A random participant and I are surrounded by large, alien bugs who wish to rip out our guts and eat our bones. We are attempting to destroy their nest, which lies in a rocky crater on some backwater alien planet. Low on ammo, out of well being objects, and uncertain of what to do subsequent, it appears we’re screwed. But that is Helldivers 2—we’ve got highly effective instruments at our disposal, like a large airstrike or auto-turret. My squadmate calls in his airstrike earlier than I can, runs into the fray, drops it at his ft, and begins tossing grenades. “Get outta right here! I’m taking ‘em with me!” he yells. I dive over an angry insect the size of a dog and skitter out of the crater, explosions and gunfire popping off behind me. Then there is one big boom. I turn around. He did it. He saved the day, killed two dozen bugs, and destroyed their vile nest.
A moment later—as I get ready to call him back to the war via a drop pod—my game crashes. I sigh. This has been my Helldivers 2 experience: an incredible third-person shooter filled with equal parts hilarious and heroic moments, currently marred by technical issues and server problems. But if that stuff gets fixed…oh boy, this is something special.
Released on February 8 on PS5 and PC, Helldivers 2 is the big-budget follow-up to the (also awesome) top-down sci-fi co-op shooter, Helldivers. Like the original, released in 2015, Helldivers 2 is also a gritty shooter that tasks you and up to three other players with completing missions across alien worlds filled with enemies that can kill you quickly (assuming all the friendly fire doesn’t get you first.) Both video games are set in a satirical sci-fi universe the place a strong empire, Super Earth, makes use of weapons, bombs, and invasions to unfold “Democracy” across the galaxy.
But this time, developer Arrowhead Games modified up the attitude and scale of the expertise. Helldivers 2 is now an even bigger third-person shooter with extra aspect goals and bigger maps than something seen within the first recreation. Before taking part in the sequel, I used to be fearful that this shift may rob Helldivers 2 of the tight fight and intense motion discovered within the first recreation. Thankfully, that’s not the case, and as a substitute, the brand new perspective and bigger scale simply make the motion and fight higher, including extra enemies to kill and extra methods to do it. Oh and so many extra methods to die, too.
Death is simply a part of the method
You will die loads in Helldivers 2. That’s a part of the enchantment of this recreation. It can get actually exhausting, particularly should you play alone or on its tougher difficulties. One mistake can wipe out a squad. One dangerous selection can result in a variety of ache. And but, that’s what makes Helldivers 2 a lot enjoyable.
Dying on this recreation isn’t an enormous drawback. You can come again a set variety of instances every mission, choose up your weapons, and get again into the battle in just a few seconds. Instead, loss of life is usually a punchline reasonably than a punishment.
For instance, whereas nearing the tip of a mission, my workforce was ready for our escape shuttle to land and take us away—each mission forces you to “evac” out—and had been holding the road. Barely. Enemies had been attacking from each angle and we had been low on provides and out of respawns. But the shuttle was right here, salvation was close to—till it landed proper on prime of somebody, killing them immediately. We all laughed, saluted his physique, and hopped into the shuttle.
These sorts of moments are a typical prevalence in Helldivers 2 as a result of principally, every part kills you. Your squadmates can shoot you. Your personal turrets can rip you aside. You can drown in rivers and fall off rocks and die. Even the provides and weapons you name in from giant ships orbiting the planet can land on you and kill you.
But this isn’t irritating as a result of you may carry again your useless comrades and so they land geared up with ammo, weapons, and grenades. This helps the sport by no means really feel too punishing (even at its highest difficulties) as even a complete squad wipe to some nasty large robotic or bug means you’ll all be again quickly and may transfer ahead, seemingly whereas guffawing about it, too. It additionally permits for heroic sacrifices and experimentation with the entire recreation’s instruments and weapons.
Support is just a few button presses away
The different massive a part of Helldivers 2 is using “Stratagems,” an idea first seen within the authentic recreation. Stratagems are completely different assist or offensive instruments you need to use throughout a mission, and you’ll select which of them to have in your loadout earlier than dropping onto a planet. One of my favorites is straightforward however efficient: dropping a big machine gun that I (or anybody in my squad) can seize and use for the remainder of the mission. Another Stratagem may activate a big bombing run or airstrike. Others drop ammo, carry again teammates, or present new instruments or gear, like a drone that follows you round with a laser gun, masking enemies who get too shut. (Yes, the laser drone can kill you. Of course, it may well.)
Each certainly one of these Stratagems known as into motion by holding down one button after which urgent a string of d-pad instructions. Then you toss a marker and the gun, bombing run, or gear drops just a few seconds later, proper on the marker. This may sound clunky, however it’s clearly by design. When nothing is occurring, calling these assist instruments down is trivial. But when you find yourself surrounded by bugs or lethal bots, low on well being, and operating to your life, all of the sudden urgent L1 + up, up, down, down, left, up turns into a lot trickier. The button combos add simply sufficient of a mechanical layer between what you need that whenever you efficiently name down an airstrike throughout a very intense second it feels great. You really feel like the good particular person ever. On the flip aspect, fucking up a combo a number of instances as your folks scream so that you can drop a turret, feels terrible in a means that jogs my memory of a younger soldier clumsily making an attempt to load a gun in a battle he wasn’t ready for.
