Helldivers 2 is probably the most fun I’ve had with an online shooter in ages.
Ever since Overwatch 2 essentially threw out everything I liked about the game in favour of DPS-first thrilling heroics, I’ve been at a bit of a loss for a regular multiplayer game. We went through a huge Sea of Thieves phase, a game I still believe to be one of the best and most unique multiplayer experiences ever created. But beyond that, the pickings have been slim. Destiny 2‘s post-campaign power creep was too convoluted for anyone but our resident MMO king. Fortnite happens in fits and spurts, and it’s rare we’re actually competing for the BR-mode win. As it is for many others, Fortnite is a glorified chatroom for me. A stand-in for an after-work pint with friends. It’s not that serious. If we lose, we load up another match. If we win, it’s almost always entirely by accident.
Helldivers 2 made me realise how much I missed the stakes of Overwatch. I missed the thrill of friends committing to a common goal under extremely adverse circumstances.
Normal Mode (Panic Intensifies)
I jumped in on Sunday afternoon with a few games media mates to try out the game’s multiplayer component. I’d spent some of the morning attacking it solo and finding the difficulty curve was rising too sharply to continue alone. Rounding up a few mates across PS5 and PC, we eventually figured out the game’s Nintendo-like friend-code system and got ourselves into a shared lobby. The first few missions on the bug side of the galaxy flew by. These rounds were what we elder millennials referred to as a ‘comp stomp’. We rolled over these XXL sized insects like it was nothing. If I’d watched the footage back, it probably would have had Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by ACDC blaring over it, such was the montage-like ease of it.
On moving to the robotic side of the galaxy, an adjustment of tone and tenor similar to the leap from Starship Troopers to the opening of Terminator 2, we upped the difficulty to the seemingly innocuous Normal. For clarity, Helldivers unlocks new difficulty levels for every one you complete a mission on. We’d unlocked Normal difficulty early in the session, so we opted to give it a try. It was here the real game began.
I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots And Your Devastating Orbital Laser Cannon
I cannot stress enough how much the robot enemies do not fuck around. We were never fully squad-wiped, but applying easy mode bravado got us sat firmly on our backsides. Suddenly, there was a need to slow down, to pick our battles. Yes, the Helldivers themselves are expendable grist in an infinite 40K-esque galactic war machine, but you do only get so many group respawns before its mission over. Cover and tactics became hugely important, as did the ability to throw ourselves prone. Communication, particularly around the use of powerful cooldown Strategems to call in orbital strikes and strafing runs, became vital.
That first mission was a bit of a punish. We were all a bit under levelled, and our weapons weren’t great. It made us feel like the odds were massively against us. Nevertheless, we made it to the end of the mission, and the verdict was unanimous: that ruled, let’s have another.
And so we did. We ran through another seven or eight missions on different sides of the galaxy. As the levels racked up and the rewards rolled on, builds and specialisations began to take root. Missions frequently ended in dramatic final stands – the four of us, prone on the high ground, lashing an army of foes with everything we had.
If that sounds good, get around Helldivers 2
Taken entirely as a pulpy way to kill an afternoon with friends, Helldivers 2 is the good shit. It’s had launch week issues, to be sure. The PC servers took a beating on the way to becoming PlayStation’s most successful PC launch ever. I can say that we didn’t have any issues at all, right up until the very end of our session when my PS5 copy crashed on the way to a new mission. Hard to overstate how excited I am to play more of this. I’m interested to see how it evolves over the coming months. I look forward to seeing how the community digs in, which will become the most broken, and which missions will be the most favoured.
Like the original, it is a game of simple pleasures and heroic nonsense. When you make it to evac after a hard slog, you feel like you could punch a hole in the sun.
A must-play.
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