Recent reviews by Rocker

Hell Let Loose: Review and recommendations

My name is General Rocker. I am sixty-three years of age and I am a life-long gamer. Started young, will game till the day I die. As my name indicates, I am a musician, but I got my alias via facilitating one of the largest Counter-Strike group around the turn of the century, [CoFR]Crusty old Fossil Rockers-- our motto: One foot in the grave, the other on your neck!

Hell Let Loose caught my attention since its inception because I've played Day of Defeat for twenty years now, having started as a BETA tester, and continue to look for new WWII first person shooters. I also play modern-era shooters that emulate modern tech, such as, Arma and Recon (with my 93 YO father), but I find the iron sights and limited tech far more challenging. I am partial to WWII strategy games, too.

My first experience with HLL was amazing. I started playing the last patch before release. I cowered and was totally blown away by the weapons emulation, with suppression fire tearing up all around me. The battle dynamics in this game are fantastic, and quite realistic in much of how the game deals with accurate fire from weapons that are not dumbed down for the kids. Bombardment runs are amazing to see and horrific if you get caught up in one. Wow! A pistol kills just as well as an MG in this game so long as you know how to use it. Additionally, good luck if you are a frag ♥♥♥♥♥ interested in going alone. You will get all shot up without support from friendlies in this game, which makes squad chat integral.

I appreciate the way in which the HLL team has figured out how to balance re-spawn in an interesting light, using garrisons, outposts and half-tracks to accomplish this task fluidly. The interface is cumbersome, though, and I wish a chit-mark would help me re-spawn without having to click on an icon all the time, for I frequently miss the timer and frustrate myself having to wait to re-spawn. The fact that re-spawn points are dependent upon leadership is brilliant, but the voice system needs a good rework. We shall see. You do need a mic to play this game!

Frankly, I'm impressed by the work conducted by the HLL developers, who continue to improve the game. I get the sense that they are on to a solid niche for a franchise, and will continue to expand content so long as the game is profitable. That said, I do find intrinsic flaws in the game design that hinders its potential, as is true for most games that struggle with profit margins and marketing demographics. Such issues are for publishers to decide, whereas, I offer my feedback free of charge with hope my input might offer insight to creative coders. I was happy to see how the developers have incorporated feedback from users, and have made many improvements as a result.

It would be nice if DEV incorporated their insight into a robust configuration platform that would enable the server admins to curtail the gaming experienced based upon preference; however, I see lots of rigidity to this effect, which may or may not be technical. What I mean is lots of defaults on the game are pretty ridiculous from a WWII squad perspective. I'd like to edit the size and configuration of squads, limit the use of artillery and other roles, along with other aspects that would be better if set as optional. Don't want tanks? No ART? (that would be so nice on occasion) No snipes for this map? I prefer a squad of 12 for WWII games, for this is not Counter-Strike. ETC. How about you let the clan decide how to set up the battles? Flexibility is lacking in most FPS games, and this is yet another who wants to create a canned, out of the box experience, and falls short simply because there are insufficient set-up options.

I wait impatiently for MODS that might address my concerns. I follow the revisions and see the work going on, and the new maps on the way, but no indication that they will create more flexible server game-play options. In the mean time, other than way too much artillery, the game is a winner, and will get better as the DEV team ramp up content. As is true with all these kinds of games, much better on a closed server with like-minded individuals.

Space Engineers is currently in bata mode, and the team at KSH are working hard, providing weekly updates. I highly recommend this game for players who enjoy building virtual worlds. Since there are so many little peices, an upper end computer is required (X64).

The physics engine that drives this game is amazing, and the developers are smart about encouraging community development, including a strong Steam workshop MOD system. I've yet to play multiplayer, currently content with working im my evil scientist lab.

I've played DoD longer than just about anyone, since I ran the largest Counter-Strike community at the time of the first beta. The creative young'guns teens who introduced the game were pretty immature at the time, but they figured out how I can lay down, whereas cliffie and goose never figured that one out in CS :)

It could have ended up a better game than it stands today, but it still is a fun game to play.The development team didn't listen much to us [CoFR]Crusty old Fossil Rockers, and the weapons balance ended up off-kilter. That said, I am a life-long gamer who plays lots of other games, but I return to DoD and the HL1 engine because I have a few friends I've played DoD with for a long time, and I like the net-code for the most part.

I recommend this game, especially to the new gamer who wants to learn how to use teamwork as part of a small squad. Servers now are few and far between, so I thought I'd write a review before its demise. heheh