More years and 1500 hours later...

I originally wrote a gleaming review of this game which did not properly represent it. Long story short is that while I like "the idea" of HLL, I despise the game itself. Read on for details.

If you want to see my latest post on why I can't stand this game, here it is: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/686810/eventcomments/3773490849744616077/?ctp=12#c3773490849746145591

Pros:

+ Graphics are good overall.

+ Gameplay is fun and varied - you can be part of the poor, bloody infantry, crew or command a tank, run recon missions, or be the commander for your whole team, and call in air support, requisition tanks, and help coordinate movements and objectives. This also encourages combined arms tactics which are very fun and rewarding.

+ Infantry time to kill is very low. Headshots with any weapon are an instant kill regardless of weapon and most rifles can drop someone in 1-2 hits while SMGs can drop someone with 3-4 hits. This essentially makes HLL a twitch shooter, meaning large skill gaps do not translate 1:1 with combat effectiveness (especially in a game where combat effectiveness is definitely not the only consideration for winning a game).

+ This game doesn't really have any good competition when it comes to large format multiplayer WWII shooters. HLL is about as good as it gets in those terms. This is the main reason why I begrudgingly play HLL even despite its problems - the game honestly needs some healthy market competition.

Cons:

- Your hardware can put you at a disadvantage to or give you an edge over other people. Maps are big and it is difficult to see something far away on lower resolutions. If you have a 4k monitor, very long shots become significantly easier. Also, if your game is being loaded from an HDD and not an SSD, and you want the commander role or to create a recon squad, good luck getting in before the slots fill up on a server with high population (80-100 players).

- Gunplay is generally shallow. This is what most people who primarily play infantry complain about the most. Instakill headshots tend to be a problem since weapons like pistols have no spread and a skilled player can crossmap headshot with them.

- Tank gameplay has very low time to kill. Tanks have semi-realistic armor penetration values where projectiles will bounce and do nothing, but anything that penetrates you is nearly guaranteed to wipe you out in 1-3 hits. This is very frustrating since tankers then have to go back to HQ to get a new tank (if any are available) and spend 5-10 minutes driving back up to the front lines again. For contrast, infantry can usually get right back into the action in about 20-30 seconds on average. Anti-tank infantry are a massive nuisance to tankers for this reason.

- Devs generally ignore feedback outside of feedback requested from them specifically for PTE builds. There are hundreds of very good suggestions in the community discord feedback channel. >99% of them are either utterly ignored or completely blown off by the dev team. Yes there are bad suggestions, but there will always be bad suggestions. It's the good suggestions that get ignored and many of them are basic features and QoL updates which players have been asking for implementation for months/years. Also, since Team 17 became Black Matter's publisher, this problem has generally been exacerbated. Uniform and helmet cosmetics seem to be BM's priority right now. People like me who want the base game to improve instead of get flashier have very little tolerance for this.

- Game breaking bugs exist and have existed for a long time, and the excuse for the devs not fixing them is "we can't reproduce them". As if reproducing a bug is the only way to patch it out. Sure reproducing a bug makes it way easier to fix, but there are additional methods for that.

- There are crippling optimization issues which will tank your FPS for no good reason (even if you exceed recommended hardware requirements). While there have been solid efforts from the devs to optimize the game, they still exist, and personally nothing makes me rage harder than the game gradually dropping to an unplayable 5 FPS. Obviously in a competitive shooter this is no dice. Also, LoD problems can prevent objects from rendering and cost you tank-on-tank engagements which is extremely frustrating as a tanker.

- Generally the progression system with loadouts is trash and feels very arbitrary. The XP system is terrible and the grind is absurd which encourages people to pick a class based on what they need to rank up and not what would help their squad. This is a huge problem in public games. You can mitigate this by cheesing XP on the Bob the Builder community server, but even while cheesing XP, it takes literal hours of mind numbingly boring gameplay of building and demolishing structures repeatedly to grind logistic points to rank up your class to a high enough level to reach specific loadouts (especially level 6+ loadouts).

- Community (and devs) are generally very toxic. Due to the multitude of issues with the game, people get frustrated easily and that frustration often gets taken out on other people. Suggestions and complaints are usually met with "Don't like it? Go make your own game!" from contrarian f*ckwits, and "Want us to change it? Too bad, you already paid for it!" by the devs. Yeah. Also, on that note, it's worth mentioning this game broke a lot of promises made to the Kickstarter backers.

