Over the past two years, I've bought two sequels to games whose originals I haven't played: Baldur's Gate 3 and Helldivers 2. So at this point, I feel pretty silly for putting off playing games like The Witcher 2.
Early in 2024, there were a couple of games that took off like a rocket, and Helldivers 2 was one of them (the other one was Palworld, which I've never played). I had it recommended by a friend whose gaming taste I trust implicitly, and I also heard a rousing endorsement on a media podcast that I trust less, but still trust some. I waited a full month to see if a discount might drop on Steam, but I finally pulled the trigger at full price (which at $40 is still perfectly reasonable).
And I gotta say, this game met all of my expectations and then some.
I remember the first time I opened the game. I watched the intro movie and was tickled by the Super Troopers hyper-patriotic vibe. That vibe continued just as strong into the tutorial, with fantastic humor in addition to helping you get acclimated to some of the game's unique mechanics, which brings me to the first, most important point about this game:
It's fun.
Sometimes you can play a game and find certain mechanics disjointed from the rest of the game, or half of the game is fun, but then there are some tedious escort quests, or it takes way too long to progress and expand your abilities. Helldivers 2 seems to be a game designed solely with "fun" in mind, and the strategems are the best example of this. You immediately get access to a destructive orbital cannon and a machine gun, but you also verrrrry quickly begin to unlock other options. Exploring new weapons and utility items becomes a natural part of the game's progression, and the pace is well-constructed, doing a great job of empowering you with new options at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow.
But the game also has a number of long-term goals to pursue. You can upgrade modules on your ship to improve your various strategems, unlock new primary and secondary weapons to take into the field, and gain access to special boosters that apply not just to you, but to your entire team, increasing your survivability, stamina, vision, and more.
And that's one other vital part of this game. It is utterly and completely a team-oriented experience. Your group gains exactly the same experience, medals, requisition slips, samples, all the various things that you accumulate, you accumulate together. You get bonus XP if you get your team out alive, but your mission is a success if you accomplish your goals, no matter how many of your Helldivers make it out alive... even zero. But by the same token, friendly fire is permanently enabled. Cooperation and coordination are essential to a positive gaming experience, and while you do get the occasional knucklehead, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Your fellow Helldivers want to be victorious with you.
Does the game have long-term staying power? I believe it does, as long as "long-term" means "a couple years" to you. There's a plainly untouched 1/3 of the galactic map that clearly beckons a new enemy faction, and there's a broad base of strategem and weapon/equipment ideas that could definitely be implemented still. Based on the fun-first outlook that I believe the developers take when working on this game, I expect they'll continue to offer interesting twists and new opportunities to fight for managed democracy and defend Super Earth.
Helldivers to hellpods!
