Skillet8/10Frustratingly Worthwhile
Firstly, if you’re looking for and arcade shooter and somewhere to maintain a positive kill/death ratio, then HLL is not for you. The game is very hard! It’s like hard-core Battlefield in that the maps are huge and you have a squad but it’s hard-core because there is no HUD whatsoever. There is also no indication that you hit someone when you fire off some rounds, other than if you see them fall. However, it is an extremely well thought out game. Each side has a Commander and each squad has an officer who can receive orders from the Commander and direct his own squad. He can, with support place new deployment points as the team pushes forward. The Officer can also request for aid from the Commander, in the form of artillery bombardment or a strafing run. The squads are limited to various roles to prevent the ‘Medic Rush’ tactics seen in some games or prevent a defending team having an over-abundance of Machine Guns raining down fire. It creates squads that are self-sufficient and dare I say it, useful. There is a lot of running across fields or beaches to get to the objective only to get popped by an unseen enemy and if you are easily upset by that don’t play this. What it does do is give a sense of the atmosphere of World War II, more so than any other game I have played before. I appreciate that in the real world you could not respawn but this is a game so that mechanic allows you to understand the scale of life lost in conflict. This is not glamorising war like so many other games of the period. When you do manage to get to an objective and take it with your squad, or even just get behind enemy lines and be a royal PITA to the enemy, it really does give a sense of achievement. Even if you cannot form a squad to join the server with, make sure to join an existing squad of misfits and work together; this game is not for the lone wolf. Even if you want to snipe, you’ll need a Spotter to assist and protect you. Originally published on 25 January 2021.
