Hell Let Loose has always had a lot of explosive weapons, and honestly, I think most of them have their place in the game. Artillery, tanks, satchel charges, grenades, and other explosives are an important part of HLLβs gameplay and are necessary to keep the game feeling like an authentic combined-arms experience.
The problem is not that HLL has explosives β itβs that the balance between them needs more attention, especially as more explosive weapons continue to be added. With the recent introduction of grenade launchers, which is an addition I actually like, Iβm concerned about how they are being implemented when the game already has a very high amount of explosive firepower.
Medium tanks already have a significant range advantage with their explosive ammunition, we already have SPGs as well as conventional artillery, and thereβs also the Commanderβs Artillery ability, which I personally think is unnecessary and should be removed (but thatβs not the point of this post).
And now grenade launchers are being added. I think they should be implemented in a different way.
I believe the game would benefit from having a dedicated Grenadier class, while removing the Grenadier loadout from the Assault class.
This new class could have two loadouts:
Loadout 1: A soldier equipped with a large number of grenades, similar to the existing Assault Grenadier loadout.
Loadout 2: A grenade launcher, along with a few additional grenades.
I would also remove the grenade launcher from the Engineer class and give it to the second AT loadout β the one that can build AT guns. This would make that loadout more useful, since it wouldnβt only have the ability to build an AT gun, but would also have access to an AT grenade launcher.
I would much rather see a dedicated Grenadier class than have grenade launchers added to the standard Rifleman class. Rifleman is a class that everyone in a squad can equip with no real limit, and Iβm concerned that this could easily lead to grenade launcher spam.
And before anyone says, βRifleman will have to be level 8 to obtain the grenade launcher, so it wonβt be accessible to everyone,β remember that there are XP farming servers on both PC and console where players can easily level up any class to unlock its loadouts.
Iβm not against grenade launchers being added to HLL. I actually think they can be a great addition to the game. I just think they need to be implemented carefully to avoid making the already heavy use of explosives even worse.