Helldivers 2 - Review
Arrowhead Game Studios are a Swedish based game developer founded in 2008, their first game Magicka released in 2011 won the game of the year at the Swedish Game Awards but the developer really didn’t see their first big hit until the release of the multi-player shooter Helldivers in 2015, the game garnered critical acclaim from major gaming websites such as IGN and Game Informer and it’s satirical humour ensured that Helldivers gained a cult following. It has been 9 years since the original games release and ever since the sequel was announced back in May 2023 the hype has been building for the release of the sequel, Helldivers 2. Thanks to Sony Computer Entertainment and Arrowhead Game Studios we got our hands on the sequel and vowed to take out as many bugs and cyborgs as possible, democracy and Super Earth must be protected at all costs!
One of the major changes in Helldivers 2 compared to the original is the change of perspective, the original game was a top-down shooter, for the sequel the developers decided that a third-person view would suit better to draw players into the action, and thankfully they were right, the third-person view of the sequel is a brilliant change that suits the game incredibly well. One thing that hasn’t changed from the first game is the over-the-top satirical humour, in fact in Helldivers 2 it is dialled up to 11 and will have you laughing out loud from the moment the games intro starts playing. Every element from the sound design, cut scenes, character and monster design through to the voice acting absolutely shines in Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 is set in a dystopian future where citizens sign up to become Helldivers in order to defend democracy and Super Earth from the invading bugs and cyborgs and are promised fame and fortune in return, however it is more likely they will end up eviscerated and left on the battlefield, humans are expendable, and the defence of democracy is all important. Of course, you won’t be sent out onto the battlefield empty handed and you will get to play with all manner of absolutely cool, destructive weaponry, but we will get to that later.
Jumping into the game will give you the option of naming your ship, I aptly named mine the “Paragon Of Patriotism”, and go through the tutorial, which unfortunately isn’t really adequate as far as explaining all of the games mechanics and leaves out some of the more finer details involved with the game especially the way you can change some of the options on the guns you are using such as the calibre of bullets and turning in and off your flashlight, this is why I would recommend you take a couple of practice runs through some of the games scenarios solo before joining with other players as it will help you familiarise yourself with some of the games finer details and help you to be of more value to your team.
Your ship serves as the central hub of the game, it is a space where you can customise the looks of your Helldiver, buy new weaponry and stratagems for your arsenal, and choose which missions you want to undertake from the galaxy map. Once you have chosen a mission you can choose to undertake them with friends or try your luck with matchmaking or even undertake them solo if that is your preferred way to play, it must be said though you will have nowhere near as much fun playing Helldivers 2 solo as you will playing with a group of friends, this really is a multiplayer game at its heart and that’s where the majority of the enjoyment is.
Once you have customised your helldiver and kitted them out with weapons it is time to step into your pod and be blasted down into the battle zone of whatever planet you have chosen as your destination, this is where the real fun begins! You will be tasked with a primary objective and various secondary objectives once you arrive on the planet, these vary from destroying bug colonies and nests, taking out giant super bugs through to finding ways to power on drills and various machinery to take samples from the planets soil, completing the primary objective is mandatory in order to be able to extract from the planet, completing secondary objectives is optional but well worth doing due to the resources and extra exp you will gain from doing so. You have weapons and grenades to help you with your task but you also have ‘stratagems’ that you can unleash during battles, the way these are implemented is really unique and adds an extra layer to the combat in the game, just like the original Helldivers you have several options to choose from such as napalm and strafing runs through to missiles and even calling in supply drops to help you and your teammates, it is the mechanic that is used to call in these drops that make the game interesting and especially stressful during the heat of battle, they are called in by a combination of keypresses corresponding to up, down, left and right, these are sometimes several keystrokes long and you must get them right or start over all again, sometimes this can be the difference between life and death during battle, but have no fear if you die your teammates are able to res you by unleashing a stratagem of their own, be careful those as these are in limited supply and have a cooldown as do all the other stratagems in your teams arsenal. Communication and playing as a team is incredibly important in Helldivers 2 and you will have a much easier time completing objectives when everyone has a mic and is actively strategising to ensure that the current mission is a success.
