Hell Let Loose: Vietnam Brings Hardcore Warfare To The Jungle
For as politically and socially divisive as it was, the Vietnam War had a profound impact on culture. The hippie counterculture in the US was directly influenced by the war efforts, and music and movies were created in response to the war. So it’s a bit surprising how few games have specifically focused on the war, which is why it was so exciting to hear about Hell Let Loose making the move to Vietnam.
Players are trading the trenches for the jungle as the series moves on from World War II to the Vietnam war. Games feature 50 versus 50 games, pitting the US against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). These large scale battles focus on hardcore, asymmetric and communication-heavy battles.
Asymmetric Warfare And Squad Roles
US Forces will have access to different vehicles, including stronger tanks and helicopters that can survey the battlefield and drop off troop transports. While the NVA has access to tunnel systems and more river boats, allowing for quick travel around the map to better replicate the guerilla warfare that Vietnam was known for.
Each team consists of squads that feature several different roles. These consist of the squad leader, the rifleman, grenadier, engineer, medic, specialist, and machine gunners. There are also specialized roles such as the helicopter pilots, armor units, recon units, and mortar units. Each team will also have a Commander, which is a single unit who is in charge of using special abilities and directing the Squad Leaders during the game.
A standard squad consists of up to six players and must be started by a Squad Leader. As mentioned, this person communicates with command and is also able to place outposts and garrisons. Outposts are squad specific spawn points, while garrisons can be used by the entire team. The other roles focus on specific combat tasks and, with the exception of the rifleman which is a general combat role, are limited to one per squad.
A Hardcore Military Sim Experience
Hell Let Loose leans more into being a military sim game, with a more hardcore approach to combat. This means death comes easy to players. It only takes a couple of shots to go down, headshots are a one hit kill, and there is no kill cam or guidance when you get hit. The screen just fades to black.
This is a huge part of the appeal for the game for players that want a more hardcore experience.
Objectives And Communication Are Everything
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is also an objective based game. The defining game mode is Warfare which is a tug of war match, where each team is trying to capture objectives in sequence across the map. Each will fight for a contested sector and push forward, and whichever team captures the contested sector will then need to hold it while pushing forward to capture the enemy’s next sector. But if a team loses a sector while attempting to capture the enemy’s sector, they must retreat and regain their lost sector before they can resume pushing forward.
Communication is, therefore, so important and having coordinated offensive and defensive efforts are essential to winning a game.
There are also modes like Offensive, which puts one team on offense and one team on defense as the attackers try to push their way across the map, capturing enemy objectives as they do so.
Most of the remaining game modes follow similar rules, but the one that feels the most out of place is a new “Morale” game mode. This is essentially a team deathmatch, where holding more objectives causes each kill to be worth more points. While it is still an objective based game mode, it doesn’t fit with the spirit of Hell Let Loose as the more traditional game modes and focuses too much on going for kills than playing objectives.
It’s not necessarily terrible, but it’s not a mode that I personally enjoy.
A Thrilling Experience With Some Rough Edges
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is a game that leaves me feeling a bit conflicted. On one hand, I have had a blast playing the game. Running and crawling through the jungles of Vietnam, unsure of where the enemy is, is an incredibly thrilling experience. For the most part, the game matches what my expectations were, at least regarding the actual base content.
On the other hand, it has a lot of rough edges that still need to be sanded down. Visual bugs are one of the most obvious issues. Objective name tags and on screen icons have a bad habit of glitching out and freezing in place on the screen. The medic class is especially rough with this. When playing the medic class, whenever a close enough ally is killed or wounded, an icon appears showing they need help. These icons would often persist on screen even if the downed player would respawn. Likewise, when downed, an icon appears if a medic is close by. This icon also would persist even if the medic dies, and the distance under the icon showing how close the medic is would also update incorrectly or get stuck at 0.
Dying would clear the screen of these icons, but it feels like a basic bug that shouldn’t be present during a full release.
The server browser is another touchy subject. Finding games in a group can be cumbersome. Games consist of teams of 50v50, so the server shows the total player count out of 100, and it also displays a queue of up to six people. However, it is not uncommon to get a message saying that the server queue doesn’t have enough room, especially when matchmaking with several people. There were also instances when a friend might get queued into a game while in the lobby, while the rest of us wouldn’t be.
Servers are persistent though, and while some people have reported issues with disconnects, once I got into my games, for the most part I didn’t have any issues with stability. And despite the issues, I am actually a big fan of the server browser and persistent servers.