So typically video games wish to make you’re feeling highly effective and heroic and Helldivers 2 does give you the prospect to be a badass warrior who saves the day. But, boy oh boy, you gotta earn it—and should you don’t, should you fuck up, the sport will slam you into the bottom and snicker at your errors. For some gamers, this may be irritating, however should you play together with Helldivers 2 and perceive that it needs you to earn your victory, you’ll have a blast dying time and again.
And the sport does offer you loads of methods to succeed. You can unlock new weapons and armor by way of a battle pass-like reward system, earn in-game credit to achieve entry to new Stratagems like greater bombs or mortar cannons, and discover supplies that allow you to craft upgrades to your capital ship that enable you to in quite a few helpful methods, like making air strikes greater or sooner. You also can unlock boosters that assist your total squad, too.
If this feels like loads, don’t fear. You gained’t be spending a variety of time taking a look at menus and making an attempt to good a construct. Instead, these all quantity to the sport asking: How do you wish to kill bugs and robots immediately? How do you wish to unfold Democracy via this galaxy? There’s no improper reply, both. Just other ways to blow shit up and full your mission.
Read More: Helldivers 2 Is Too Popular For Its Own Good
I do want there was a bit extra selection in missions and the locations you discover. While completely different planets have diversified biomes—a snow world, a desert world, a forest world, and many others.— you may solely battle on a choose variety of planets at one time, so you’re restricted in what you get to see of the galaxy. Missions also can begin to mix collectively, with a variety of them asking you to shoot stuff close to a factor till one thing occurs after which go blow one thing up and go away. Luckily, Helldivers 2 is a blast to play, however I can see how its grind may begin to put on people down over time and hope later difficulties, future updates, or new planets shake issues up.
As you and the 1000’s of different gamers battle off bugs and full missions on completely different planets, you assist the bigger battle effort happening throughout the entire galaxy. Over time, I watched the group take over total planets by finishing missions. However, I additionally noticed just a few instances after we misplaced progress. I ponder if there’s a future the place the participant depend drops for a bit and we lose SuperEarth itself? Perish the thought.
Too many bugs, and I’m not speaking concerning the flesh-eating ones
This is the purpose the place I wish to finish the evaluation with a intelligent, concise, and well-written paragraph summing up my ideas and emotions. Sadly, I’ve to handle the 400-lb flesh-eating area bug within the room: Helldivers 2 is a little bit of a large number proper now.
In my 22ish hours with the sport throughout dozens of missions and adventures, I’ve run right into a laundry checklist of issues. I had a bug the place my weapons disappeared after I tried to change to them. I’ve fallen via the world a number of instances. My PS5 has crashed exhausting greater than as soon as. I had one annoying drawback the place the sport’s framerate went from a silky-smooth 60 FPS to an eye-destroying 5 FPS. And then there are the server points. I used to be compelled to play alone for greater than half of my evaluation time, as becoming a member of a match with randoms was hit-and-miss. Even when it labored, I’d discover I wasn’t getting my XP or post-game rewards. Trying out crossplay, I bumped into all types of mic and audio points with PC gamers.
Helldivers 2 is a rattling effective recreation, which is the one motive I used to be in a position to play via its messy launch. I used to be prepared to place up with a variety of shit to get my fill of spreading democracy throughout a violent galaxy via much more violent means. But even after a post-launch replace, I’m nonetheless operating into loads of annoying bugs and on-line hiccups that make it exhausting to advocate this co-op shooter…no less than for now.
If you’re studying this in April 2024 and even a while in 2025, I’d guess that the majority of—if not all—of those points are mounted. That sounds good. I can’t wait to get to that time. Because proper now, issues are nonetheless so shaky that I’m virtually nervous to play. Nothing sucks greater than spending 20 minutes finishing a troublesome mission on an alien world solely to get killed by a console crash.
That stated, I nonetheless suppose Helldivers 2 is a particular recreation. So many shooters attempt for realism, however miss issues like pleasant hearth or managing ammo out of concern that it would annoy gamers. The devs and this recreation aren’t right here to make you heroes, as a substitute, Helldivers 2 says: “Combat is hard. War is brutal. And you will die.” But it makes positive to provide you all of the instruments, choices, and weapons you’ll want to achieve its hellish battles. You can change into a hero in Helldivers 2. You can, I’ve performed it. You simply obtained to be ready to fuck up just a few instances and snicker about it. Oh, and having some buddies round helps, too.
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