Helldivers 2 (2024) - Review

Editor’s note: Sony PlayStation India provided IGN India a PS5 key of Helldivers 2 for this review.

2024 is turning into a year of live service games, as we have already received three major games in the span of two months. These include Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Ubisoft's Skull and Bones, and Arrowhead's Helldivers 2. Major game publishers like Warner Bros. and Sony have expressed their intent to focus on live service games, including Ubisoft, in the past.

The shift towards live service games is obvious as game development becomes more unsustainable with each passing year. This is more evident by the string of layoffs across the video games industry in the last 7-8 months, even after back-to-back hit games in 2023. Live service games tend to be more sustainable to make, last a long time, bring in more revenue, and attract more players over their lifespan.

To explore this trend, we are reviewing the game Helldivers 2, a sci-fi third-person shooter developed by Arrowhead Game Studios. For context, it is an independent studio that makes games for PlayStation and Windows-based PCs and is part of the Sony Interactive Entertainment publisher network.

The developers of Helldivers 2 have taken a completely different approach compared to its prequel Helldivers, which was a top-down, co-op, twin-stick shooter. Since its release, Helldivers 2 has taken the world by storm, creating new concurrent player records every week. This reaffirms that the decision to take this new approach was right after all.

However, this popularity has also caused the developers to suffer a bit. They did not consider that so many players would want to play their game, leading to many server issues that took almost two weeks to resolve. Now that we are on the other side of these issues, here is what Helldivers 2 is all about and how we feel about the game.

Super Earth and the Fight For Liberty

Helldivers 2 is set in a futuristic world where our planet is now called Super Earth. Humans have entered space as a civilisation and now have access to countless new planets. However, the problem is that these planets are filled to the brim with alien trash, including cyborgs and monstrous bugs. You are part of an “elite peacekeeping force” tasked with bringing peace, freedom, liberty, and democracy with your gun. The game is centred around the theme of patriotism, with a lot of satirical commentary.

The game presents you with all this context at the start with an interesting and fun cinematic video. Right after that, you get inducted into the Helldivers Corps and put through a rigorous training session, which serves as the tutorial for the game. This tutorial equips you with a basic understanding of the game mechanics, and then the game lets you create your character and name your ship. After this, Helldivers 2 unleashes you onto the battlefield to bring liberation to the planet.

This is all there is to the game story-wise, and the rest of it is just shooting down your enemy with a bit of lore here and there.

Planets, Enemy Factions and Levelling Up

As part of the 'Elite Peace-Keeping Force', you are required to survey multiple planets, neutralise the threats and embark on missions. There are a lot of planets to visit, and they aren’t barren; there is much to explore in the designated playable area. These places of interest on these planets offer you resources and weapons to support you during the Helldive. You will even get currencies (Requisition Slips, Medals, Samples and Super Credits) that help you purchase items to customise your gameplay experience or upgrade your arsenal for the next mission.

The exploration aspect of the game feels rewarding as you can get resources, special weapons and even some in-game lore. This variety motivates you to explore other planets further. While these planets are big, they don't feel empty as something is happening every 15-20 meters.

Considering the game's live-service nature, there are currently only two types of enemy factions: Automatons and Terminids. These factions are spread across different planets in the galaxy and have plenty of enemy types. As you progress through the game, it becomes both cool and increasingly overwhelming as you encounter this variety.

Helldivers 2 offers several types of missions to complete on these planets. These include launching missiles, escorting important personnel, thinning down enemies, and occasionally responding to emergency alerts. The game also has a difficulty system that you unlock as you progress through the levels. There are nine difficulty levels in total, ranging from Easy to Helldive, and you receive multipliers for your rewards according to the difficulty with which you complete the mission.

The difficulty system is one of the reasons that makes this game fun. This system helps keep things fresh for the players who have been playing the game for some time as you can feel the difference instantly when going from one difficulty tier to another.

This forces you to change how you approach the missions making things more strategic than going in all guns blazing. The higher difficulties will also grant you more Medals and experience, which help you level up, purchase more weapons, and unlock other resources to help you in future missions.

The fight for liberation in Helldivers 2 takes place all over the galaxy in real-time, so when your team completes a mission, the planet receives liberation points. This game mechanic helps you feel that you are not alone in this war and are a part of a collective fight.

There will also be many instances in the game where a specific enemy faction overruns some planets, and an Emergency Alert will be sent to all Helldivers to stop what they are doing and join the fight to help free the planet of these invasions. This collective battle helps with immersion and makes you feel like a real Helldiver, someone fighting for the same cause as part of a larger, galactic army.

