Talking to NME after the launch of World War 2 shooter Hell Let Loose, Black Matter Games CEO Max Rea explains how much work goes into every update for the game, particularly the new Russian faction.
Put simply, “huge huge amounts” of work went into adding Russia into the game.
“I can personally guarantee that every single piece of equipment and every single model, I mean, even the recon planes that the commander can call in are the correct Soviet recon planes,” claims Rea. “I mean, even down to the watch that commanders and officers can use – the prop that we give you to show that you’re putting down a spawn point – that watch, we know which factory it was manufactured in the Ural Mountains, factory number 38.”
This goes even deeper when it comes to details in the maps, which are based on actual battlefield satellite maps.
When it comes to adding things to the game, Rea admits that it’s given him insight into things you wouldn’t usually expect a game developer to know: “The amount of stuff I know about hay baling technology, because of our Western Front research on when hay bales are invented,” laughs Rea. “On the Eastern Front, we’re fortunate, we’ve got a couple of Russian team members and I say like, “Why are you guys painting the base of your trees white in Russia?” Because it’s something that they do and I said, “When did this start?” And it turns out it started in the early 20th century. Stuff like that is just… Ceramic ovens in the little huts that people sleep on in the winter and they cook certain types of things, we’ve got all the preserved jars. All that stuff is just a lot.”
Rea admits that all of this is a labour of love, before quipping “Oh my goodness, mate. Our next game will be a fantasy game so that we can just make this stuff up, honestly.”
But for now, Rea says it’s worth it for the fans who have come to the game for its historical accuracy, as they pick up every detail. “I mean, we used a very famous, but quite nondescript in the Western world, Red Army song in trailer and sort of remixed it into the trailer. That was the idea of our composer and it’s those types of touches, I think we saw the Russian community particularly just really appreciate that type of stuff.,
“I think it’s our perspective on history, as we were just trying to kind of pay homage to the fact that this is conflict in which millions of lives were lost.”
Hell Let Loose is out now on PC.
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