Post Scriptum

The game was just recently announced to have been taken over by OWI, the devs of Squad, from which this game started from. The game is not dead and the hopes are high.

The Devs are Back under OWI which makes Squad they are adding the Greeks and working with the Project Mercury guys. It's not Dead anymore so please take a look and don't dismiss it as dead cause it ain't anymore.

Fantastic Game. Really Happy to see the game is being revived although Hell Let Loose still dominates in the OCE regions. Communities like BigD and Ci5 are doing their best to give the region a server to play in every day though.
I have nearly 3000 hours in Hell Let Loose, have played competition for the game and still don't think ill ever go back.
Squad 44 is an overall better game that doesn't rely on players building spawns to win the game. It helps, but its not the overall deciding factor. Theres no building nodes or any fiddly things like that which new players usually have problems with. Its just get in a squad, play, learn and have fun straight from the get go.
Its more immersive, better gun-play with huge arsenal of different weapons and different armies with the Pacific coming soon.
Its a no brainer, buy this game. Persist with the learning curve, it might be hard for the first 10 hours but then most people get it after that. And also, ask experienced players your questions on how to play the game. The community for Squad 44 is a really great group of people where the veterans are thankful for the new players coming to play, and usually are happy to teach new players.
Hope this gets read and some of you buy and enjoy the game.

What to say,

so I came from HLL like i think most people do and all i can say is WOW. I was a bit sceptiacal at first because coming from HLL i was worried this game wouldnt hold up. especially in graphics and player count and all i can say is why! didnt i get this game sooner!.
Firstly the PROs-
The first thing that took me by surpirise was the sound. WOW the sound is second to none. as someone who has played HLL, BF5, RO2, Squad. Genuinly this has some of the best sound out of all of them. Gone are the same SFX noise being fired into your ears everytime the same arty shell lands 100 meters away from you. instead be prepared to listen to a barrage of noise. to the point you can tell the diffrence between the mortar, artillery, tank and variouse guns firing at you. I was surprised by my second game i was able to tell the difrence between incoming and outgoing rounds and there size just by the noise and wow theres a lot of noise. serious PTSD inducing.
In summary. It sounds great.
Graphics. The graphics are great okay i guess maybe you could argue they arnt the best but they are atleast on par with everything that is on Squad 44s level. Maybe HLL pips it by a tad but i would argue the variation in explosions and how stunning they are compared to the same 4 explosions in HLL pips it. honestly when i was playing as the french in Maginot and the tanks, AT guns, Mortars light mortars, Arty, Stukas, and everything in between were blasting away at our position. as my infantry soldier struggled to chamber his bullets as this unholy barrage fell around me as my squad mates screamed and fired back at the german panzer 3s rolling over our position that 1% diffrence is soon forgotten. the game looks great!.
This brings me onto my next point armoured warfare. the tank gameplay is great. okay its no RO2 but thats the top tier for looking around a tank internally this is a close second. watching panzerschrek teams target ammo racks and put a sherman turret into orbit is awessome. the tank ballistics are realistic and the abilitiy to spawn jagdtigers and tigers when they are historicaly accurate vs armoured cars etc when that is all you had is great. no longer do you have to beg for fuel and tanks. Just walk up spawn it and get into the fight easy. honestly its a lot better than HLL in this regard if you like armour your going to enjoy this.
Lastly intenstity and infantry fighting. I used to get frustreated in HLL. Some games i had a great game killing a few and just generally haviing a good time. others god the ping of getting headshot at garry every ten minutes is painful just to grind out a few levels to get a weapon or upgrade to a class that ulitmatley made no diffrence.
This game has none of that infantry combat is far more realistic, movement and cover is sooo good. no longer is grass an impenetrable barrier to your sight and you can move and dive to cover so easily its just great. even on my first few games dont get me wrong i came from HLL so i had the experience to use cover and movment correctly but even so it just works so well. ive not experiecned the bullet magnet gameplay of HLL in a single game genuinly it so refreshing to not be one shot every five minutes. dont get me wrong you have to be smart this is by no means more causal then HLL, its actaully far more realistic but in the same sense you arnt getting snipped ever 5 seconds because you have a greater range of movemnet to use your natural cover. vegitation is far better in this game hence the fact they are able to create a pacific theater dlc and HLL isnt.
The intesity of combat is also amazing. machine guns are king and are far more relastic in this game. they act as sqaud support weapons being directed by your SL and cover you as you advance. Ive not seen this in HLL because being an MG is a death sentence 9/10 times here that isnt the case and they preform exactly as they did in real life. its so refreshing.
In summary for £20 give this a go see what you think its worth it just to kill some hours and give yourself a break from the hum drum.
The cons.
So my first gripe was having to manually rack a round in my bolt action weapon. now i appreciate the realism between racking a round and sipping from your canteen but i would like an option to do this automatically. its difficult in the hell of combat to remeber hmmm did i chamber my next round? i cant check becuase i would either have to reload or accientally fire and both of these create noise that will draw fire and having watched the ping of an M1 grand draw several grenades and rifle grenades you are forced to hope you remebered to rack that next bullet.
Player count- now this is an awkward one. ive never not been able to find a full game with low ping however i imagine this might be a bit more difficult if you are from asia or something like that becuase in HLL theres like 3 servers i frequent and the other 2 that would probably have lower enough ping for me are usually some foreign serveer that will kick me for not speaking there language. here you dont have that you have like 3-4 full servers to pick from with low ping. outside of that your limited. to weekends. now hopefully the player count will improve as i can see why this was bought they clearly see potential for this to compete with everything else and tbf i see it too but for now i can see this being annoying for some so bare that in mind.
Lastly This is just a personal gripe but the maps are balanced with realism in mind. they match the real life counter parts and that includes what armour etc is avalible. sometmes this will work in your favour other times not so much. UTAH is an example of this In real life the germans didnt have heavy armour at UTAH and this is alos the case in game you are not able to spawn heavy armour as the germans on UTAH however the americans as in real life do have access to M4 shermans with the wade gear fitted to allow them to get to shore. this can feel a bit unbalanced as the germans as you are forced to deal with this armour using sdkfz pak 40s and 88mm etc but no heavy armour of your own. IDK but it can be annoying..... atleast untill it goes in your favour lol....