Once the mission is completed your experience points and currency will be calculated and you will be taken back to your ship, there you can regroup and purchase upgrades and then take on even harder missions, speaking of difficulty , you unlock harder difficulty levels the further you progress in the game but ultimately the game allows you to choose which difficulty level you are comfortable with and keep playing missions at that level until you are ready to step up and smash out some of the more challenging missions and trust me they do get challenging and utterly at points extremely stressful but at the same time they are absolutely engaging and loaded with fun. The gameplay loop is simplistic, go fight and eradicate enemies, level up, upgrade your gear and get ready to go again, but I will be damned if this isn’t one of the most addictive games I have ever played, and this is mainly down to the excellent gunplay, weaponry and frenetic action that the game lays out before you like a red carpet. It’s simple, but it is fun and sometimes this is the best combination.
Not everything is shiny and sparkly where Helldivers 2 is concerned though and a lot of people, including myself, have had some major issues playing the game, especially the day the game launched. These issues range from matchmaking not working at all, through to blue screens of death and the game crashing to desktop during missions, which is an utter pain as there is no way to get back into the mission with your teammates once you have crashed and this means that all the progress for that particular mission is wiped and you come away with nothing for your efforts which means you have just wasted up to 30 minutes of your time. Most of these issues have been blamed on the intrusive anti-cheat system that the game uses with fixes ranging from unplugging controllers that are plugged into your PC through to turning off cross play.
The good news is the devs have been actively communicating with the community and taking on board all of the feedback provided, not only that but they have implemented several updates that have successfully fixed several of the major issues with the game, Arrowhead Game Studios have taken it all on the chin and shown that they are here to improve this game and that instils a lot of faith in me for its future success and player base which is one of the most important things when it comes to live service games. Live service usually goes hand in hand with micro-transactions and in this regard Helldivers 2 is no different, except it actually is, at least in the way that Arrowhead have chosen to implement the micro-transactional component of the game, a lot of other game devs could learn a lot from this team. The usual micro-transactions exist, and as is usual so do 2 different types of battle pass, the difference in the way all of this is implemented in Helldivers 2 is down to how you actually earn money in the game, you earn it from completing missions and from finding random caches in missions, the game literally throws in game currency at you that you can use to purchase the battle pass or even cosmetic items from the in game shop, there is honestly no need to spend one single real life dollar in this game if you don’t want to, you can earn everything you want by simply putting in the time and playing the game. I am not a big fan of micro-transactions at all, sports games are one of my favourite genres of games and micro-transactions run through sports games like a virtual cancer, what Arrowhead Games have implemented here is an absolutely fair system and gives everyone the chance to get the items they want out of the game, grind for them if you have the time or pay for them if you don’t, it’s really hard to think that anybody could be critical of this system, but of course we are gamers and if there is one thing about gamers we all have very strong and different opinions, even if sometimes they are over the top, emotional and not grounded in reality.
Helldivers 2 is chock full of fun, replayability and absolutely hilarious moments that you can share with your friends or even randoms that you matchmake with online, just make sure you are aiming at the enemy when you pull your trigger as friendly fire is a very real thing when it comes to this game, but somehow that makes the hilarity even better when amongst friends, with randoms it may have the potential to become toxic but the Helldivers 2 player base is one of the least toxic I have encountered in years, after all we are all just here putting out lives on the line for Super Earth and the future of democracy, if you are a fan of Starship Troopers you are going to enjoy both the gameplay and satirical overtones of this game. I find myself drawn back to this game a lot and I am excited to see where Arrowhead Game Studios are going to take this game over the following year. Bug killing, cyborg destroying, democracy protecting all in the name of Super Earth, what’s not to like about that! I will see you out on the battlefield Helldivers, FOR DEMOCRACY!!!!!!!!
The Score
8.5
Review code provided by PlayStation
The Pros
Fast, strategic, frantic gameplay that is utterly compelling and more addictive than a hit from a glass BBQ.
An amazing array of customisation options, that are not just cosmetic but actually affect the way you play your character and carry out the strategic objectives of the missions at hand.
Some of the most amazing explosion effects I have ever seen or heard in a video game.
Extremely fair micro-transactional system that a lot of other game developers could learn from.
The Cons
Not the smoothest of launches with some incredibly frustrating game breaking bugs, thankfully these are being irradicated, but some still exist.
If you don’t like team based multiplayer games then you might not have the same experience as other players that are willing to team up, multiplayer is where this game shines.
