Game:

Hell Let Loose (2021)

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Hell Let Loose is a 2021 multiplayer tactical first-person shooter[4] developed by Expression Games[5] and Cover 6 Studios,[6] and published by Team17.[7] Players fight in iconic battles of the Western, North African and Eastern Fronts of World War II at the platoon level.[8]

The game was created and developed by Australian studio Black Matter led by Maximilian Rea,[9] who first announced it via a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2017 that raised a total of US$220,000.[2][3] It was initially released for Microsoft Windows as an early access title on 6 June 2019,[10] and fully released two years later in July 2021. It was later released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 5 October 2021.[11] In January 2022, Black Matter sold the game to its publisher Team17 for £31 million with the potential addition of £15 million based on the game's performance.[12] Development was handed to Team17 shortly after December 2022,[13] who then founded Cover 6 Studios in the beginning months of 2023 to work on development and potentially on the next game in the series.[6] In April 2023, Team17 contracted the UK studio Expression Games to also continue development of the game.

Matches are combined arms battles between two teams of either Germans, Americans,[15] British,[16] Soviets[17] or the German Afrika Korps and British 8th Army subfactions.[18] Each team consists of multiple smaller rifle squads of six soldiers, armoured squads of three tank crewmen, and recon squads of two soldiers.[4] As of October 2024, three game modes exist in the game: Warfare, Offensive and Control Skirmish. In all three modes, the map is divided into sectors that each team seeks to capture and control. For the first two modes, matches are 50 vs. 50, and in the third, they're smaller 25 vs. 25 matches. In the Warfare mode, the game is won by either controlling all five sectors, or by controlling the majority of them when the timer runs out. In the Offensive mode, a defending team is in control of all sectors at the beginning of the match, and the objective for the opposing side is then to capture all of them within 30 minutes per objective.[19] In the Control Skirmish mode, there is one centre objective that both teams seek to control before the timer runs out in a more condensed sized map.[20]

Communication is intended as a central gameplay aspect by the developers.[21] Each unit is led by a single officer, who can communicate with other officers and the commander through a 'leadership' voice channel. Similarly, there are unit-only, proximity and party voice channels which are available for everyone. As an alternative to voice communication, there is also access to team-wide and unit level text chat which is only featured on the PC version of the game. There is also a ping system featured in the game, allowing players to mark things such as attacking points, pieces of equipment, artillery bombardment locations and enemy positions. These different methods of communication allow for the effective relaying of information.

Hell Let Loose also features an RTS-inspired resource-based strategic meta-game.[8] 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 vehicle deployments, air strikes, and supply drops just to name a few. These orders do however cost the team some resources. Resource nodes can be built using supplies by engineers to bolster resource production, which allows for the commander to deploy more tanks, air strikes and other orders to help the team fighting on the battlefield. These resource nodes can be removed if found and dismantled by the enemy team as well.

In addition, the game features 14 different playable classes. With nine classes in infantry, this includes officer, rifleman, automatic rifleman, assault, support, anti-tank, machine gunner, engineer, and medic. In armor units, there are two classes including both the tank commander and tank crewman. Much like armor units, recon squads also feature two classes with the spotter and the sniper. Alongside these classes, there is also the previously mentioned unique commander class in charge of each team.