Platforms: PC, PS5,
In a moment, which would you prefer: an invasion of Terminator-style killing robots or an endless army of Starship Troopers’ voracious bugs? Actually, because you’ll be competing against both in Helldivers 2, don’t respond. Fortunately, though, you won’t be doing this alone very often in a multiplayer shooter.
Though it’s undeniable that the developer Arrowhead Game Studios is more influenced by the earlier work of classic sci-fi, this is definitely channeling Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film, especially with the designs of the vicious Terminid insectoids and a satirically propagandistic tone exemplifying the glory of Super Earth (yes, really). The plot is straightforward: in an unclear future, an expanding human civilization finds that other races have already colonized other planets, impeding their attempts to colonize new areas. The military’s top brass decides that the best course of action is to drop heavily armed and thoroughly indoctrinated space soldiers from orbit, creating the Helldivers, who then massacre everything in their path to deliver “Managed Democracy” to primitive frontier worlds.
In every mission, you equip your Helldiver with an array of weapons, equipment, and tactics (more on those in a moment) before entering a “hellpod” and being sent to the surface. Once on the planet, your tasks might be as simple as clearing out a bug colony, turning on communication systems again, or flying a flag in honor of Super Earth, then reaching an extraction point and waiting for the shuttle to arrive. These missions are as easy as they seem in the beginning, but as you advance through increasingly difficult stages, the complexity rises and even the most basic goals become incredibly difficult, demanding exceptional situational awareness, deft gunplay, and cunning use of powers. There’s a true sense that every action matters because players’ influence over various areas of space changes in real time as they free or protect planets.
In addition to being a cooperative shooter, Helldivers 2 is brimming with cunning tips.
Helldivers 2 has really good gunplay as a shooter. Every weapon feels different, from the well-aimed pellets of a hand pistol to the chunky recoil of a shotgun round to the insanely powerful but difficult to aim spray of machine guns, enabling players to fully focus on what suits them and their preferred play style. The arsenal feels even more distinct if you’re playing on the PS5 (version tested), as the DualSense controller makes amazing use of its cutting-edge haptics, some of the greatest to date for the system.
However, those stratagems—a collection of, essentially, unique tactics that you may combine to give yourself the advantage in battle—are what actually make the difference. There’s an enormous array of options available to you, from support drops of automated weapon turrets or defensive tools to orbital strikes by your overhead destroyer, all of which have the power to reverse the odds. Choosing which team strategies to use and when to use them is the key to most of the game’s tactical decisions. Although there aren’t many stratagems available to you initially, you can eventually unlock dozens of them by using quickly accumulated in-game gold, which makes every task feel like a progress toward your goal.
The clever thing about these stratagems, though, is that you have to successfully enter a sequence of commands on the D-pad of the controller in real time, usually when you’re being heavily attacked by foes, in order to activate them. It’s just another way Arrowhead forces players to stay alert and responsive to their surroundings. While there is no PVP, friendly fire is in place, and it’s all too easy to cross an ally’s path of fire while attempting to avoid whatever horror is advancing on you. For this reason, awareness is also crucial. You might even get crushed under a support drop you just requested if you’re extremely unlucky.
Helldivers 2 is a team-based shooter, but it also has a ton of clever tips and techniques. For example, you can target your hellpod when you respawn and slam into the attacker who (presumably) just killed you with a massive space bullet. Few of these tips are ever explained; instead, they are left as bonuses for resourceful players to find on their own as they experiment in the quest for Managed Democracy.
While it is possible to play the game alone, in reality that simply entails diving to the surface of a planet and facing off against bugs or automated opponents. There isn’t a plot to follow in this game; instead, the action is always intense as you fight for control of space and constantly refine your loadouts in preparation for the next combat. Because it’s multiplayer, playing on the PS5 also requires a PS+ subscription. On the PC side, there’s the contentious anti-cheat program called Protect GameGuard, which as of this writing has reportedly caused issues with legitimate software like game capture tools and stops Helldivers II from running on Steam Deck altogether.
The other drawback of the multiplayer-only concept is that, unless you’re playing alone or with a group of pals, people have a tendency to go straight to the extraction zone and request the escape shuttle as soon as they finish a main mission. Though it may seem obvious, Helldivers 2’s maps are crammed with side goals, obscure locations, and, most of the time, multiple caches of priceless items required to upgrade your ship’s modules—which can then improve those crucial stratagems. There feels to be a lot more to explore on the worlds of Helldivers 2, so perhaps as the player base grows, more will learn not to run away from challenges too early. If not, you may have left your voice communication settings open, allowing you to fervently beg pals to hold off on leaving quite so soon.
Overall, Helldivers 2 is off to a great start as a live service game. If some of the kinks can be ironed out, though, like the fact that missions on bot-infested worlds feel much harder than those on bug hive planets, even on the same difficulty levels, we’ll all be promoting Super Earth’s glory for a very long time.