The game showcases evident care from its developers, yet its initial appeal really faded for me as the gameplay progressed. While genuinely enjoyable with friends, the experience becomes significantly more repetitive outside of cooperative play, with gameplay that heavily relies on Stratagems, an underwhelming weapon experience, and an overall monotonous progression system, detracting from its overall enjoyment once you venture into solo play. This culminates in an overall experience where moments of enjoyment are truly memorable, while periods of monotony are particularly dreary.

fter logging over 12 hours on "Helldivers 2," I'm eager to share that this game splendidly combines humor, strategic gameplay, and impressive tech to deliver a rich gaming experience. For those dreaming of spreading freedom and managed democracy across the galaxy, "Helldivers 2" might just be your next must-play title.

The game's dialogue remains fresh and amusing, a welcome departure from the repetitive lines that plague many other games. This element keeps the game feeling new and engaging through multiple playthroughs. The audio quality, particularly with headphones, is stellar—the sound of gunfire and explosions are impactful, enhancing the immersive experience. Visually, the game uses HDR to great effect, incorporating detailed environmental effects like deforming ground and fog to breathe life into its procedurally generated worlds. The satisfaction of the visual feedback from environmental and enemy destruction cannot be overstated; it makes every combat encounter feel rewarding.

"Helldivers 2" also shines in its satirical content, humorously tackling themes of tyranny and democracy in a manner reminiscent of Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers." This not only fits perfectly with its format as a game-as-a-service but also injects a delightful dose of humor that fans of such satire will appreciate. Co-op mechanics are another strong point of the game, emphasizing that players are indeed stronger together, and the controls—offering both TPS and FPS perspectives—are tight and responsive. Diving and going prone not only add coolness but introduce unique tactical gameplay elements that are both fun and effective.

Despite these strengths, the game isn't without its flaws. Quickplay functionality was problematic at launch, complicating the process of forming full squads, which is crucial as the game is best experienced with others. Although the game is playable solo, it doesn't shine as brightly as it does in a team setting. I also found myself needing to extensively customize my controls on the PS5 to adequately map the Quick Grenade feature, which isn't set by default. Fortunately, the game offers extensive customization options for controls, allowing players to tweak them to their liking, similar to the freedom seen in Kojima Productions titles. On a graphical note, some elements, such as facial animations, do not meet the high standards of AAA games, which is understandable given its mid-range price tag, but this is largely unnoticeable as you're often in a helmet.

In conclusion, "Helldivers 2" builds effectively on its predecessor's foundations, introducing new dynamics that keep the gameplay intriguing and engaging. If the trailers catch your eye and you enjoy cooperative gameplay with a mix of humor and tactical combat, "Helldivers 2" is well worth considering. However, if you weren't keen on the themes in "Starship Troopers" or find the zombie genre tedious, this might not be the game for you. Keep an eye on future updates, particularly around Quickplay, and this game could easily become a staple of your gaming collection.

Been playing this with three of my friends for a few weeks, although I think we're mostly done for now. It's a game we expect to return to, though, especially if major updates or new enemy types arrive.

The mission structure is so varied and fun, and there are tons of guns that feel amazing to shoot. Most importantly, there are a ton of enemies and they feel like they have real presence, their AI is programmed so well and they respond so convincingly to getting hit.

We've had so many moments of someone clutching out a last-second evac, moments of hype or disappointment, it's awesome. A fantastic co-op shooter.

Helldivers 2 is a breath of fresh air in the gaming landscape where everything is either a battle royale or an awfully balanced team-based pvp game, both riddled with mtx, freemium models and extremetly toxic communities.

H2 puts the fun first, and that's something a lot of developers/publishers forget when making games. The gameplay is extremetly innovative, putting you and your squad in enormous arena-type maps against waves and waves of enemies, while trying to finish main and side objectives, which are completely open and can be approached however you want.

The most important and fun part of your loadout is the stratagems: killstreak-like abilites summoned from your cruise ship. These are both offensive and defensive and are the secret sauce to the magic of the game, being extremetly fun to use while enabling the players to take down the hardest enemies and complete the objectives. These are the bread and butter of the game and trust me, there is nothing more satisfying than throwing your first 500kg bomb ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️ and watching the almost nuclear cloud of smoke, dust and bug parts.

Also, something that I like a lot about this game is the fact the story is community driven and there is a "game master" behind the game's overarching story (Joel the GOAT fr).

However, H2 isn't perfect and it severely lacks of variety in mission types and enemies, making it repetitive after 20 or so hours. Also the fact that most of the weapon progression is through the battle pass(es?) kinda rubs me the wrong way.

Overall the game is pretty good for coming out of nowhere with a lot of innovative and nice ideas, just don't play large sessions because it will burn you out.

it's a good game held back by dumbasses. shit balance where 80% of things are completely worthless, unfun design ideas (fucking quadruple cooldowns when you guys are saying you want people to rely on call-downs more often? for difficulties that have exclusive materials needed to complete parts of the game? really?), an absolutely cringe wholesome reddit chungus chud keanu community? no actual endgame beyond "what if we spawned 20x more special enemies that're immune to half the guns in the game"? like man, whew