Helldivers 2 is one of the simpler live service games out on the market. It focuses purely on PvE combat against only three factions in total. While the game may seem simple on paper compared to the immense size of other live service games, Helldivers 2 has been able to hold onto its dedicated fan base and keep its number high.
With every major update, a huge number of players flock to the game, jumping right back in as if no time has passed. While there are a lot of things that make this game fun to play, here are all the things that make it stand out compared to other live service games.
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8 Finding Its Hyper Democratic Niche
Spread Managed Democracy To The Enemies Of Freedom
- Fun memes push good publicity.
- Players getting into character make even a losing battle more interesting.
One undeniable factor in Helldivers 2 that has greatly helped the game's success is the memes. In-game, characters push a comically hyper-democratic tone onto the player, which has been accepted with open arms by the community.
Players in and out of the game make jokes about their patriotism and defeating the enemies of managed democracy, and those jokes and memes make playing the game even more fun. Usually, pushing any sort of politics into a game does more damage than good, but the over-the-top tone of this game leads all players to laugh together and play into the tone, which makes playing with friends or randoms even more fun.
7 One Super Earth, One Community
Don't Forget To Hug Your Squad
- All players are incentivized to work together.
- A less toxic community in comparison to others.
Helldivers 2 only has PvE elements, though, yes, friendly fire can be an issue from time to time. Through uniting all players on one team, players always want to help one another out, and toxicity in the community is at least lower than that of other live service games as every is fighting for the same goal.
While there will always be exceptions, Helldivers 2 offers a sense of camaraderie among friends and random players that few other games offer. Communities make or break live service games, and pushing positivity into your community will only benefit the game overall.
6 No Major Grind Required
Get Any Weapon From Any Warbond Easily
- Even the best strategems don't require tons of grinding.
- Less of a gap between new and expert players.
There are a lot of weapons, armor, and cosmetics for players to unlock, but the various Warbonds that can be chosen and ranked up make it very easy to get whatever rewards you want. If you are aiming for the current meta, it's very easy to unlock all the possible rewards in a Warbond, even if it's the newest thing.
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Here are all the difficulty levels in Helldivers 2, their mission changes, and how you can unlock them for greater rewards.
Brand new Divers or those jumping in after a while can quickly get whatever is best, and will never feel the need to catch up. The consistency of getting new weapons and upgrades is also fast, so you won't go weeks' worth of operations before getting a new toy to use against the enemies of democracy.
5 The Developers Listen To The Community
They're Not Afraid To Undo An Unpopular Choice
- While general balance is the goal, the developers accept that having fun is the most important thing.
- Developers let players make decisions.
No live service game is safe from nerfs as developers always aim to make the most balanced gameplay as possible. While Helldivers 2 gives players a lot of ways to dominate the enemy despite being outnumbered, a few weapons in the past have proved to be too powerful and have received a nerf.
While nerfs always lead to backlash, the developers of Helldivers 2 have sided with players multiple times and agreed that some overly powerful weapons are more fun than a balanced game. While this isn't always the case, it's rare for developers to go against a nerf and agree to leaving a broken weapon just a little too powerful.
4 Easy & Equal Progression
Always Feel A Part Of The Team
- The gap between different weapons is fairly small.
- You'll never feel that far behind a high-level character.
The lack of a major grind for anything specific means no one is ever too far behind from the current meta or a broken gun they hear about. Many downfalls in other live service games are the need to grind for weeks to catch up to late-game players, while Helldivers offers much less of a gap in power.
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While there are for sure benefits to investing a lot of time into the game, a brand new player or one coming back from a break will never feel completely useless. This keeps the game always fun for anyone involved, always letting you feel a part of the community and team when on an operation.
3 Breaking The Platform Barrier
Xbox Divers Have Joined The Fight
- PlayStation players cheered when Xbox players could finally join the fight.
- Halo content is finally appearing on PlayStation.
The number of games that have cross-platform play is still very limited, though Helldivers 2 is one of the bigger games to break that barrier. On top of getting full cross-platform play, a Halo/ODST crossover that lets the legendary IP come to PlayStation is a noteworthy moment for gamers everywhere.
The console war has been a long-time conflict between gamers, though Helldivers 2 is all about bringing players together for a common purpose. That common purpose of defending Super Earth only adds to the community and positive attitude in the community, which makes the game fun to always go back to.
2 The Living & Breathing Galactic War
The Enemies Of Democracy Never Sleep
- It's the players vs. Joel.
- Community engagement determines the war.
While a lot of live service games have constant events to make the world feel alive, every aspect of Helldivers 2 is always moving forward. The galactic map is always changing, whether you're playing or not. While it's easy to miss out on content, it's fun to see new stuff always happening that entices players to jump back in.
Helldivers 2: Armor Passive Tier List
Explore the best armor passives in Helldivers 2 with our updated tier list. Find what you need to improve your combat and survival in every mission.
The constant progress of the war makes every single operation players do feel more important than just themselves, and major orders help tie it all together and further push specific narratives towards some sort of conclusion. While there is a game master making a lot of decisions in the war, ultimately it comes down to the players for which planets are won or lost.
1 It's Fun To Blow Stuff Up
Who Doesn't Like Nuking Alien Races
- Most offensive strategems cause huge explosions.
- The 500Kg bomb is an iconic strategem.
In most games, you'll have to grind for weeks and even months to get high-end weapons or abilities that can decimate swarms of enemies in seconds, but Helldivers takes another approach. While there are some massive bombs to work towards, there are a lot of early-game strategems that players can use right away that make huge explosions.
Simply put, it's fun to blow stuff up with your friends, alone, or random Helldivers online. There are more than enough tools to satisfy the simple urge to blow your enemies up with huge explosives or gun them down with massive machine guns. No matter where you're at in the game, it's so easy to just jump in and recreate scenes from a movie, with those moments only getting bigger and better the more you play.
Helldivers 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- Released
- February 8, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- bitsquid
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Extraction Shooter, Action, Science Fiction
