Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
Platforms: PC, PS5 (Reviewed)
Genre: Third-person shooter
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Helldivers is a squad-based shooter that supports up to 4 players. It’s available on PC and PS5 at the moment. It’s an online-enabled chaotic shooter with a simple idea: save the super earth. To help save the Super Earth, you and your squadron engage in a series of missions on a whole host of planets to regain control from the Automatons (robots) and Terminids (insect-like creatures).
The game does remind me of Starship Troopers, and there are a lot of subtle nods to it, including the humour, which hits the mark. The cutscenes and tutorials are similar to those in Starship Troopers. If you have seen Starship Troopers, the insect battle is familiar.
The game tutorial covers very little of the game. It introduces you to the basic game controls, including using stratagems that allow you to get support weapons and airstrikes to help you fight the enemy. These stratagems have a cool-down effect and can be reused on missions. In each mission, you have a limit of stratagems you can carry, affecting your playstyle. As you progress and complete more levels, you can gain new stratagems and power-ups to help you go into more complex missions. The game has nine difficulty levels, from trivial to Hell Dive; each difficulty multiplies in terms of XP gained, and levels with more incredible difficulty will have more rare samples to collect, which can be used to boost your stratagems.
The gameplay and presentation in the game are superb; the controls are simple to get used to and make the game feel super responsive. Voice acting, music, and sound complement every element of the game. The cutscenes are funny and are done excellently. The visuals are superb, with various landscapes and enemies you will face on your journey to save Super Earth.
Helldivers 2 is a wonderful mix of a shooter that is super fun to play with and has enough humour to make it stick in your mind. This community-based game of 4 people completing missions online, which may seem basic, has built a huge cult following on social media that has made the game seem even more significant than it is. The game has reeled players in to make them feel a part of a larger collective trying to save the world in Helldivers 2. The game subtly tells you very little, leading to lots of discovery and enhancing the gameplay. The game is great fun and is brilliant. As this is a purely online game, server issues may impact your playthrough as it did mine, but the servers seem more stable now. It’s a beautiful, fun game with lots of discovery and a fantastic, witty sense of humour. It’s not just a standard 4-player online shooter; it’s a deep, rich, fun gaming experience with a vast community.
Overall: 9/10
Enjoys more than the odd game, long time gamer, somewhat a technologist and everything else in between.
Also enjoys a good solid game of FIFA online. Currently PS4, XBOX 360 and STEAM.