Warbond and Ship Management Terminal

After you have completed several missions and gathered a lot of XP and medals, you can visit two places to spend all the currencies you have gathered. These places are Warbond and the Super Destroyer Hub. For context, Warbond is the game's battle-pass system.

You can find Samples on planets during exploration. Medals and Requisition points are rewarded after completing missions, but you can also find them through exploration. Finally, there are three ways to unlock Super Credits. These include unlocking them on Warbond, finding them through exploration, and purchasing items with real money.

So how do you spend these currencies? Medals are used to unlock new things in the Warbond, and this is crucial as this Warbond equips you with better armour, new weapons, throwables, emotes and boosters. While it is a battle pass system, it makes the game easier. Otherwise, things are significantly difficult for you. You can also purchase a premium version of Warbond with Super Credits. This Warbond provides you with additional items, new and different weapons, and some elemental effects for your existing weapons.

Coming to Requisition Points, you can use these to purchase Stratagems, which you can unlock by levelling up. We will focus on Stratagems later in this review. Then, Samples are used to upgrade the stats of these Stratagems, such as increasing the damage, reducing the cooldown times, etc.

Lastly, the Super Credits are used to purchase items in the Superstore as well as the Premium Warbond as mentioned above. These Super Credits cost real-world money, but if you play enough, you can acquire enough Super Credits to buy the Premium Warbond without having to spend real money on it.

Co-operation: The Core of Helldivers 2

The core of Helldivers 2 is its gameplay. It is a true third-person co-op shooter at its heart. The game makes more sense if you play with your friends. The experience of liberating these planets will be much better if you play with your friends, as voice communication makes gameplay more synchronised and uniform. If your friends are not interested in Helldivers 2, the game allows you to team up with strangers to liberate planets.

While you could try playing the game solo, you won't get too far at higher difficulty levels. But at the same time, you don't play solo for too long; people normally join your party as soon as you launch a mission or can even join you directly on the planet if you send out an SOS beacon. If you get the right team, you can spread patriotism like never before.

So once you Helldive, what do you do? You will have a mission objective according to what you chose on the Galactic map. You will get a large playable area on the planet which will consist of some side mission locations, random places of interest, main objective locations and enemy outposts. As soon as you Helldive, you will be equipped with a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, some throwables, stims and Stratagems. The resources you start with are all you have, and you have to make do with them or find more through exploration.

Stratagems and Explosions

Coming to the question that many of you would be wondering, what the hell are Stratagems? Stratagems are beacons that you can throw, which in return call for War material to the planet to help you in the mission. This war material ranges from Orbital strikes, Air Strikes, Napalms, Support Weapons, Sentries and more.

These Stratagems are helpful when you are in a pinch, but sometimes they have limited use or higher cooldown times, so you must be very careful with how you use them. However, these are also the most fun part of the game as they allow you to create the most cinematic explosions and take down enemies in the most satisfying way possible. The explosions seem right out of a movie, with a proper impact that your character would feel if you were close enough to it. The way you call these Stratagems is intuitive, too, as you have to use a set of directional inputs, and using them while being overwhelmed by 10-foot bugs can be a task.

Music and Combat of Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 has a great soundtrack, and the music gives motivational, inspirational vibes. It can give you both- a sense of epicness when you successfully take out hordes of enemies and a sense of despair when these bloodthirsty maggots and cyborgs are overrunning you. Another interesting direction that the game took was keeping friendly fire on. This can be extremely funny in some situations but equally annoying when you are the victim.

The combat of the game is extremely fun. If you know how to use the Stratagems properly, you can take down full-fledged bases within seconds. On the other hand, there are a vast number of weapons, such as Snipers, Flamethrowers, Laser Cannons, and more, that you can use. Each one has its different strengths and weaknesses and feels great with the adaptive triggers. My favourite is the Machine Gun, as it helps me mow down a large number of enemies with just one magazine.

Teamwork is fun as part of the combat, and well-coordinated missions provide the most excitement. Explosions are cinematic, threats are very real, and it takes an instant for you to enter a dangerous situation which keeps the adrenaline high. However, nothing can beat the feeling of being extracted from the planet without losing a man and completing all the objectives.

Value for Money

Now, for the real question, is it worth your hard-earned money? The short answer is definitely yes. Helldivers 2 is priced at INR 2,499 on the PlayStation 5 and PC. For this price, you get hours and hours worth of fun, with each mission averaging around 20 minutes, and there are a lot of missions.

Moreover, the game's live service nature offers a lot of potential for future missions, enemy types, weapons, stratagems, and customisations. If you have a couple of friends who already own the game, Helldivers 2 is a no-brainer. If you are in the market for a new shooter to grind in, this just might be your calling, as it is fun for every type of player.