Despite growing up with a constant stream of military shooters, I’ve found it very hard to enjoy them over the last decade or so. The gradual swing from somewhat-realistic to full on twitch shooters has me longing for the days of playing Battlefield 1942 on my dad’s computer as a kid. 2021’s Hell Let Loose finally provided a strategic take on the shooter genre, but I found it a bit impenetrable at times, so I’m pleased to say that Hell Let Loose: Vietnam not only addresses that but is a very fun tactical shooter in its own right.
If you’ve not played Hell Let Loose before then it can be quite a change from your regular shooters. For starters it’s built around realism: you’ll die from one or two direct shots, there’s no mini-map highlighting enemies, and there’s not even really any feedback that you’ve got a kill barring a small “ding” sound. It demands all your attention and relies on good communication between you and your squad leader. Your squad leader is responsible for channelling the squad towards the objective and setting outposts or garrisons which the team can use to respawn, helping move the front line of the battle as you progress. While most soldiers can toggle between proximity or squad chat, the squad leaders have access to a third channel which puts them in touch with other leaders and the Commander, who’s quietly strategizing in the background, calling out where supplies are needed and using tactical deployments like napalm strikes to damage the enemy team while watching the battle at a macro level.
My issue with the original game was that the onboarding was a bit lacking. It threw a lot of information at you as there were over a dozen classes, but it wasn’t a particularly intuitive introduction to the game. Hell Let Loose: Vietnam features a comprehensive suite of 10 fairly lengthy tutorials that take you through the game’s whopping 17 classes. Not only that but it provides some surprisingly firm guidance about what you could and should do once you’ve completed them, telling you that the leadership classes are locked until you’ve finished the respective tutorial and suggesting that you play your first few games as the standard rifleman while you learn the ropes. It’s a much more controlled approach to what can be a quite complex and overwhelming game in your opening hours with it, and while it’s still worth watching some YouTube guides afterwards, I think Expression Games have done a great job at onboarding players this time.
Another big departure from the original game is that the two factions on offer, USA and Vietnam, actually differ quite substantially, not just in equipment but how they fundamentally can be played. The US team gets access to both supply and transport/attack helicopters and an additional two classes that can use them: the pilot and co-pilot. They’re more capable at transporting supplies and squads from the backline, quickly crossing the entire 2x2km map in a matter of seconds, raining down machine gun fire from above. The Vietnamese army doesn’t have access to this level of fire power but they do have their own trick: tunnelling. They can create vast networks of tunnels from their spawn points, which lead to some great moments as you disappear down a tunnel and watch a well animated, claustrophobic cutscene before your squad pops up somewhere unexpected and catches the Americans with their pants down.
There’s currently six maps spread across a number of game modes, all of which have you capturing and defending control points as you beat back the enemy and try to claim more ground. Maps feel huge, which is arguably a drawback at times if you get saddled with a bad squad leader who isn’t placing outposts strategically as it forces you to trek for ages before potentially getting one-shotted by an unseen enemy. Still, they’re gorgeous environments and you’ll be traversing dusty beaches, lush jungles and more as you try to get the drop on the enemy. Each map is built around a network of rivers too, meaning a boat is an additional way to get around and transport the team to key locations.
Read our Hell Let Loose: Vietnam interview.
As mentioned, there are 17 classes in the game and there’s something for everyone. The majority of each team is made up of standard squads of six, where you can play a number of roles including Rifleman, Medic, Machine Gunner and more. There are some strategic roles on offer too, with the Support setting down crates of supplies that Engineers can use to build defences or the Commander can use to deploy abilities. Elsewhere you’ll have a couple of Recon squads, each made up of a Sniper and Spotter, who work together to identify and eliminate enemy threats. Finally there are Tank and Mortar squads who provide the heavy fire, plus the aforementioned Pilot squads for the US. There’s so much variety here that you can easily find at least a few classes that really call out to you. For me, when playing on the frontline I’m quite happy as a Machine Gunner or Medic, providing suppressing fire or healing downed team mates. I’m equally happy just playing the supply delivery driver though, ferrying supplies back and forth from the frontline in a truck, directed by the Commander’s ever-watching eye. Some games I didn’t even get any kills, as I was so focused on providing auxiliary support to the team.
Gunplay is very tense at times, as you creep through thick jungles or crawl across more open areas trying to get to the next bit of cover without being shot. You’ll need to remain in cover, look for signs of movement on the enemy side and try to take shots without revealing your own position. It’s not like typical shooters where you sprint in, get a kill or three, die, respawn and repeat. Death in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam can cost you up to a minute between redeploying and then spawning back in, plus any travel time to get back to the frontline so it’s in your interest to play strategically. Listening to your Squad Leader and playing your role is vital, and it’s what makes the game such a compelling experience. I might not get many kills in every match, but I know that I’m helping the team by setting up my machine gun and sending suppressing fire towards the enemy so my team can push up, or dropping a load of players in a hotzone. The scoreboard actively tracks stats for Combat, Attack, Defence and Support, so while I never score too well in the first three, my Support score generally leaves me feeling pretty satisfied.
The other thing I loved about the game was how cinematic it felt at times, and how utterly stupid it was at others. There’s something worth clipping in nearly every game. In one match I was flying the chopper low over the battlefield, dodging an enemy rocket when I saw a tank blow up in the distance. It felt like something out of a war epic. Then 20 minutes later I’m a Medic dragging a teammate out of a firefight as he shouts and screams and makes exaggerated pain noises down the microphone until I revive him and he immediately stops, thanks me and runs off to get his next kill. It’s a multiplayer game full of moments and across my time with the game I’ve taken dozens of clips.
As much as I love the game, it’s not perfect. Your experience heavily depends not only on communication but also the competency of your leaders. A team where nobody is talking or putting down respawn points can be a bit miserable as there doesn’t seem to be much you can do to influence things by yourself. Visually it can be a mixed bag too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s gorgeous a lot of the time, but it’s also heavy on that weird, upscaling shimmer you get on some games. It’s mainly found on foliage which is why it’s so pervasive, as you spend most of your time trekking through jungles or hiding in bushes. It can make the game a bit uncomfortable at times, and also makes it harder than it already is to spot enemies. Performance is a little ropey at times too. I’m not sure what the framerate is but it definitely chugs at times, even on a PS5 Pro.
Still, I have loved my time with Hell Let Loose: Vietnam and it’s definitely going to be a game I continue to put a lot of time into. Each class can be levelled to get more equipment unlocked, giving you a reason to experiment, but more than that I just want to learn the game inside and out so that I can be better at it. It’s perfectly pitched to my tastes, offering excellent gunplay, varied classes that can all pull their weight and a focus on strategy and tactics that requires your brain as much as your reflexes. If you’re looking for a shooter that’s different from the rest then this is a very good choice.