Communication Makes The Difference
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is a communication heavy game, and much of the experience revolves around the different chats in game. There is a command chat, a squad chat, and proximity chat. Command chat is reserved for squad leaders and the in-game commander, allowing them to discuss current conditions, enemy and friendly troop locations, and pass commands down to squads. Squads consist of up to six players and the squad chat can only be heard by these players. Meanwhile, proximity chat is exactly how it sounds and allows players to talk with nearby friendly players.
In the original Hell Let Loose, there was also a party chat for players that queued into a game together to talk amongst themselves, but that is oddly absent here in Vietnam. It’s possible to get around this by creating a locked squad for just you and your friends, but it would be nice to see it return.
I wanted to be fair in writing this review by discussing the issues that are in the game. Despite these issues though, I still find Hell Let Loose: Vietnam an incredibly fun experience and I plan on spending many more hours fighting across the jungles of Vietnam with my friends. That said, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is a military sim that leans more towards the hardcore than casual audience.
When playing with a squad or with some friends that are communicating and getting into the spirit of the game, it’s an exciting and tense game, where each victory feels gratifying. The different classes lend themselves to various playstyles and keep the gameplay fresh.
Different Roles Keep The Action Fresh
Running a standard infantry squad is the most common option, but the recon class is a two person squad that features a spotter and sniper that can scout out enemy locations and take out enemies unseen. The armor class is my personal favorite, and loading up into a metal coffin with two friends is an unbeatable experience.
Tanks are limited and must be spawned in by the commander once the first tanks that spawn into the map are destroyed. Tanker squads consist of a commander and crewman, leaving one person to drive the tank, another operates the turret, and the third is a spotter. Driving requires manual shifting too, which includes shifting up gears to increase speed or shifting down to have enough torque to move up hills. They also must shift down into reverse, so careful navigation is essential to keeping the tank crew alive. The gunner moves slow, tanks aren’t exactly known for their speed, but they operate the coaxial gun and are responsible for loading explosive or armor piercing rounds to handle any encounters that the tank comes across. The spotter has a much quicker scope for spotting and pinging enemies. While it is possible to operate a tank without a spotter, keeping an eye on rear attacks or even just surveying left to right is made infinitely easier with a full crew.
It feels like an entirely different experience compared to playing as infantry. And squads and roles can be easily swapped during a game, which means no one is locked into any role at the start of the game. The only exception is the squad leader which cannot swap off the leader role when in their squad.
The commander role is another entirely unique role. While they still move around the map and can fight enemies, their role is focused on more RTS-style mechanics. They monitor the map, call in radar and air strikes, and also coordinate supply drops to ensure garrisons can be built by squad leaders to get spawn locations closer to objectives.
Supply trucks spawn back at HQ points that can be driven up to drop off supplies for building garrisons and defenses, while the engineer and specialist classes can also bring in supplies or construct supply nodes and barricades for command. Supply nodes are essential too, as they provide the resources for commander abilities. While barbed wire, barricades, and other similar structures can be built to create defensible positions virtually anywhere on the map.
Every role has a specific task that they excel at, and many of those can only be performed by a specific class role. As long as the core concept of a hardcore shooter that relies heavily on communication resonates with you as a player, there is bound to be a role that fits your playstyle.
A Strong Foundation Despite Its Problems
This is all to say that yes, there are issues in the game. There are several bugs and issues that should not be present in a full-game release. It is disappointing to see them present in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam. That is especially true since Hell Let Loose: Vietnam shares the same basic framework as the previous game and many of these issues have already been dealt with. But at the same time, the game provides a unique experience that is incredibly addicting, with the issues at play not enough to dissuade me from playing.
Based on experience with the original Hell Let Loose, I am optimistic about the long term support and continued updates that I anticipate will improve the Vietnam experience, as well as add new content to the game.
At the end of the day, the foundation is here for a great Vietnam war game. The initial launch state of Hell Let Loose: Vietnam has plenty to criticize but it also has a lot to like too. Right now it’s just a matter of seeing whether or not it gets the support needed, but the already announced roadmaps and hotfixes show that Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is moving in the right direction.
Important Links
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam Turns The Jungle Into A 50v50 Warzone – https://www.thexboxhub.com/hell-let-loose-vietnam-turns-the-jungle-into-a-50v50-warzone/
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is a New Standalone Tactical FPS – https://www.thexboxhub.com/hell-let-loose-vietnam-is-a-new-standalone-tactical-fps/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/hell-let-loose-vietnam/9pks8xzc74x5
There’s a Deluxe Edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/hell-let-loose-vietnam-deluxe-edition/9N917PW2PM3C/0010
