50v50 World War 2 shooter Hell Let Loose leaves Early Access in July

Australian developers Black Matter raised AU$308,368 (roughly US$238,000) on Kickstarter (opens in new tab) in 2017, promising a realistic, platoon-based multiplayer FPS with strategic elements—a metagame where capturing certain regions on the map might affect your reinforcements, vehicle deployment, naval bombardments, and so on. Hell Let Loose arrived on Steam (opens in new tab) Early Access in 2019, and has been a huge success, selling over a million copies in its first year.

At the Future Games Show, Black Matter founder Maximilian Rea announced that Hell Let Loose would be ready to leave Early Access on July 27. The full version will introduce Soviet Forces on the Eastern Front, with battles like Kursk and Stalingrad.

"Hell Let Loose has only grown due to the vibrant community that surrounds it," said Rea, "from our earliest Kickstarter backers to our newest recruits. We're excited to introduce you to this expanding and ever-evolving World War II experience."

Hell Let Loose is available on Steam (opens in new tab).

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games (opens in new tab). He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun (opens in new tab), The Big Issue, GamesRadar (opens in new tab), Zam (opens in new tab), Glixel (opens in new tab), Five Out of Ten Magazine (opens in new tab), and Playboy.com (opens in new tab), whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.