Hell Let Loose 2's early access launch on Steam late last year proved to be more problematic than players could reasonably stomach.  The game debuted to 'Mostly Negative' reviews, with players citing a litany of shortcomings, from bugs and performance issues to an overall unfinished feel.

Since then, developer Torn Banner has been working to address these concerns, and the latest update is being touted as the 'biggest one yet.'

Dubbed the 'Nightmare' update, the reasons for the ominous moniker quickly become apparent.  This patch expands the game's open-world survival sandbox in several key areas.  Most notable are the new weapon attachments, allowing players to customize their firearms with scopes, flashlights, and perhaps most importantly, suppressors. Given that noise can be as threatening as the shambling hordes in the darkness, silencers seem like a major boon. Torn Banner acknowledged the conspicuous absence of magnified scopes, assuring players that these, along with 'more attachment options,' are slated for future updates.

The sprawling 'Power Station' level has also been expanded, featuring a new ending sequence that replaces the original 'restart the generators' climax with repairing infrastructure around the facility. Additionally, a new opening sequence requires players to locate a radio instead of the previous laptop objective.  These changes are ostensibly in response to player feedback requesting more replayability, although one wonders if the real issue was a lack of maps to begin with.

Now, onto the titular aspect of this update: the 'Nightmare' difficulty.  Here, Torn Banner has introduced several new gameplay modifiers and a hardcore UI that strips the already minimalist HUD of objective markers and interaction prompts, and shrouds the entire map in a thick fog.  Torn Banner presents this as a way for players to 'show off' their accomplishments.

Other smaller additions include a new two-handed melee weapon—the shovel—as well as added jump scares in 'a few places' and 'infection hallucinations,' just to make the process of becoming one of the undead even more horrifying. These features are accompanied by a long list of bug fixes, addressing everything from visual and audio glitches to UI issues, loading times, and zombie behavior.  Torn Banner even reassured one particular player that the naked zombie found 'on a viewing platform near the watchtower has been reclothed,' adding, 'our sympathies to the player who found him.'

Overall, this appears to be a substantial update. However, whether it can significantly turn the game's fortunes around remains to be seen.  Recent Steam reviews, in addition to continuing concerns about quality, also complain that Hell Let Loose 2 is 'dead.' Indeed, at the time of writing, Steam Charts indicates 111 players battling the zombie hordes, against a peak of 1,998. These numbers are not encouraging, and a few hundred players hardly constitute a sustainable community for a game aiming for long-term success.