One of One thing is very clear about Helldiver 2: your friends
are much more dangerous than any of the giant bugs and socialist robots you’re
dispatched to dispatch. Over countless hours my comrades-in-arms have shot me
in the head, decapitated me with a laser drone, blown me up countless times
using a wide variety of orbital…
One thing is clear about Helldivers 2: your friends are far
more dangerous than any of the giant bugs or socialist robots you’re sent to
eliminate. Over countless hours, my comrades have shot me in the head,
decapitated me with a laser drone, blown me up repeatedly with various orbital
strikes, and even dropped a resupply pod right onto my head. While I’ve been
taken out by monstrous bugs and Terminator-like robots more than a few times,
most of my deaths have come courtesy of my teammates, which was honestly pretty
hilarious.
Helldivers 2 embraces the chaos of battle and the ease with which your fellow players can accidentally meet their end. This four-player co-op game builds on the strengths of the first title by amplifying the satirical comedy, increasing the action, and just being a blast to play. The straightforward, well-executed gunplay makes Helldivers 2 incredibly addictive, especially when you’ve got a couple of good friends in the mix.
If you’ve seen Starship Troopers, the 1998 film based
on the book of the same name, you’ll instantly grasp the satirical tone that
Helldivers 2 aims for and hits dead on. The cringeworthy propaganda in the
opening cutscene sets the perfect tone for a game that doesn’t take itself
seriously, encouraging you to join Super Earth’s forces as a Helldiver to
protect your glorious home by spreading freedom and democracy across the galaxy
by force. Your enemies include endless hordes of bugs and socialist robots,
referencing the game’s themes, and while it’s never explicitly addressed,
there’s a subtle hint that you might be the villain in this scenario. However,
the storyline is mostly absent for now. As the galactic conflict escalates, we
might learn more in the future.
While the first game used a top-down view, Helldivers 2
switches to a traditional third-person perspective with the camera positioned
right behind your character’s shoulders, immersing you directly in the action.
The game’s atmosphere is greatly enhanced by heavy fog, torrential rain, smoke
from explosions, and bursts of colored lighting, creating a vivid and engaging
environment. This leads to memorable scenes, like giant bugs emerging from a
fog bank or bright red laser fire from massive robots reminiscent of Terminator 2. Despite not having demanding hardware requirements and running
smoothly on my aging 1080 Ti graphics card, Helldivers 2 can still be quite a
visual spectacle.
In Helldivers 2, a basic mission is usually straightforward,
involving tasks like taking down a major target, interacting with terminals to
launch an ICBM, or stopping an illegal transmission. Nothing too complex. The
challenge comes from the hordes of enemies on the planet’s surface, all set to
thwart your mission to spread democracy by literally blowing your brains out.
There are also optional objectives, such as destroying bug nests, robot
factories, and artillery stations, which can earn you extra XP and resources.
And you should pursue these extras because, technically, you can complete your
mission without a successful evacuation—Super Earth is fine with a suicide
mission.
It sounds simple, and that’s because it is. The real fun lies in the satisfying gunplay and the sheer chaos caused by a team of four with access to orbital superweapons. Even dealing with a small patrol of bugs or robots can be entertaining, but the best moments come when you and your squad face a massive wave of enemies. Bugs are easily shredded under concentrated fire, and their corpses quickly pile up as you hold the line. Robots are tougher, with heavy armor and tanks, so you’ll want to upgrade to better armor-piercing gear before taking them on.
A key element of supporting Super Earth’s glory is the use of Strategems, which can be called down from your ship in orbit. These can range from simple resupply pods or machine guns to devastating attacks like orbital barrages, strafing runs, napalm, and giant laser blasts. These powerful tools come with a substantial list to unlock and deploy, alongside ship upgrades that enhance their effectiveness.
Using Strategems is exciting, as Helldivers 2 retains a mechanic from the first game where you must quickly enter a code to activate the Strategem you want. It sounds easy, but when you’re under heavy bug assault and desperately need that 480mm barrage, it’s challenging to input the correct sequence without messing up.
The combination of powerful weapons, the thrill of tearing enemies apart, and the chaotic fun of calling in bombardments makes Helldivers 2’s action top-notch. This is only amplified by the ever-present risk of friendly fire, which can’t be turned off. The game is filled with moments where you’ll find yourself laughing at the absurdity of dying from a supply pod dropping on you, getting caught in a minigun sentry’s fire, burning from a napalm strike, or having your limbs blown off during a precision strafing run that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Some missions in Helldivers 2 can be incredibly
smooth—dropping in, cutting through enemies, and extracting without losing a
single life. Others, however, are intense battles from start to finish, where
you and your team barely manage to fend off waves of enemies, calling in
airstrikes and taking refuge on rocky outcrops.
