Hell Let Loose

Yeah from what I've seen of people like Jackfrags playing it's a game that lives and dies by communication between teammates. It is not a run and gun game and I'm intrigued to see how it fares.

Yeah, sounds interesting to me but looks like mic comms is an absolute must.

Guess no cross play either? If so, a shame as it cuts down the potential pool of users.

tbh, whether I play on my Xbox or PC is largely irrelevant. My ass will get whooped either way!

Meant to post this in Xbox forum.  I tried the game on my Series X.  

I played the Hell Let Loose 10-hour free trial for a bit last night.    I'd played the game on PC and really enjoyed it, but was worried about the conversion to console and whether using a controller would feel cumbersome.   But it looked pretty good and ran quite smoothly.  

  The game is a squad-based, class-based World War II shooter with a tactical layer laid over the top.   so your squad of five people you might have an LMG and a medic, as normal, but you also have a squad leader.    the squad leader can put down spawn points that your team can use, but potentially also spawn points that other teams can use.

 The tactical layer is that the squad leaders can talk to each other and to the game commander.   If I need support on a flag I will put a call out to other squad leaders who can assign individuals to come and help me, or request that the commander puts a battle-level call out to support a unit or attack an objective.   

 the commander can also call in things like air strikes and supply drops, but to do that he needs the squad leaders and individual units to place down resources, that allow tanks to spawn faster and things like that.

 so there's a fantastic sense of atmosphere when people communicate.   You have proximity chat so you can call nearby players to help, but you'll also hear your squad leader having tactical discussions with other squad leaders. And they will relay information from the commander about what the objective is.

 At the same time, while the game isn't one-shot kill,  it is easier to die than in other shooters. So nobody goes Rambo. People try to flank, take alleyways, use ridge lines and hedges for cover. Your pin down, trying to find a way through, calling for artillery support or suppressing fire.  

 in one PC game, my unit had managed to move across open ground and came across a German unit preparing to go over hedgerows to launch an assault on an unaware Allied squad. One of my teammates pointed them out and asked what to do, I got my guys to line up in weight and then when the Germans had their backs to us we opened fire and wiped them out.

It does feel like a Band of Brother simulator sometimes.     the biggest problem with it is when people don't communicate, but I don't think it will attract too many people are adjusting to run and gun. They will have the battlefield series for that.

 incidentally, when I said I played on PC, I meant on a searingly hot old MacBook running GeForce now. The keyboard got so hot it hurt to touch and I would have to use books and things to rest my wrist on.   the game ran terribly but was still fantastic.

Already a thread for it id. I tried the beta and got owned due to old age, in the unlikely event people work as a squad I would be up for it if there is a class for bullet sponge.

On PS5, but I think it is crossplay on console, sure I read it somewhere *may have imagined it Gruf22 on PSN

I think by default it will spawn you at the homebase, unless you choose otherwise.  That happened to me when I played yesterday.   I had to remember to select a forward spawn.

The guns feel weak, but as you found they aren't weak when getting shot at.  I wonder if they could improve the sound on them.    

Thanks to whoever moved my thread.

I'd encourage you to stick with this, It takes a while to adjust to but a lot of the complexity falls into the background and a good match is up there with the best the genre can offer. The video above gives a very glossy impression but knowing your a cog in a well oiled machine is the hook rather than a one-man army

I played regularly with a group of friends on PC after we got board with Warzone. With people you know it's great. With good Randoms it can be OK and with bad ones it can be frustrating so it does rely on community as much as anything. The voice comms in game are fine but we also use discord to stick together between matches.

I get the impression the philosophy is to lean hard into teamplay and realism even if that is the detriment of individual experience. Squad size is 6 but classes a mostly restricted to one each. Squad leader is a high pressure role, with multiple conversations happening between other leaders, commander and your own squad. I've not dared to be a commander yet in 6 months play.

Like in old School Battlefield the commander is playing an RTS game whilst still having feet on the ground and they rely on information and resources and co-operation from the rest of the team.

Capture points are set-up on map loading which are very big and based on real geography and squad and team spawn points are vital to win. You don't have to be very close to the capture point and they change very slowly so whole games can take place on one capture point or a team can destroy all your useful spawns and steam roll to your base not too quickly but inevitably.

You can tell when you team is winning but it it less easy to see if your playing well or making a difference. As well as the standard infantry roles. Sniper/Saboteurs, Tank teams, Artillery operators and Defence/Resource Builders are all contributing.

Plus all the pilots are commander spawned AI events, thank God. I know the community is frustrated that there was no comprehensive tutorial on console launch as you can bounce off the game real easy.

Had a great game last night on Xbox. Decided to play as squad leader so I could put down spawns. Nobody was speaking when I first got it, but I kept doing a mic check and someone piped up. Eventually the whole squad was speaking, other leaders were speaking and a tank captain was acting as commander.

Lots of communication between teams and teammates. People calling out enemies, supporting each other and helping each other. It's quite something when it all comes together.

I think part of making that happen is just getting on the mic and speaking and being persistent. Giving other people 'permission' to speak. I also asked peopel for feedback and the squad decided what to do moment to moment, so everyone feels like they're having a go at directing the action.

When I firsdt played on Xbox we were able to be in the console's party chat and still use the game's chat. The people in game chat did sound quite quiet though.

There is a ton to learn, I don't know half of it still good fun, get in good squad, makes all the difference, seems to getting better with comms, or I have just been lucky recently.

If you are in squad at least you should have a nearby spawn if the SQL is doing his job, that saves turning it into a running simulator

Party chat I think contributes to the dearth of random chat, well that and toxic aholes, which to be fair is not so bad in this game, apart from the odd TK mong.

Not returned to it after the first couple of nights as the XP not counting up makes it a little annoying when you can't level up. A patch is in the approval stages according to the Reddit.

Having said that once you know how to play it, it makes all the difference. Every squad really needs an officer and a support to build garrisons and outposts and it makes all the difference. It's truly game changing.

Also it's a game that really needs people to use voice comms, so leave party chat behind and use the game chat.

I wish it would stop putting the bloody Go Compare ad in my head though 😡

Yeah, Planetside too, good call. It’d be a heck of a candidate for dedicated matches with organised sides akin to the leagues I used to do in Battlefield 1942 (when I was young and dashing… and actually had twitchy reactions).
Part of the problem is the scale- the game provides a solution for it with the vehicles, but, predictably, they’re either ignored or one person gets in a troop truck and buggers off.
It’s forcing me to play (and really enjoy) more of a support or sniper role where moving about alone isn’t too much to the detriment of everyone else.