Edwin Crump
What a wild ride Helldivers 2 has been on.
When I first got the game to review, it came in as an interesting sequel to an underrated first entry (Helldivers 1 was secretly one of the best games for the beleaguered PS Vita).
But since then, Helldivers 2 has exploded in interest, success and internet virality to a point where the developers could not have even imagined. This Playstation-published but independently-developed title has seen unprecedented player numbers that put it up with some of the biggest games ever released.
The simultaneous release of the game on PC and Playstation also signals a new approach from Playstation, and perhaps, a new era and attitude towards how ever-more expensive to develop games are released. It certainly hasn’t hurt the game, and I have enjoyed being able to dive in on my platform of choice from day one.
But what is Helldivers 2?
In the most zoomed-out view it is not so different from the original entry into the now-franchise series. You, and preferably a squad of mates, land on an alien planet and are tasked with a variety of objectives that you must complete before successfully extracting within the set time limit. These objectives may be something as simple as defeating a number of the bug or robot enemies, to launching nukes at enemy infestations.
Maps, set on a variety of planets and times of day, are large, but not so big that you can get lost in them or separated for too long. There are enemy encampments, patrols, side missions and secrets to discover on each map, and the game slowly ramps up the intensity of each mission the longer you play, which, combined with the time limit, eventually encourages even the most distracted players to get on board with completing the mission objectives.
The true joy of the game is found in the combination of these missions, playing with a squad, and the wild interaction between these and what Helldivers 2 calls your ‘stratagems’. These are special abilities, set on a timer, that lets you call in support from a spaceship in orbit. This could be as simple as providing you with a powerful machine gun or mortar sentry, right up to enormous bombardments that can destroy entire enemy forts at once. Crucially, this also includes friendly reinforcements. See, players have relatively little health, and are subject to friendly fire. This results in hilarious interactions where you ‘unintentionally’ take out your friends with an aerial bombardment, or are desperately calling down backup while hordes of massive bugs pursue you across the map. Some of the fireworks on display at times is genuinely impressive, and truly gives the sense of the intensity of a battle, all set in the stylings and humour of Starship Troopers.
Successfully completing missions lets you access upgrades to new and improved weapons, stratagems, and available weaponry. There is a battle pass which is part of the cosmetic and weapon unlock experience, but this is cleverly split into a free one that contains pretty great stuff, and a premium one that feels less necessary but will be attractive to those dedicated to the full Helldivers experience. For once, the battle pass and monetisation system doesn’t feel abusive or predatory at all, and this should be a model that other games pursue.
The only time that I had a bad time with Helldivers 2 was when I was playing by myself. The solo experience is no fun at all, and all of the spontaneity, hilarity and unintended consequences are much more lonely and frustrating when not playing in a squad. Even in a matchmade squad your time with each mission is far better, so I encourage you to not spend too long playing without teammates if you can at all avoid it.
Another nitpick is the image quality when utilising the 60FPS mode on Playstation 5.
It is quite blurry, and the basic implementation of what looks like AMD’s FSR1 does little to tidy it up to any satisfactory degree. The developers have indicated that they are investigating a temporal upsampling technique (such as FSR2) but given they are using an ancient, deprecated game engine this is much more of an ask than if the game were using, say, Unreal Engine 5 so I don’t have high hopes. At least on PC it generally runs very well, so the base level of performance is quite good.
Helldivers 2 is uncomplicated fun. It provides genuinely hilarious emergent gameplay, all set within a framework that seems deliberately designed to remove some of the frustrations and speedbumps that other games sometimes deliberately put in your way. Missions are quick, snappy, and even if you don’t succeed it is not too strenuous to just go again. With a group of friends, Helldivers 2 provides some of the best hangout gameplay that you could ask for. This isn’t the sort of game that you need to keep on top of the meta for, or worry about new heroes coming in and massively changing the balance of the entire experience. And there are indications that even more is planned, with tanks and mech suits looking likely for inclusion shortly.
Whether on PC or PS5, Helldivers 2 is more than a competent follow up. The move to a third person perspective and the impressive but contained scale of each mission creates an environment in its experience that gamers have clearly taken to. I just hope the interest in the game isn’t short-lived. I certainly see myself returning to it again and again.
Released: February 2024
Rating: M15+
Platforms reviewed: PlayStation 5
Genre: Action
Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment