We’ve come a long way since the World War 2 foundations of the first Call of Duty game, and if the current day flavor of MW3 isn’t your style, then we have an alternative to try out. Xbox Free Play Days give players a chance to sample new Xbox games without a charge, and you can soon dive into Hell Let Loose, a WW2 shooter with a different pace to become accustom to.
Sure, we love the Call of Duty franchise as must as the next person, but it is nice to see what other FPS offerings are out there. Whether it is one of the best FPS games around is up for debate, but the expansive battlefields of Hell Let Loose will soon be on your doorstep. From Thursday, November 30, 2023, until Monday, December 4, 2023, Xbox players can sample a free trial of the Cover 6 Studios shooter.
Acquired by publisher Team 17 for a whopping $39 million (£31 million) last January, the squad based shooter brings players across the Western, North African and Eastern Fronts during World War 2, within huge maps akin to those seen in other FPS titles like Battlefield 2042. The game began life through a Kickstarter fund in 2017, which former developer Black Matter used to successfully raise over $200,000. Hell Let Loose went into early access on PC in 2019, with console versions releasing in October 2021.
We have managed to get a fair bit of time in the trenches in Hell Let Loose, and while our initial experience started a little rocky, the game can be heaps of fun with friends. What makes the game a little different to other shooters is the RTS style meta-game that accompanies the act of warfare. You’ll be managing resources for your team, whether that is vehicles, air strikes, or supply drops. They can get quite costly, so trying to efficiently manage your own personal army becomes a stressful-yet-fun task in itself.
Content for the game is still coming, following a 2023 roadmap reveal earlier this year. This roadmap includes new weapons, free DLC drops, and fresh Commander abilities for the RTS meta-game. Update 13.5 went live in April, but a developer briefing clarifies that content is yet to come before the year is out: “The teams are hard at work refining the two new game modes coming in July and December, along with the anticipated Finnish Winter War and Danzig Post Office battles, which kick off our new one year of war content for each game calendar year. Starting this year, we’ll cover 1939, then move into 1940 next year, and continue until the end of the conflict in 1945.”
You can even see the most recent update brings, as Update 14.5 for Hell Let Loose implements the British Eighth Army and German Africa Corps, tweaks for current maps, a brand-new tank and weapons to use.
Hell Let Loose could just end as one of the best Xbox games in your library, so don’t hesitate to try it out soon. In the meantime, check out our list of the best Xbox Game Pass games, as Microsoft continues to add more bangers to its subscription service. Oh, and you can use the Xbox App (for now) on your phone to download them.