- Despite HLL's emphasis on teamwork, many "blueberries" will wander off on your map and try to be the next Audie Murphy while you get steamrolled by a much more competent and coordinated enemy. This game is won and lost with placement of team spawn points called garrisons. If nobody builds garrisons, you will flat out lose the game. Post-match auto balancing does not exist, meaning there's no prevention from losing several games in a row unless you jump servers.

- Official servers are unmoderated and basically have no rules, meaning they're an absolute joke. Community servers tend to be great though. Only problem is that you have to pay a pre-designated service provider if you plan on hosting a dedicated server, and they tend to cost a lot.

Other:

> You will often be playing and suddenly get dinked or lose your tank, and you will not know what killed you. This is just part of the game. Eventually when you have played a lot and are experienced enough, you will at least have a general idea most of the time as long as you maintain situational awareness. But even with 800+ hours in this game, there are still instances where I haven't the slightest idea of what killed me. You will learn to deal with this. The only reason I am including this here as a disclaimer is that for some reason, it's a huge turnoff for new players even though it never really bothered me.

> HLL claims to be "historically accurate" and "realistic". Let's just say that outside of the very detailed maps, it's not. But as someone who cares about both of these things, yet also realizes that the purpose of games is primarily to have fun, I've found the game does not break my willing suspension of disbelief a majority of the time.

Verdict:

I recommend the game, but only if you are a team player, and are willing to put up with people who aren't. I recommend the game, but only if you are willing to put up with the cons in their current state and set those aside or push through them at the end of the day in order to enjoy yourself. I recommend the game, but only if you can buy it on a sale - $45 is a lot less reasonable than the previous $30 asking price, especially for a product that doesn't always work.

7.5/10 - Fun game, massive potential, but is very frustrating in its current state.

See also: The resignation letter of Sam, a Kickstarter backer and respected and senior member of the community: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xp2mryhv9uQGlO6N1SH1GrsxooF6NGGyYTj4PZeFV9g/edit

