Teamwork was crucial and precision was necessary as the original Helldivers did a sterling job by making a mark on the PlayStation 4 as a toughest isometric twin stick shooter.
Helldivers 2 brings the brand back to life, taking a third person approach with a laser focus on hyper patriotism and orders taken from Starship Troopers.
This change is a real winner especially if you have teammates, you can share the experience with them. The real thing, sure, but it’s not for solo gamers: multiplayer is definitely the way to go.
In the beginning, you wake-up on your ship, the Elected Representative of Individual Merit, with song and sloganeering such as ‘For Democracy! For Super Earth!” echoing in your mind.
Familiar sci-fi narratives here, where an alien army, the Terminids have decimated your home, and now you’re spreading democracy across the galaxy. The story isn’t a deep one, but Helldivers 2 doesn’t need one.
Instead, it thrives on chaotic, fast-paced action, where the goal is simple: The reason Super Earth does it? Because you kill the enemy for Super Earth. Thankfully, the bulk of the excitement comes from the game itself, as this paper-thin plot it is more than able to carry on with.
In Helldivers 2, you and up to three of your buddies can journey across the galaxy, completing missions and defending planets from alien threats.
You reside in a home ship, and from this base you drop on each planet in pods and then live on the surface; when you need something, you call in things using strategems (game mechanics that allow you to call in all sorts of things).
They can give you ammunition, set up turrets, or worst, summon devastating orbital strikes. Not only does its tactical options expand as you progress through the game, but you unlock new strategems too.
Still, a constraint of only four strategems at once means you have to be careful with your loadout, particularly since friendly fire is always at risk.
The story itself isn’t very deep but the emergent gameplay delivers so many wonderful, unforgettable moments. True chaos often reigns but missions vary widely and range from saving civilians to exterminating alien hordes; the objectives remain serious.
That calm moment can turn frantic scramble then quickly as you fend off wave after wave of enemies. Playing these high-pressure scenarios, with friends in particular, is some of the best and most memorable play in the game. When you nearly pull together to make its extraction with the team intact, having lasted through the odds.
The downside here is that the Helldivers 2 doesn’t really have much to draw solo players in. Clearly, the game is meant to be played with others, and even when the servers failed to get past the game’s flaky initial launch, playing the game solo becomes both tedious and frustrating.
Lucky for us, as matchmaking problems have fixed, the multiplayer experience is now a constant enjoyable experience.
When you’re actually on the battlefield, Helldivers 2 plays like a standard third person shooter with a few clever twists. Combat turns chaotic and fast paced, but your character is alarmingly vulnerable so charging into a hord of enemies without a plan is fast way of dying.
It also becomes important about resource management such as reloading and keeping ammunition. In the heat of battle little things matter a lot.
The galaxy map is your map of all the planets, all the zones from all the missions. At launch, there are two main factions to contend with: there was an Automaton army of cyborgs and mechs mixed in with the Terminids, a swarm of giant bugs.
Each mission pulls your whole community of players into pushing these enemies back, and their victories help your community further defeat planets as a community. You gain experience as you do missions and level up, unlock new strategems and become more capable.
Conclusion
Helldivers 2 is a scrappy, chaotic, positive cooperative experience for players who like to fight with friends.
While it doesn’t have a complicated, deep narrative going for it, nor does solo play feel rewarded at all times, its emergent gameplay, its moment-to-moment action, and its top spot for camaraderie among multiplayer games, make it one of the best in the genre.
Already there’s a roadmap of what’s to come in future updates and in game events, you can see the developers have big plans to continue support. Just make sure you don’t get killed by friendly fire.
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