matches, which is due for Steam Early Access by Q2 2018, and will be priced at $29.99 when it’s available via Early Access.

Check out some of the details of Hell Let Loose.

BATTLE ON A NEW SCALE

A platoon-based realistic multiplayer first-person shooter for PC set during the Second World War.

HUGE BATTLES – 100 players per game, 50 per team

COORDINATE – Win through teamwork, tactics, and communication

A NEW METAGAME – Capture sectors and resources to beat your enemy into submission

COMBINED ARMS – Over 20 different player-controlled vehicles and deployed weapons

EPIC THEATER OF WAR – Do battle across a 1:1 scale 4 kilometer-squared map

MORE THAN THE TWITCH – Supply, capture and building systems ​

EXPERIENCE HISTORY – Historically accurate arsenal with realistic weapon behavior

A MODERN ENGINE – Developed for Unreal Engine 4 

Developed for Unreal Engine 4 by a small independent team, Hell Let Loose places heavy emphasis on teamwork and communication as players work together as limited Roles in Platoons beneath the leadership of Officers and the force Commander. Using historically accurate weapons, logistics, armor and tactics, Hell Let Loose is a game that demands teamwork and communication not only to win, but to survive.

Featuring sweeping 4km2 maps, the battlefield is divided up into large cap sectors – allowing for emergent and constantly unique gameplay that pits two forces of fifty players in a fight to the death across fields, bridges, forests and towns. The first theater of war is the sleepy Norman town of St Marie Du Mont on D-Day 1944 in northern France during Operation Overlord. It features a stunning and detailed 1:1 scale battlefield recreated from archival reference material and satellite photography.

Players will organise and muster behind the front lines before carefully pushing forward into the French countryside towards the town. They will need to establish supply lines using logistics vehicles – enabling them to build Garrisons and other spawn locations in the field. 

Armor and infantry must work together to smash through the front line and capture territory – pushing the enemy back and earning greater resources to sustain their fighting power. 

Engineers will lay minefields and barbed wire to create choke points. Sunken lanes become killing zones while dense woodlands could mask the presence of a devastating PAK 43 – towed into position by a waiting unit of Wehrmacht infantry. Allied infantry call in strafing runs as hedgerows light up with the fire of a Panther tank and the scream of the Hitler’s Buzz Saw – the MG42.

The battlefield is laid out – ready to be mastered by soldiers with the skill and strategic ability to wipe the enemy from the field.

We plan to release Hell Let Loose on Steam in Q2 2018. 

Instead of players capturing a flag, the entire map is divided into capture sectors, and once an area is captured, it will generate “three resources” for your team, which should help your team in victory. Check out some gorgeous Hell Let Loose gameplay below.

Bear in mind, this is pre-alpha footage, but it’s already looking fantastic. There’s also 13 planned in-game roles for players to take part in, which run the range from your standard medic, to tank commander and more.

Finally, Black Matter answers some of your pressing questions like, “why go the Kickstarter route?” and more.

I’m tired of big promises that are never fulfilled. Will this game ever see release?

We feel the crowdfunding fatigue as much as you do. As backers of several enormous and ambitious projects that never lived up to the hype, we decided that we would only begin our Kickstarter campaign once we had a playable client from end to end. That means launching the application, connecting to a server and actually playing the game at an Alpha level of quality. We’re thrilled that we can do all those things, and that all funds from this Kickstarter will go towards fleshing out and widening the scope of what we feel is already a deep experience.

Isn’t this the same as every other World War Two FPS?

As a team of realism and World War Two fans, we’ve always found there to be a profound lack of innovation in the first person shooter genre. Each World War Two game is either a run-and-gun blockbuster that places self-progression first and teamwork last, or it’s a remake of a classic title. 

We have always felt that the genre could be pushed so much further – incorporating vehicles, open world battlefields, deployable fortifications, teamwork and realism all wrapped up in the beautiful graphics of a modern engine. This is not a World War Two title of last decade. 

Fight Alone, Die Alone. Fight Together, Win Together.

We’re removing all the modern gameplay incentives that we feel focus the entire experience back onto the individual. How many kills can you get? What perks did you unlock? Which gun did you unlock? How do you build a team-play based game on a foundation in which all players actively want to succeed alone? This seemed very counterintuitive to us, as successful warfare is waged only as a coordinated force. 

When reading veterans accounts of battle throughout history, there is a profound selflessness and camaraderie in fight for the men at your side. To reframe this modern day game design, we’re placing all emphasis on a team victory. But how is victory achieved?

Using teamwork and communication, players work together in Platoons beneath the leadership of Officers and the force Commander. Using historically accurate weapons, logistics, armour and tactics, Hell Let Loose is a game that demands teamwork and communication not only to win, but to survive. 

There’s a ton of screenshots and more info on its Kickstarter page if you’re interested.

Will this be able to compete with Battlefield 1 and  COD: WWII? We can’t say for sure, but if you want to make sure it does see the light of day, go back it and let’s see how it’s shaping up early next year.

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thu huong
6 years ago

Player roles in Hell let loose http://hellletlooseplay.com/

thu huong
6 years ago

Player roles in Hell let loose http://hellletlooseplay.com/

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