PlayStation games typically launch with minimal bugs, but in the case of Helldivers 2, it seems the developers, Arrowhead Game Studios, have allowed quite a few — a few thousands — to slip by. Luckily, there’s a solution to fix all those problems, and that solution, if you would believe it, is spreading good ole democracy across the universe. So grab a shotgun, it’s time to do your part.
Starship Troopers Meets Terminator for One Perfect Cinematic Action-Packed Game
If it wasn’t obvious, the review titling is a pun and by no means indicates that Helldivers 2 is some technical and graphical mess of the game. Quite the opposite, actually; putting server and matchmaking issues aside, Helldivers 2, from my own experience, has been a near-flawless experience on both PS5 and PC. The PS5 performance holds a rock solid 60 frames-per-second, and on my Nvidia 3080 and 4090 PC builds, I can push beyond that, with most settings set to Ultra and at 4K. Even with the right settings, the game runs decently smooth on the Steam Deck if you aim for 45FPS.
The game is relatively “bug-free,” outside of minor things that aren’t detrimental to the experience. But that’s not to say the game has no issues with bugs. In fact, it’s quite a BIG issue, one that spans across an entire galaxy. I’m talking about the Terminids, a faction of insects that the governments of Super Earth swear are ruthless expansionists that will one day devour the entire universe, killing the freedom that Super Earth loves propagandizing.
The reality isn’t as funny as all the marketing, both in-game and real-life, paints it out to be, as those who pay closely to the lore scattered through the world will realize that the Helldivers are being misled so that Super Earth can mine exotic resources from these infested planets that are just bug farms. The war from the first game may be over, but for the citizens of Super Earth, it’s a means of exploitation by their government that threatens all other factions across the galaxy. Super Earth, in truth, is the villain of this universe, and the Helldivers are just its slaves, believing any lies they’re fed.
At least that’s what the lies of traitors are saying, and I’m no traitor. I would gladly give my life for our great nation if it means freedom can be spread to every inch of the galaxy. Let those who say otherwise be imprisoned and executed for their crimes against democracy.
It’s all satirical, something we’ve seen in the Starship Trooper series that Arrowhead Game Studios beautifully captures through in-game commercials, chatter, and character banters, as well as through real-life marketing to recruit us into this never-ending war.
But the story isn’t the focus of Helldivers 2, as this is an online multiplayer built up as a GaaS (Games as a Service), which I’ll talk more about later.
From a gameplay perspective, Helldivers 2 is a third-person shooter with some extraction shooter mechanics (but it’s not one). The goal of each mission varies, but ultimately, you set out to land on planets to complete tasks that involve destroying nests and facilities and collecting data. Between all that, you scavage for different resources that can be spent on better gear and cosmetics. If you die, you lose it, but it can be picked up again or from another teammate. Progression isn’t tied to specific players either, which is something extraction shooters are known for. All earned currency is shared, alleviating the risk of losing rewards.
The gunplay and combat are very accessible for anyone to pick up, and in general, it feels great. There are plenty of guns to pick from, though there are some I do wish had more punch to them.
One thing I’m not too big on is the lack of tactical dodge. There’s a dolphin dive that takes inspiration from Max Payne and The Last of Us Part 2, where you can dive forwards and backward, but the time it takes to get back up can be very risky and has accounted for some deaths when trying to get away from the faster enemy types. I’d love to see a tactical dodge introduced, even if it means a cooldown needs to be added to not abuse it; that way, we have a better alternative to avoid damage during tighter situations.
Still, the gunplay feels good, and for most players, that’ll be all that matters and enough to get them hooked on the general loop of the game.
That all comes together for a community-driven experience, with a galactic map tracking the efforts of Helldivers as they spread democracy to each planet. For every planet cleared, the nations of Super Earth gain more planets under their control, eventually reaching the galaxy’s end. For every milestone reached and planet liberated, this unlocks more planets we can travel to, with their own unique biomes and enemy variations.
The planets themselves are procedurally generated but offer several different biomes and structures, so it never feels like you’re playing the same map repeatedly. That’s not to say you can’t grow tired, but the game makes planets feel different with each visit.
But it’s playing with friends, and even randoms, where Helldivers 2 truly shines. I’m not one to agree that a game is only good if you play with friends, and though Helldivers 2 can be played solo, you’ll have a hard time with the difficulty dynamically ramping up during missions. Helldivers 2 also focuses on playing with others, so it makes more sense than many other games that have co-op added to chase GaaS. Perhaps Arrowhead Games can better balance the solo experience in upcoming patches, but you should go into this game with the mindset that you’ll need the help of other players.
The talk of the game that I’m sure everyone sees on socials is how all of this comes together for what truly feels like a “cinematic” experience. At the moment, Helldivers 2 has two factions: the Terminids (bugs) and Automatons (robots). There are different hierarchies of enemies within each faction, which aren’t just reskins and recoloring. They feel like true threats in their own ways.
Going up against the Terminids feels like jumping into a Starship Trooper movie. You and three others against hordes of bugs that grow overwhelmingly the longer you stay on their planet. They’ll pop out of any crevice, with nests littered everywhere.
Massive armored rhino-like bugs will spawn, relentlessly hunting you down. At your arsenal, you have your weapons, field upgrades, and call-in-ins like orbital airstrikes. This makes me a battlefield drenched in chaos, and if you aren’t careful enough, friendlies can be caught up in the crossfire.
Then there’s the Automatons, robots inspired by James Cameron’s Terminator franchise. They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, remorse, or fear, and they absolutely will not stop. The Automatons are the embodiment of a Terminator, as you and your teammates will unload full clips into them with barely any damage done. Even if you shoot off their limbs, they’ll still come at you until they’ve been completely destroyed.
