How Unreal Engine 5 allowed Hell Let Loose: Vietnam to capture the density of the jungle with incredible fidelity

September 7, 2026 - 15:25

The dense, chaotic jungle of Vietnam is a character in its own right, and the team at Expression Games knows it. In a recent deep dive, senior art director Ryan Playle-Howard explained how Unreal Engine 5 has been the key to capturing that overwhelming sense of place for the upcoming first-person shooter. The goal was not just to render trees and foliage, but to build a space where the environment itself feels like an active threat.

Playle-Howard described the challenge of balancing massive, open battlefields with the claustrophobic reality of the bush. With UE5, the studio can now use Nanite to stream in incredibly detailed geometry without bogging down performance. That means individual leaves, broken branches, and tangled roots can be modeled with high fidelity, creating a visual density that was previously impossible. The real breakthrough, however, is in how that density affects gameplay. Players can no longer see through a thin line of trees; they have to push into a wall of green, relying on sound and instinct.

Lighting also plays a massive role. Using Lumen, the team can simulate how sunlight filters through the canopy, casting shifting shadows that break up player silhouettes. The result is a world that feels alive and oppressive, where an enemy can be five feet away and completely invisible. Playle-Howard noted that the engine's flexibility lets them push the scale, with maps that stretch for kilometers while still holding onto the minute details that make each firefight feel personal. It is a technical leap that aims to make the Vietnam War feel less like a series of set pieces and more like a relentless, immersive struggle against the land itself.