‘Helldivers 2’ needs fixing for its bugs
“Helldivers 2” is full of bugs, and I’ve been having a democratically glorious time stomping them out, planet by planet, across the known galaxy. I’m doing my part. Are you doing yours?
Created by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive, “Helldivers 2” is a masterclass in creating a gameplay loop that’s equal parts intense and fun.
Taking a ton of inspiration from classic sci-fi movies, especially the satirical masterpiece “Starship Troopers,” “Helldivers 2” lays the tongue-in-cheek propaganda on thick, with soldiers throwing out one-liners during intense firefights like, “How’d you like that taste of democracy!” and “How about a nice cup of Liber-tea!”
There’s not much story here, and I wish there were. The game could benefit from some “Warhammer 40K”-style lore. There’s not really even any named NPCs, and players fight as nameless, faceless, expendable Helldivers, whose job it is to step into a pod on their ship orbiting a planet and be launched to the surface to immediately begin blasting away an alien threat, all to protect the citizens of Super Earth and “managed democracy.” And if you should die (a glorious sacrifice), a new Helldiver will be immediately thawed from cryo-storage and rocketed planetside to replace you.
I’ve been playing “Helldivers 2” almost nonstop for two weeks now, and I’m not alone in finding the gameplay fresh, exciting and addictive. It has been far more popular than even the developers predicted. The original launch of Helldivers in 2015 never saw more than 10-15,000 concurrent players, so the studio made sure servers could handle 10 times that many. But they sold a million copies in three days and, despite a number of game-breaking bugs, maxed out the servers, which had to be upgraded multiple times. And now with 450,000 concurrent players, servers are still unavailable for tens of thousands during peak times.
“Helldivers 2” is a smash hit because it delivers solid, satisfying co-op gameplay. The visuals are great, the sound design exceptional, explosions that would make Michael Bay jealous, and features a nuclear ton of ways to kill alien hordes.
2015’s original game was a topdown shooter that was also quite fun, but the sequel upped the ante graphically and puts players in a more familiar third-person, overthe-shoulder perspective. Before dropping planetside, players select weapons, armor, grenades and stratagems — special equipment and attacks that can be called from an orbiting ship via a series of keypresses, sort of like doing a special move in a fighting game.
Facing a wave of enemy attacks? Divers can call in a pod that will land and unfurl a long-range mortar, or gatling gun sentry turret. Or, they can call in an airstrike that will carpet-bomb groups of enemies, or drop half-ton bombs to level whole buildings. There are special armor-piercing guns to call in, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, drones equipped with machine guns or lasers, orbital bombardments and more.
Meanwhile, players are under a time limit to complete various missions planetside, like eradicating bug nests, launching nuclear strikes and rescuing civilians, all while waves of enemies bear down on them. On the hardest difficulties, it’s a never-ending onslaught. Right now, there are two
factions to fight. First are the bugs, with designs very similar to those from “Starship Troopers.” Bugs that can fly, skitter quickly, huge fat tick-like bugs that spew acid, bugs that turn invisible like the Predator, armored Chargers (bullets just bounce off them), and the big daddy, the Bile Titan, a 50-foot tall armored, acid-spitting monster. Then there are the Automatons, an advanced race of what are essentially Terminators. They use guns, armored mech suits with chainsaws and flamethrowers, rockets, throw grenades and even super-armored tanks, and their planets have factories that churn out more robots by the second, as well as ships that swoop down and drop in more squads constantly.
Combat can be an absolute madhouse and it only takes a small slip-up or errant rocket to turn a winnable fight into an all-out retreat and defeat for humanity. And win or lose, games are just ridiculously fun.
There have been some launch hiccups — the kind of bugs that crash the game, or cause players to lose out on rewards, but those kinks are getting worked out — and server problems, also being worked out. It isn’t perfect.
But the future is bright, and if the first game is any indication, we’ll eventually see one or two more factions of enemies, as well as more weapons and possibly vehicles. There is a battle pass system for purchase, but the premium currency, Super Credits, can be found (and farmed) through gameplay. For its $40 base price, “Helldivers 2” is an incredible value and if it can fix its early-launch problems, it’ll be a 10/10 from me.