Anyway give this game a go if you enjoyed RO2 or HLL then your going to love this. its well worth a peak for the price trust me you can always refund it if you dont like it :)

HLL refugee. Had 500+ hours as SL and it became frustrating that no one used mics, the other SLs didn't communicate and you had guys running around not playing the objective. Came to Squad 44 and its a world of a difference. Nice community and loads of content right now. The gun play is good, different vehicles add a real nice touch. I hope the devs continue to update / optimize this game and see the community grow. Only issue I've had is some rubber banding but that can be fixed in due time. Visually, the game looks wonderful and the sounds are top notch too.

I like this game. You get a gun and then you get a 13 year old who tells your what to do because he's your squad leader. His voice hasn't broken but that won't stop you being admonished for not crossing a battlefield under heavy fire quickly enough. He will then kick you from the squad for being too old/noncompliant/radical enough.
Sometimes if you are playing a radioman you will be inappropriately touched by other squad leaders who don't even ask or say thank you. All under the guise of putting up a "Spawn point".
People ask you to dig up and dig down physical structures. This makes no sense...but then....this game doesn't coherently explain why nearly 90% of all players hide in plain sight on the roof of a barn...
10/10 - EXCELLENT

point gun at enemy. kill enemy. satisfaction. die. die again, die again, shoot a friendly by mistake. get run over by friendly panther. get yelled at by squad lead. chareg point. die. kill enemy. repeat for 12 hours. go do something else. start thinking about the game. must play game. must play game. must play game. must play game. abandon everything outside of game. point gun at enemy. kill enemy. satisfaction...