More years and 1500 hours later... I originally wrote a gleaming review of this game which did not properly represent it. Long story short is that while I like "the idea" of HLL, I despise the game itself. Read on for details. If you want to see my latest post on why I can't stand this game, here it is: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/686810/eventcomments/3773490849744616077/?ctp=12#c3773490849746145591 Pros: + Graphics are good overall. + Gameplay is fun and varied - you can be part of the poor, bloody infantry, crew or command a tank, run recon missions, or be the commander for your whole team, and call in air support, requisition tanks, and help coordinate movements and objectives. This also encourages combined arms tactics which are very fun and rewarding. + Infantry time to kill is very low. Headshots with any weapon are an instant kill regardless of weapon and most rifles can drop someone in 1-2 hits while SMGs can drop someone with 3-4 hits. This essentially makes HLL a twitch shooter, meaning large skill gaps do not translate 1:1 with combat effectiveness (especially in a game where combat effectiveness is definitely not the only consideration for winning a game). + This game doesn't really have any good competition when it comes to large format multiplayer WWII shooters. HLL is about as good as it gets in those terms. This is the main reason why I begrudgingly play HLL even despite its problems - the game honestly needs some healthy market competition. Cons: - Your hardware can put you at a disadvantage to or give you an edge over other people. Maps are big and it is difficult to see something far away on lower resolutions. If you have a 4k monitor, very long shots become significantly easier. Also, if your game is being loaded from an HDD and not an SSD, and you want the commander role or to create a recon squad, good luck getting in before the slots fill up on a server with high population (80-100 players). - Gunplay is generally shallow. This is what most people who primarily play infantry complain about the most. Instakill headshots tend to be a problem since weapons like pistols have no spread and a skilled player can crossmap headshot with them. - Tank gameplay has very low time to kill. Tanks have semi-realistic armor penetration values where projectiles will bounce and do nothing, but anything that penetrates you is nearly guaranteed to wipe you out in 1-3 hits. This is very frustrating since tankers then have to go back to HQ to get a new tank (if any are available) and spend 5-10 minutes driving back up to the front lines again. For contrast, infantry can usually get right back into the action in about 20-30 seconds on average. Anti-tank infantry are a massive nuisance to tankers for this reason. - Devs generally ignore feedback outside of feedback requested from them specifically for PTE builds. There are hundreds of very good suggestions in the community discord feedback channel. >99% of them are either utterly ignored or completely blown off by the dev team. Yes there are bad suggestions, but there will always be bad suggestions. It's the good suggestions that get ignored and many of them are basic features and QoL updates which players have been asking for implementation for months/years. Also, since Team 17 became Black Matter's publisher, this problem has generally been exacerbated. Uniform and helmet cosmetics seem to be BM's priority right now. People like me who want the base game to improve instead of get flashier have very little tolerance for this. - Game breaking bugs exist and have existed for a long time, and the excuse for the devs not fixing them is "we can't reproduce them". As if reproducing a bug is the only way to patch it out. Sure reproducing a bug makes it way easier to fix, but there are additional methods for that. - There are crippling optimization issues which will tank your FPS for no good reason (even if you exceed recommended hardware requirements). While there have been solid efforts from the devs to optimize the game, they still exist, and personally nothing makes me rage harder than the game gradually dropping to an unplayable 5 FPS. Obviously in a competitive shooter this is no dice. Also, LoD problems can prevent objects from rendering and cost you tank-on-tank engagements which is extremely frustrating as a tanker. - Generally the progression system with loadouts is trash and feels very arbitrary. The XP system is terrible and the grind is absurd which encourages people to pick a class based on what they need to rank up and not what would help their squad. This is a huge problem in public games. You can mitigate this by cheesing XP on the Bob the Builder community server, but even while cheesing XP, it takes literal hours of mind numbingly boring gameplay of building and demolishing structures repeatedly to grind logistic points to rank up your class to a high enough level to reach specific loadouts (especially level 6+ loadouts). - Community (and devs) are generally very toxic. Due to the multitude of issues with the game, people get frustrated easily and that frustration often gets taken out on other people. Suggestions and complaints are usually met with "Don't like it? Go make your own game!" from contrarian f*ckwits, and "Want us to change it? Too bad, you already paid for it!" by the devs. Yeah. Also, on that note, it's worth mentioning this game broke a lot of promises made to the Kickstarter backers. - Despite HLL's emphasis on teamwork, many "blueberries" will wander off on your map and try to be the next Audie Murphy while you get steamrolled by a much more competent and coordinated enemy. This game is won and lost with placement of team spawn points called garrisons. If nobody builds garrisons, you will flat out lose the game. Post-match auto balancing does not exist, meaning there's no prevention from losing several games in a row unless you jump servers. - Official servers are unmoderated and basically have no rules, meaning they're an absolute joke. Community servers tend to be great though. Only problem is that you have to pay a pre-designated service provider if you plan on hosting a dedicated server, and they tend to cost a lot. Other: > You will often be playing and suddenly get dinked or lose your tank, and you will not know what killed you. This is just part of the game. Eventually when you have played a lot and are experienced enough, you will at least have a general idea most of the time as long as you maintain situational awareness. But even with 800+ hours in this game, there are still instances where I haven't the slightest idea of what killed me. You will learn to deal with this. The only reason I am including this here as a disclaimer is that for some reason, it's a huge turnoff for new players even though it never really bothered me. > HLL claims to be "historically accurate" and "realistic". Let's just say that outside of the very detailed maps, it's not. But as someone who cares about both of these things, yet also realizes that the purpose of games is primarily to have fun, I've found the game does not break my willing suspension of disbelief a majority of the time. Verdict: I recommend the game, but only if you are a team player, and are willing to put up with people who aren't. I recommend the game, but only if you are willing to put up with the cons in their current state and set those aside or push through them at the end of the day in order to enjoy yourself. I recommend the game, but only if you can buy it on a sale - $45 is a lot less reasonable than the previous $30 asking price, especially for a product that doesn't always work. 7.5/10 - Fun game, massive potential, but is very frustrating in its current state. See also: The resignation letter of Sam, a Kickstarter backer and respected and senior member of the community: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xp2mryhv9uQGlO6N1SH1GrsxooF6NGGyYTj4PZeFV9g/edit