Hell Let Loose: Vietnam brings helicopters and jungle warfare — here’s what actually matters

Hell Let Loose heads to Vietnam – and this could change the meta

As someone who’s spent too many late nights juggling garrisons, supply trucks, and command chat in Hell Let Loose, this announcement snapped me to attention. Team17 and Expression Games are taking the series from WWII to Vietnam, with 50v50 combined arms, helicopters, riverboats, and six Vietnam-inspired maps. It’s a bold pivot that could either refresh HLL’s best ideas or stress them to breaking point.

Key takeaways

• 50v50 returns in 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, with no early access phase this time around.
• Helicopters and boats are new to the series and could reshape logistics, flanking, and commander play.
• Dense jungle maps will change sightlines, audio, and suppression-expect closer, nastier firefights.
• Great potential, but community concerns linger about performance, post-launch cadence, and splitting the playerbase.

Breaking down the announcement

The sequel, developed by Expression Games and published by Team17, keeps the core HLL formula: 100-player, objective-based warfare where squad cohesion and logistics decide the outcome more than raw K/D. The twist is the era. Jungle terrain, waterways, and a different arsenal are front and center. Helicopters (yes, finally) and river craft join returning armor for full combined-arms chaos across six maps at launch. The team says it’s aiming straight for a full release in 2026-no early access—on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Epic. The Steam page is already live for wishlists, and the reveal came with a bit of drama after an early trailer leak.

The real story: how Vietnam could reshape HLL’s systems

HLL’s magic is its friction: moving bodies and supplies across big maps to set up garrisons, holding lanes, and calling commander abilities at the right time. Vietnam-era helicopters could blow that friction wide open—in a good way, if handled carefully. Airlifted squads threaten deep flanks fast, but the series’ supply-and-garrison economy needs to remain king. If choppers can drop supplies and troops anywhere, expect commanders to rethink the entire flow of a match: smoke an LZ, insert a recon duo behind lines, pop a bombing run, then push. That’s exciting, but balance is everything. Helicopters must be loud, vulnerable, and cost-controllable, or they’ll outshine ground logistics.

Jungle density also matters. In WWII HLL, long sightlines and open fields defined many fights; Vietnam’s canopy could flip priorities to audio discipline, short-range suppression, and tight squad spacing to avoid getting wiped by a single grenade. If the foliage blocks visibility smartly without tanking performance, every bush becomes a threat and every radio call carries weight. Riverboats could add new lanes of control—imagine contesting a bridge by denying river resupply rather than just locking the road. Done right, this makes map control feel multi-dimensional instead of “two highways and a wheat field.”

Why this matters now (and what worries me)

The shift to Vietnam isn’t just a reskin; it’s a chance to evolve what makes HLL special. But there are fair concerns. The original has had a bumpy ride with feature cadence, balance swings, and bug hunts. Moving to a sequel risks splitting the community if both titles coexist. No early access means fewer public iteration cycles on things as volatile as helicopters and riverine combat—so launch could be rough if the team doesn’t gather wide test data beforehand.

Then there’s performance. HLL’s 100-player servers are CPU- and network-heavy. Add aircraft and dense foliage and you risk unstable frames or desync, especially on consoles. The good news: targeting current-gen hardware only should help. Still, I want to hear specifics on optimization, controller-friendly VOIP and command UX, and whether server tick and hit-reg are getting attention. Anti-cheat and admin tools will matter from day one too—airpower multiplies the impact of any exploit.

Content volume is another open question. Six maps is fine if they’re varied—urban Hue-style streets, rice paddies with dikes, river hamlets, hilltop bases—but the series lives on replayability. Dynamic objectives, meaningful commander tradeoffs, and distinct vehicle roles are the real content. Pricing and post-launch plans also matter. The community will be allergic to nickel-and-diming cosmetics if core systems need tuning.

How it stacks up against the field

If you’re coming from Squad, you know the helicopter drama: transport defines tempo. HLL is stricter about spawn economy, so I’m curious how choppers plug into garrison rules without trivializing them. Compared to Insurgency: Sandstorm’s tight, mid-scale maps, HLL Vietnam aims for bigger, slower-burn strategy—fewer twitchy heroics, more combined arms and comms discipline. If Expression Games nails the soundscape, suppression, and logistics, it could own the “serious but playable” niche between milsim and mainstream.

What I’m watching for next

• Helicopter rules: transport vs. gunship, spawn restrictions, supply drops, ticket costs, and counterplay.
• Map readability: jungle density, sightline design, and whether performance holds with 100 players.
• Commander toolkit: recon planes become recon drones? New artillery rules? Air support vs. AA balance.
• Community plan: cross-play considerations, server tools, anti-cheat, and whether progression carries meaning without grind.

TL;DR

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam could be exactly the shakeup this series needs: air mobility, river fights, and claustrophobic firefights in dense jungle. But helicopters, performance, and spawn economy are powder kegs. If Expression Games threads that needle, 2026 might deliver the best version of HLL’s brutal teamwork sandbox yet. If not, expect a messy launch and a split playerbase. Cautious excitement feels right.