Summary
I don’t playHelldivers 2anymore. I have too many other games to play, books to read, and friends to hang out with, and while Arrowhead’s excellent live-service shooter is the only game of its kind I’ve ever fallen in love with, it’s largely fallen to the wayside while I prioritise other things. However, it still has a big presence in my house – while I’ve drifted away from it, my partner picked it up and has been playing it all the time.
That means I’m still in tune with what’s going on with the game, partly because he’ll complain to me about pain points while we have lunch together, and partly because I sit with him on the couch while he plays at night. He’ll put on some music in the background while mowing down bugs, and I’ll sit on the couch and read. He started getting into it right before the latest patch dropped, so I saw him get to grips with what the game was and his reactions to what the game felt like after it dropped.
Because I wasn’t the one playing, from an outsider perspective, I was astounded at how easy the game seemed all of a sudden. My partner plays on Impossible – he’s better than me at shooters, and the highest difficulty I ever played on was Extreme. You’d think he would be struggling at least a little, at the very least, but he’s one-shotting heavies that used to send me into panicked frenzies.
So I asked him: don’t you feel like it’s less fun because it’s so much easier now? Where’s the fun if you’re not fighting for your life? The answer was a resounding ‘no’ – in fact, he said, it felt like he was finally understanding why I loved the game so much in its early months, before a firm meta had been established.
Before the latest patch, primary weapons felt pretty useless, and I never used mine unless I was in a pinch. Now, since they’ve been buffed, they’re actually useful, and potential loadouts have been hugely diversified. Your primary weapon actually matters now, and that’s a huge change.
It’s now much easier to kill enemies both big and small, and you have a wider variety of viable weapons to choose from. The effects reverberate throughout the game. Because it’s easier to kill big enemies, the pace of play increases. Games move much faster now because it’s harder for a team to be derailed by a Bile Titan or some other heavy every few seconds.
And in turn, because battle is faster, players have more time and feel more empowered to explore the map to wipe out nests and collect samples, requisition slips, and the like. Of course, these resources can then be spent on new weapons and stratagems, thereby expanding a player’s arsenal. It’s never been a better time to be a Helldivers 2 player.
Considering that Arrowhead Games haspreviously expressed resistance to player metas, this is a big step in the right direction. Instead of having to stick to tried-and-tested weapons and stratagems, you can actually use the weapons that the studio has given us over months of Warbonds and know they might have some utility in battle. This definitely wasn’t the case a week ago.
While, as someone who started playing the game very close to release, I baulk at the idea of the game becomingeasy, it feels like easing up on the difficulty is exactly what Helldivers 2 needed to shake things up a bit. Considering that player counts have spiked and stayed pretty high since the patch released, and that I’ve seen so many others chatting in my partner’s matches about how much they love the buffs, players seem to agree.
WHERE TO PLAY
Do you believe in freedom? Can you stand in the face of oppression – and defend the defenceless? Wage war for peace. Die for democracy.
Join forces with up to three friends and wreak havoc on an alien scourge threatening the safety of your home planet, Super Earth, in this multiplayer co-op shooter for PS5 and PC from Arrowhead Game Studios.
Step into the boots of the Helldivers, an elite class of soldiers whose mission is to spread peace, liberty and Managed Democracy using the biggest, baddest and most explosive tools in the galaxy.
Helldivers don’t go planet side without proper backup, but it’s up to you to decide how and when to call it in. Not only do you have a host of superpowered primary weapons and customizable loadouts, you also have the ability to call on stratagems during play.
Helldivers 2 features Arrowhead’s best cooperative gameplay yet. Collaboration will be vital: Teams will synergize on loadouts, strategize their approach for each mission and complete objectives together.1
Enlist in Super Earth’s premier military peacekeeping force today. We are heroes… we are legends… WE ARE HELLDIVERS.
