We sat down with the team behind Hell Let Loose: Vietnam to ask what pulled them out of World War 2 into a very different kind of war.
Hell Let Loose saw players fight across the many battlefields of World War II, but what made Expression Games choose the Vietnam War for the backdrop of the latest game?
Paul Rustchynsky: Vietnam was at the top of everyone’s list - the team and the community - so it was a straightforward decision. We really value the feedback from our community and they have always been very forthcoming with other conflicts and theatres they would like to see in-game. The Vietnam War stands out for a number of reasons, primarily because it offers a dramatically different type of battlefield that provides us with a lot of gameplay opportunities. So we felt like we could really evolve the formula as well with it. So it was a really easy choice.
What do you think is the biggest change Hell Let Loose Vietnam brings to the series’ formula?
Paul Rustchynsky: There’s a lot of big changes for Vietnam. While it shared the same DNA as the original, this isn’t just an iterative sequel – we have a whole new era and theatre of war to explore.
When it comes to the presentation, you’re in the dense jungle, rather than open fields. Weapons are also completely different – moving away from singleshot rifles in World War II and instead using fully automatic weapons. Another big change is the asymmetrical sides of the NVA and US, whereby fundamental differences between them impact the gameplay hugely.
Kieran D’Archambaud: From a technical perspective, a big change has been upgrading the engine to Unreal Engine 5 – which has allowed us to ensure each platform has the same gameplay features, whether that’s PC or console. Previously, there were certain things you could only do on PC and not console, and vice versa.
Is there a role specific to Hell Let Loose Vietnam you’re excited for players to get to grips with?
Paul Rustchynsky: The Logistics Officer and the Helicopter Pilot are the roles I’m most keen to see how people get to grips with. Partially for amazing piloting skills, as we’ve already seen some fantastic skills in the playtests, what I’m truly excited for is the tactical opportunities that the roles offer. They’re key to transporting infantry, delivering supplies, building garrisons, scouting tunnels, suppressing from above, spotting tanks, etc - their range of utility is incredible in the hands of a good helicopter crew. I can’t wait to see how our community makes best use of them.
The community’s embrace of role-playing has been a big part of Hell Let Loose; has that shaped the development of Hell Let Loose Vietnam in any particular way?
Paul Rustchynsky: Absolutely. As mentioned previously, the community played a huge role in our decision to explore Vietnam for our next backdrop. We love seeing the community engaging with the game in different ways, and that allows us to learn what they want to see when it comes to development. Through playtests we’ve gotten great, honest feedback on where imbalances between sides may sit – for instance, are tunnels overpowered? We’ve also seen the community sharing content, including a video where a skilled helicopter pilot was using the helicopter in ways that we hadn’t seen before.
The community will continue to shape the title when it comes to gameplay and we want the community to be vocal about how this is working and what they want to see from it in the future.
Do you feel that the benefits of making a tactical hardcore shooter are that you’re generally more likely to get a player base that understands what you’re going for and that you don’t have to compromise on your vision?
Paul Rustchynsky: I don’t think any creative should compromise their vision to meet expectations, it’s important that developers make what they believe in no matter the label. However what I think the label of hardcore shooter affords us is to have a level of ‘friction’ and immersion that players not might be comfortable with elsewhere, and the audience come in knowing what to expect - which is an uncompromising large scale war, where teams win or lose based upon communication and tactics.
The recent delay of the Hell Let Loose Vietnam release date must have been disappointing, but the community seemed to be quite supportive of it?
Paul Rustchynsky: Naturally, the community will have felt disappointed by the decision, but they have been great throughout the process and we’ve received great support when it came to the release date change.
It allowed us to engage with players again during further playtests, gather feedback from the community and of course make those finishing touches to the game to ensure it’s in the best possible state. We’ve made changes that have been well received and at the end of the day, the title is hugely inspired from the passionate players within the community – their patience while we finalised development was truly appreciated.
While you have that player base that gets the Hell Let Loose games’ brutal tactical warfare, is it tempting to make the games more accessible for those who may not be as patient to learn?
Kieran D’Archambaud: There is a lot of depth to Hell let loose and its gameplay. While we didn’t want to decrease the complexity of the title’s gameplay, our focus instead was on improving how that was is taught.
Hell Let Loose WW2 relied on a lengthy text manual, whereas Vietnam has a dedicated hands-on tutorial that greets players immediately to cover the essential mechanics. From there, modular guides allow players to dive deeper into specific roles at their own pace. This isn’t 100% comprehensive but it does what you need to do to get into the game.
While HLL is of course not a casual game, most people aren’t keen to read page after page of text before they get into a game, and we know this from feedback. So what we hope is that this new tutorial will steady the initial steep learning curve, but still maintain the brutal tactical warfare nature the title is known for.
Games like Hell Let Loose tend to be better suited to a PC mouse and keyboard setup. While you’ve still found success on consoles, has development on Hell Let Loose Vietnam allowed you to further refine the console experience?
Kieran D’Archambaud: Parity across all platforms was a top priority for us. All the features are one-to-one across both platforms and your baseline performance across all platforms is 60 frames a second.
With the introduction of crossplay and the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5, it provided us with the perfect opportunity to completely rebuild the online infrastructure from the ground up and refine the console experience further.
In terms of console experience, we do take advantage of the extra power of PS5 Pro, which means it will run a little bit better and will have dynamic resolution scaling in the game so it will hit a better internal resolution.
Our thanks to Kieran D’Archambaud and Paul Rustchynsky for finding the time to answer our questions in the middle of release week. Hell Let Loose: Vietnam launches today, 13th August 2026, on Steam.
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