Expression Games’ Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is billed as a more realistic shooter than some of its contemporaries. Compared to the rapid action of Call of Duty, it may as well be a lifelike simulation, but it is more restrained in its realism than ARMA or the SWAT simulator Ready or Not.

The balance of realism versus game design is one that many game developers often butt heads with. On one hand, hyper-realism is now achievable with modern animation, rendering and game design. On the other hand, at least for a multiplayer game, you also want some form of balance outside the realm of realism to make the game fun. That’s the essence of gamification.

“This is a constant push-and-pull battle with the game feel and the balancing to ensure we’ve made a fair and competitive game,” game director Rushy Rustchynsky tells FRVR. Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is certainly more realistic than some with a rapid time-to-kill, but sometimes you have to make concessions for how people believe a weapon should function in a game versus how it actually functions in real-life.

“On the game feel side of things, you want everything from the running speeds, vaulting actions, weapon reload times and more to feel responsive and satisfying [than real-life],”  Rustchynsky explains. “Using real-world values for these examples would lead to a very slow-paced and frustrating experience, so we’re always trying to find the sweet spot that works best for the game experience we want to deliver.”

This has obviously led to some major balancing on the authenticity of the Vietnam war for gameplay purposes. In the Vietnam conflict, American forces had access to extremely powerful weaponry whereas the North Vietnamese Army used heavy guerrilla tactics and traps, alongside the National Liberation Front. In video games, however, traps are often harder to see, which could explain their lack of appearance in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam.

“On the balancing side of things, we’re having to tweak values to ensure that both sides are evenly matched, so that whatever force you play for, you have an equal chance of winning when facing an equally matched opponent,” Rustchynsky says as players on the American side have access to more powerful artillery while Vietnamese soldiers have access to tunnels. “So we’ll often make small and subtle changes behind the scenes to ensure that gameplay balance is favoured over realism.”

The push-and-pull between realism and gamification also turns up in regards to communication. Of course, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam gives players access to a verbal radio, allowing them to roleplay the war scenario with other players. Unfortunately, verbal communication in games is less prominent now than it was two decades ago in online games, so other non-verbal mechanics service players who don’t wish to talk online.

“During gameplay, players have access to a combination of verbal (radio) and non-verbal communication tools (Ping and Map Markers) to ensure that everyone has various means to issue orders and get instant updates on the battlefield. We’ve invested time to make these tools easier to use and more accessible than ever before, and that lower barrier to entry should see more players make use of them,”  Rustchynsky says.

“We recognise it is a challenge to get new players to talk, but hopefully with the new onboarding, improved communication tools and the help of our friendly community, new players will get more involved with the communicative aspects of the game.”

For Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, the goal is that the game’s realism vs gamification must service the theme of the conflict. There’s an idea that everyone has of the Vietnam conflict and replicating that authentically is the goal. While the team wants to “replicate the realities of war”, players won’t learn through gameplay if the game isn’t fun.

“From a design perspective, we start with authenticity and then look at the mechanics and features through the lens of a player, trying to understand the right level of ‘friction’ they should encounter so they never feel overly frustrated. Still, when they do succeed, it feels rewarding,” they continued.