Here’s a good example: My friends and I decided to tackle a mission at a higher difficulty where the goal was to take down a Bile Titan. Not knowing exactly what a Bile Titan was but intrigued by the name, we completed the optional objectives before facing the main target. We quickly realized we were in over our heads. The enormous Bile Titan loomed over us, its armored hide repelling our bullets. Meanwhile, heavily armored Chargers on the ground were causing trouble, so we spent our time dodging around, trying to hit their vulnerable spots. We called in airstrikes, deployed supply pods, and burned through reinforcements. Ultimately, it wasn’t our strategy or marksmanship that saved the day, but a friend accidentally dropping a reinforcement pod directly on the Bile Titan, crushing it into the ground. From then on, our strategy involved using supply drops and reinforcements as makeshift weapons until one of us unlocked the orbital laser, a powerful tool with a 5-minute cooldown and limited to three uses per mission.
There are also plenty of small details to appreciate. For instance, reloading with leftover ammo results in losing those bullets, which is critical given how quickly you can run out of ammunition. Going prone can help you survive explosions, and reload animations have checkpoints so you can resume from where you left off if interrupted. Environmental effects like heavy rain or fog can conceal large enemies until you’re almost on top of them, and some weapons require a second player to assist with reloading.
In terms of the overarching story, Helldivers 2 places you in the Galactic War, an ongoing campaign where you and other players work towards various objectives. At launch, the first challenge was liberating planets from the bug threat, but as I was writing this, the game introduced a live-service twist: socialist robots began attacking human colonies. We were redirected to a new part of the galaxy to defend Super Earth’s colonies from these metal adversaries in new defense missions.
There are still questions about the long-term appeal of Helldivers 2, given its live-service model. Arrowhead is promising plenty of free content and updates to keep the game engaging, including new vehicles, enemies, planets, and mission types. While these updates should help keep the game fresh, it remains to be seen if the relatively straightforward nature of Helldivers 2 will continue to captivate players in a few months or even a year.
That said, I'm perfectly okay with Helldivers 2 having a
limited lifespan. Not every game needs to be an eternal fixture, and I'd be
satisfied with getting a few months of enjoyment from it before moving on to
the next adventure. The $40 price tag also makes it a much more appealing
choice.
If players do decide to stick around, how will Helldivers 2
sustain itself? Through microtransactions and season passes, known in-game as
Warbonds. For a detailed look at monetization, you can check out my basic guide
here, but here’s a quick overview: there’s a free season pass and a premium one
priced around $10. Both offer rewards like new guns, armor sets, backgrounds,
and emotes that you can unlock by earning medals in-game. Additionally, there’s
a rotating store with armor and cosmetic items priced reasonably—usually a few
dollars for a full suit of armor and $0.50 for a helmet. This is a refreshing
change from the exorbitant pricing seen in games like Suicide Squad: Kill the
Justice League.
While I'd prefer no monetization at all, it's understandable
that some form of revenue is needed to support free content. On the scale of
monetization practices, Helldivers 2 lands on the positive end. The season
passes provide good value, and the microtransactions are affordable enough that
I ended up purchasing a few items myself—something I typically avoid.
Arrowhead's CEO has expressed that monetization should be earned, and so far,
Helldivers 2 seems to have achieved that.
Lastly, there’s the issue of servers. While Helldivers 2
launched with initial server problems that were swiftly addressed, recent
spikes in player numbers have overwhelmed the servers, leading to occasional
outages. As I write this, the game's peak concurrent player count on Steam has
reached an all-time high, causing the servers to struggle, and rendering the
game unplayable. Ironically, Arrowhead Games had been offering double XP as a
compensation for earlier issues, but now I can’t even use it due to the server
problems.
Despite these hiccups, it’s evident that there’s a strong
demand for a straightforward, enjoyable co-op shooter, and Helldivers 2
delivers on that front. Whether you’re playing with a group of friends or
joining forces with other Super Earth defenders, the game offers a blast of
fun. The satisfaction of mowing down bugs in the name of democracy and taking
on socialist robots with fiery bombardments is immense. And if a few fellow
Helldivers get caught up in the chaos, well, they knew what they signed up for.
Freedom comes with a price, and in this case, it’s rarely been so entertaining.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