Their planets are harsh, filled with facilities building more robots to patrol the area with airships occupying the skies. If they’re alerted to your presence, it turns into an all-out war, the kind that Terminator fans have been dreaming to experience. Lasers will beam across your shoulder as you take cover behind a small piece of rubble, with an army of robots slowly inching toward you. It’s absolutely terrifying.
These are the moments players live for and why they’ll likely stick around for a very long time. It’s the equivalent to the “only in Battlefield” moments that DICE has with their franchise of games.
Helldivers 2 is just pure galactic fun.
But just because it’s fun doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvements, such as streamlining the UI and providing better explanations on specific mechanics and some gameplay tweaks, like Dolphin Dive having a shorter animation. Having a new player jump into action with me, they were loaded with a million questions about some of the stuff that the game didn’t explain too well. There are a lot of menus to go through, and some stuff can be confusing and overwhelming when you’re looking at it. It’s not that it’s hard to read, just that it can be presented better.
Progression could be improved, too, as there isn’t a real sense of growth. You can buy and unlock new weapons and the like, but there’s no improving those things. The gun you have will be the same gun you use 100 matches later. It’s like that with any gear outside of the ship upgrades.
Weapons can use balancing, too. If you pay close attention to the damage info, there are some things that don’t seem to align correctly, such as one gun type out damaging another that would normally be the other way around. Nitpicks, if I’m being honest, all of which will be fixed in the coming months.
The biggest thing on the player’s mind is content and missing features. Helldivers 2 will probably be supported for years; it’s the nature of a GaaS title. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by the lack of vehicles, something the first game had. Mechs are already confirmed to be coming, so again, this will be fixed over time, but it does give it a bit of an early-access feeling. I’ve never been a fan of the whole “it’ll come later” that GaaS games always introduce as an excuse not to have certain content at launch.
Though to be fair, Arrowhead Game Studios’ approach to GaaS may be one of the best I’ve seen recently.
A GaaS That Doesn’t Care If You Spend Money (and It’s Not Pay to Win)
Whenever someone hears the term “Games as a Service,” aka “GaaS,” the room is instantly filled with groans of displeasure. By nature, GaaS titles are designed to be as addictive and as grindy as possible because the longer it takes a player to do something, the more time they’ll invest in said game. The more time someone puts into a game, the higher the chance someone ends up spending real money.
Because of that, GaaS is usually filled to the brim with microtransactions, locking away certain aspects that would have been free if the game had been released a few decades back. These typically end up being cosmetics and non-gameplay mechanics, though we’ve seen some aggressive pay-to-win situations before with weapons and such being locked behind a wall.
But in the case of Helldivers 2, there are no pay-to-win elements despite what some have said. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that is being offered for sale in the cosmetic and battle shop can all be unlocked for free. This is with the exception of the Super Citizen Edition, which does have some exclusive cosmetics, access to the “premium pass,” and a weapon, but that weapon is no stronger than what the game offers for free.
Here’s the kicker, though: that “premium pass” that everyone seems to be calling out as “pay-to-win,” even though this is a co-op game, it’s entirely free to buy, just like everything else in the storefront.
The only advantage you get from spending money is early access to cosmetics and premium pass content. Otherwise, you can grind out what are called “Super Credits,” and it doesn’t even take that long to get $10 worth of it for the premium pass. After a few hours of game time, I managed to net 500 Super Credits, half of the 1000 needed for the pass.
Unless this changes, you could play through Helldivers 2 and own every piece of equipment, cosmetics, and even premium passes without spending a single dollar. Again, the only perk to using money is for early access to start the pass or buy cosmetics without needing to grind. Most players probably won’t, too, as the grind is generously rewarding, with an apparent bug that will be fixed to increase the rewards.
In this day and age, that’s almost unheard of, as many GaaS titles out there LOVE locking their best cosmetics behind a hefty paywall. Arrowhead Game Studios didn’t need to do this for the players; they could have released this already budget price game and loaded it up with microtransactions while locking the player base from it with no other means to acquire such items without forking real cash. It certainly would have invoked anger among fans, but the nature of being GaaS and already cheap, to begin with, would have made it more understandable.
They didn’t, though, and because of that, the game is seeing massive success. There may be issues with it, but as a player, you can tell Arrowhead Game Studios built this with a labor of love. They put players before profit.
Yes, this could change down the road. They could make the grind purposely worse and do a bunch of other “what if” scenarios, but as of now, everything you see you can earn for free. It’s a healthy promotion of what a GaaS should strive for—packed with content without locking anything behind a paywall and being in your face to spend money on it.
Would developers and publishers like you to spend money on their in-game shop? Of course, they would; any GaaS would. But the game isn’t purposely built to make you realize it wants you to spend that money. It wants you to play the game, have fun, and reap the rewards.
Doing Our Part
With no roadmap and little knowledge of what’s to come for Helldivers 2, it’ll be interesting to see where the game goes in the following months and possibly years. One thing is sure, though, and that’s that Arrowhead Game Studios has crafted brilliant multiplayer, one that puts the players first above all else. It is mindless and addicting fun that calls back to that classic era of multiplayer games, where it wasn’t about how much you could nickel and dime someone but how much fun players could have.
Score: 8.5/10
Pros:
- Endless hours of fun. Randomized missions keep things fresh each time, no matter how many times you play in the same biomes.
- An incredible co-op experience to play with friends.
- The gunplay feels great, though it could use an improved dodge.
- Hilarious and dark lore if you look into it.
- Captures Starship Troopers and Terminator vibes perfectly.
Cons:
- The progression system could be expanded to offer a better sense of growth. It’s pretty barebones.
- Performance and crashes are persistent. It will likely be fixed eventually, but for now, be warned.
A copy of Helldivers 2 was purchased by the reviewer. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
