Recent reviews by 20montg

*Updated 6/22/2023, will add more in future if necessary*

First off I would like to say I have spent around 1,200 hours of playing HLL. Compared to many other FPS games I've played, this one always stuck with me the most and enjoy roughly 90% of my time playing it. However while playing the game for almost 2 years, me and many others are getting sick and tired of the constant problems HLL that have been in the game before the release in August of 2021, as well as many other problems that have grown over the years. I feel like I have to inform people about the current state of the game as of June 22, 2023. For those who just want a quick summary: I would NOT recommend the game at all in it's current state and should wait until January or so to see if the state improves.

Summary of the new update and current HLL:
Content:

Driel map is ok, but doesn't stand out from any of the other maps. It's essentially what PHL and Remagan would be if they had a child, both maps which vast majority of the player base do not enjoy playing. Granted I would easily choose to play Driel over PHL or Remagen.

El Alamein, while a cool and potentially fun map, performs like absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I have never seen a map perform so bad not only for HLL but for every FPS map in general. I run the game on a 3060ti, i9 10900k cpu, 64 gbs of ram with around 12-16 allocated for the game, and playing on medium settings yet the map is still unplayable. At best, it's around 60 fps (while it should not be around that, it's at least playable). At worse, I get below 30 fps and as of late sub 10 fps. This is horrendous.

The new British weapons have way too much sway, causing your iron sites to be fully blocked and can't see.

The new British Firefly heavy tank and Chromwell medium are the worst tanks in the entire game hands down. This includes the recon tanks, Luchs, and 75 Jumbo. The Firefly is especially bad because it has no hull mg (to be fair it was expected), turns worst than a beached boat in the middle of the Nevada desert, and the best part of all: can be penned from almost every part of the body. Yes, even shot in the direct front by mediums if you hit either the left or right side of the front plate. You can also pen the side at any angle whether you see it at 90 degrees or 5 degrees. The only way the tank isn't at constant threat is if the only part of the tank exposed is the turret, which is only possible really on El Alamein.

In the new update, they added a buff to movement speed of infantry by around 15%. Granted, as infantry this update is great as it allows for a bit more of a faster pace and allows you to cover much more ground than the clunky running before. The problem is thanks to the update, infantry can now sprint as fast or faster than heavy tanks. This makes the IS-1, 75 and 76 Jumbo, and Tiger useless since any satchel man will easily keep up with the tank no problem.

Bugs:

Loadout bug in Update 13.5 used to happen 1-2 times per match for me consistently and made playing the game miserable. Now in Update 14, the loadout bug happens 3 times per match. I genuinely don't understand how this bug has been in the game for at least 3 years and Black Matter could not fix it. It amazes me that the devs said they "couldn't not find any way to replicate the bug" yet all I have to do is just spawn in and suffer. While Team 17 has taken over and will be doing the updates from now on, I don't have much optimism.

Tank penning is extremely inconsistent with AP rounds from a 76 Jumbo ricocheting off a German supply truck stationary exactly parallel to the tank. This was a problem that started happening often back in Update 12, but has become worse over time.

While I haven't experienced it yet, the grenade bug is supposedly still in the game.

Hit registration is still horrible regardless of what server you join now. typically when you join a server you know has somewhat good connection it doesn't happen as often, but now it's become a common occurrence in all HLL matches. The amount of times I hit someone with 6-10 shots from the tank MG gun from the turret just to have the enemy whip out a rocket launcher, turn around, and damage the tank just to have him fall over dead 2 seconds later is infuriating. The best moments are when you fire a 76mm HE tank shell into the chest of a guy standing stationary in a open field just for him to shrug it off like the Terminator. Or even better is when you shoot the HE shell at the enemy garrison (enemy team spawn point) to blow it up, just to see once the smoke clears that all it did was leave a charred burn mark on the side of the cans sitting on said garrison. Very cool, very immersive.

This game is very fun and always enjoyed watching videos on it on YouTube but man it has a whole different feel when you actually play it for yourself. This game is extremely difficult and contains a lot of game breaking bugs or unstable features in general. The weather in this game absolutely tanks fps. I think Project Zomboid is one of the only games where having fog or snow can bring you from around 60 fps down to 10 within seconds, and with how difficult the game is in general you're bound to be killed at some point. I know it will since it happened to me twice so far. Updates are fairly slow and don't really add much to the game. The tutorial for this game is atrocious because the only tips it gives you are how to search boxes, equip a weapon, and kill a zombie. While combat has improved in some of the recent updates it still feels very clunky at times. If you try adding more than a few mods to improve the experience you will most likely soft lock the game or the game will run at a ridiculous frame rate. Sometimes the game will only spawn one or two zombies near your home, and then the next day you have a giant horde right nearby. And a few hours ago I encountered a pretty game breaking bug where I was driving my sports car with a bunch of food and other supplies. But since I had put some items in all of the seats, now I can no longer access the car or be able to take out any of the items in said car. All my refrigerated food, crafting supplies, weapons, and tools that I looted were all gone. 10/10 perfection.

Game has a cool retro-style to the old, nostalgic flash games of the mid 2000's. The game has a lot of guns, good customization, and has the basics of a fun FPS game but the game has a lot of problems.

The controls in this game are very buggy, a common one was switching to my pistol and shooting it will automatically switch back to my primary. The movement feels clunky and slow, your sprint is barely noticeable. The AI will auto lock to your head with a machine gun off screen and blast you before you can see them. The game has a lot of micro-transactions, though from what I've seen so far it doesn't seem to be too bad? And for a game that came out almost 4 years ago, the max players I saw as of writing this review was 132 which is not good at all.