Only one blog post in the entirety of March is poor, even for me, but that’s the way the third month of 2024 panned out. The shit weather made me feel miserable, and we had some important family stuff that was beyond stressful, resulting in me not being arsed to write anything non-work related. Instead of writing a blog update or playing any form of poker, I lost myself in the world of Helldivers 2 on the PlayStation 5.
Some will say ploughing countless hours into a video game is a pointless exercise, but I feel the same about watching TV. Video games are a way for me to escape the stresses of the world, and are akin to playing out your own movie or TV show. Games are magical when a video game producer ticks all the boxes and gets things right. Swedish outfit Arrowhead Game Studios did exactly that with Helldivers II.
Helldivers 2 Is More Than Worth £30
Helldivers 2 is the sequel to, yes, you guessed it, Helldivers. The original Helldivers is a top-down shooter that was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita in March 2015. A Windows PC came in December 2015, making it the first game Sony published for Windows. I’m not a fan of top-down games, so unsurprisingly, I never heard of the original Helldivers, which also meant the sequel went under the radar, too.
I saw a highlights video of Helldivers 2, which is now a third-person game, a couple of months ago and thought it looked decent, but then thought nothing more of it. That was until I read that Arrowhead Game Studios had sold over three million copies within the first two weeks, becoming the most actively played game on the PlayStation Network. Millions of people can’t be wrong. This, coupled with it only being £30 for a new PS5 release, saw me scouring the internet for discounted PlayStation credit to buy the game with.
The opening credits look incredible, but there is an air of familiarity to them. That’s because Helldivers 2 is a blatant rip-off pays homage to the tongue-in-cheek sci-fi epic that is Starship Troopers. The Terminids are almost carbon copies of the Starship Troopers bugs, while the Automatons cyborgs could have been lifted straight out of The Terminator franchise.
What Makes Helldivers II Great?
Pending lawsuit for copyright infringement aside, Arrowhead Game Studio must be applauded for putting together a ridiculously fun game designed with players’ experiences in mind.
Helldivers 2 feels like stepping back to a time when co-op online shooters were fun. Where you’d join a team of randoms from all corners of the world, blow shit up, and have a blast. I’ve lost count of the number of times my teammates and I have had a barrel of laughs at some of the unscripted moments or managed to complete a mission and extract by the skin of our teeth. There are a dozen or so former strangers who are now on my friends list. Compare that to games like Call of Duty, where you mostly spend your time blocking arseholes from contacting you!
Everything is Unlockable Through Playing the Game
So many modern titles are essentially vessels for microtransactions masquerading as games. Microtransactions do exist in Helldivers 2, and some gear and special weapons – called stratagems – are locked behind your player level but, and it’s a Jennifer Lopez-sized but, everything is unlockable through playing the game.
You rack up XP like there’s no tomorrow, which levels up your character. The Common Samples, Rare Samples, and Super Samples required to upgrade your ship are found in abundance on each planet, as are the Medals required to purchase guns, cosmetics, and other items from the various Warbonds (think Battlepass). You can unlock new Warbonds with Super Credits, and you can purchase Super Credits for real money in the store, but Arrowhead Game Studios have dotted Super Credits on each map, too. I’ve purchased all three Warbonds so far, and still have over 2,000 Super Credits despite never dipping my hand in my pocket.
I mentioned stratagems in the last paragraph, the game’s limited-use special weapons. They are fantastic. These ever-so-slightly overpowered weapons are as exciting and spectacular the 100th time you call them in as they were the first time you tapped away on your directional pad as a wet-behind-the-ears rookie. I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of dropping a cluster bomb on an advancing patrol or taking out an enemy bunker with a well-placed 500kg bomb.
The Game Isn’t Without Bugs (Pardon the Pun)
The game’s servers struggled to cope with player numbers at launch, but they have “mostly” been ironed out. Patches have been frequent, although they have sometimes created new issues, such as certain weapons causing the game to crash.
The latest patch has, for some unknown reason, caused my game to crash at least once per session since its release. It’s annoying, to say the least. However, Arrowhead Game Studios is maintaining an open channel of communication through social media, Discord, and Reddit. They are aware of problems, give a timeline of when those problems will be fixed, and even poke fun at themselves through in-game messaging.
Helldivers 2 isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t pretend to be. It is packed with action, doesn’t take itself too seriously, promotes teamwork with randoms, and takes co-op gaming back to a time when it was excellent fun. For that, it is worth £30 of anyone’s money.