excels in a wildly entertaining duality, frequently swinging between incredible power fantasy and chaotic hilarity. Arrowhead Game Studios' third-person co-op shooter, playable with up to four people online, comes nearly a decade after the first, a top-down shooter which was released in 2015. While the original garnered a small, dedicated player base, is already off to a blistering start, having so many concurrent players in its first weekend that the game's maximum server capacity was hit. It only takes a handful of missions to see the innate brilliance of, and a couple dozen hours have revealed a satisfying depth in its gameplay synergies, but the game's longevity remains to be seen, despite genuinely fascinating use of its always-online, live-service nature.
In, players are tasked with spreading Super Earth's managed democracy – a satirical front for an authoritarian, highly militaristic regime wishing to control the galaxy. To bring liberty to distant planets, players, as elite soldiers known as Helldivers, are lowered into orbital drop pods and fired onto the planets that are currently the Galactic War's front lines. Missions vary based on objectives, enemies, difficulty, and time limit, but they all have one thing in common: leveraging an incredible amount of firepower. There's a visceral gratification to firing a hundred-some bullets into a swarm of encroaching alien bugs, or calling in a rolling bombardment from orbit on a fortress controlled by deadly robots.
Helldivers 2 is a refreshingly fun power fantasy.
Two things become almost immediately apparent when playing: shooting a lot of bullets at a lot of enemies feels really, really good, and the game's own wanton disregard for the safety of the Helldivers makes it a practical slapstick comedy. Friendly fire is a cornerstone of, and defending a position by raining lead down on a platoon of space bugs can instantly turn from incredibly badass to hysterical as soon as a teammate accidentally steps into the line of fire, their head explodes, and their body ragdolls down a slope.
Crushing teammates with supplies from orbit, wiping the whole squad with an ill-thrown orbital strike, zapping a friend to death with a shoulder-fired laser cannon, bouncing a grenade off of an enemy into your own face – there are endless ways for a mission to go sideways, but they're all good for at least a chuckle. Enjoying the chaos doesn't diminish the moments where everything goes right, however, and really sings when a squad is firing on all cylinders. The game's lower difficulties can more or less be stumbled through once you get your bearings, but careless engagements will doom tougher missions.
Only primary objectives need to be completed in order to extract
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Although the playerbase of has developed a meta, pinning down the game's best weapons and Stratagems, a new update from developer Arrowhead Game Studios promises to shake up the game's existing options in a future patch. With the game's first few updates having been almost totally devoted to fixing bugs and server issues, 's gameplay has yet to see any significant updates, although additions like new Stratagems and weapons have been teased by the developers. With the game's server issues mostly fixed, however, Arrowhead seems to be gearing up for a more gameplay-focused update.
Taking his passion for democracy one step further, a fanhas created his own Super Earth broadcasting service to keep players informed on the state of the galactic war. Keeping in tune with the satirical nature of the game, players of the co-op shooter are all working together to «liberate» planets from the evil forces of the Terminids and Automatons in a large-scale meta-game. To track their progress, Arrowhead has inserted several fictional news broadcasts that keep Helldivers informed of their contributions to the war effort, but one user has taken this propaganda to the next level.
Although has a wide variety of devastating Stratagems for players to call down on their enemies (or their fellow Helldivers), one tool in particular stands out, especially against the more heavily-armored Automaton faction. As gets further from its somewhat troubled, but wildly successful initial release, players have started to pin down a sort of meta for the game, finding which weapons, Stratagems, and armor are the most effective for any given situation. Even among the game's best tools, however, one specific Stratagem stands out, especially at higher difficulties.
fans are no strangers to innovating on the battlefield, but one player has made calling in support from Stratagems easier than ever before. After dropping down onto whatever besieged planet catches their attention, Helldivers are provided access to a range of Stratagems that involve plugging in a series of inputs for their orbiting Destroyer to send down equipment, supplies, and even deadly explosives. In the heat of battle, that process can be rather difficult, but fortunately, for some players, it just got much simpler.
After finding an immense amount of success on Steam, both and are the target of scammers trying to trick consumers into purchasing the wrong product. Whenever a game manages to make waves within the community, there's always someone who tries to capitalize on the hype by either creating an inferior project or by simply editing a Steam listing to obscure an already existing game. Fortunately, internet-savvy users are usually quick to point out listings that aren't legitimate.
Optimizing the perfect loadout can be a noble pursuit, but weirdly, it can sometimes go hand-in-hand with approaching the game in the wrong way. The community has united enthusiastically around the shared goal of winning the Galactic War and wiping out Terminids and Automatons, which might make it seem like every choice that furthers battlefield prowess is the right one. It's definitely true that putting forth one's best effort is an important part of playing the game, but there's also a way to take this sentiment too far.
One of the many weapons you can call in during a mission of is the Anti-Material Rifle, which you can get by unlocking it as a Stratagem. This powerful sniper rifle is capable of tearing through the enemy armor of both Automatons and Terminids alike. Similar to other equipment, your character has to be at a certain level and spend some money to obtain this secondary weapon.
As players fight tooth and nail to reclaim planets overrun by Terminids and Automatons, developer Arrowhead reveals that the intergalactic war is managed by only a single person. While the core loop involves running around alien planets and gunning down various enemies, there's a much larger scale meta-game at play that sees the community fighting to take control of several endangered planets. Given that opposing factions seemingly respond to player-led pushes, many assumed it was simply an automatic difficulty setting to make the experience more challenging.
has had a spectacular launch in some regards and a troubled one in others, and one persistent bug can be the source of some confusion. Suiting up for maximal defense against Terminids and Automatons might seem like a good strategy in, but it doesn't tend to take long to get the sense that something isn't quite right. Anyone finding themselves disoriented when it comes to armor in the game has good reason, as a key element hasn't yet been fixed.
is most well-known for the more intense parts of its gameplay, but spreading Managed Democracy to alien planets isn't always as exciting as it seems. Certain aspects of the game tend toward the methodical side, which can be frustrating when time is of the essence after spending hours attempting to get into the overwhelmed servers. Luckily, the game isn't without its fair share of minor exploits, and one trick in particular can help make a slow task significantly more efficient than doing it the proper way.
has a lot of enemies that can be frustrating to fight, but one of the most annoying to encounter is actually interesting in a way that none of the others can claim. Enemies in can be divided into two factions – Terminids, which appear as insectoid alien creatures, and Automatons, which are robotic and heavily armored. Both draw on classic science-fiction tropes, with Terminids in particular invoking the Arachnids that show up in, an obvious inspiration for the satirical jingoism of
Every Terminid unit in can be an interesting challenge for Helldivers, but some are more annoying than others. can become a difficult game as one takes on higher difficulties, with some nerfs to enemies already patched through after the first weeks since launch. Each enemy has its strengths and weaknesses that make them feel unique from each other, and make it necessary for Helldivers to plan based on the mission and faction.