9/10
I think that if you play this game by yourself it CLEARLY suffers because it is literally meant to be played with other people. There's a distinct lack of an interesting narrative as well but I think it doesn't really matter.
Helldivers is built upon repetition but it's exciting repetition. The basic format is: you pick a mission (of …
9/10
I think that if you play this game by yourself it CLEARLY suffers because it is literally meant to be played with other people. There's a distinct lack of an interesting narrative as well but I think it doesn't really matter.
Helldivers is built upon repetition but it's exciting repetition. The basic format is: you pick a mission (of many difficulties), pick where you drop in and perform the objectives in a procedurally generated map. There are a variety of different missions like simply defending an area or using a hellbomb to blow up a few different things, or escort missions, etc, but you do these over and over again... and yet it doesn't get boring.
That's mostly because a) the game is really hard and b) they up the challenges at a reasonable and gradual pace. You might play something on one level and then when you put it up a bit suddenly there are enemies that you've never seen before, adding a tactical challenge that didn't exist before. It can be frustrating, but it's always enthralling; always thrilling and tense. Add in friendly fire and there are plenty of laughable moments when you shoot your friends or get shot by your own turret. Hell, my brother and I were prone (weird that you can't shoot when prone but I guess it makes the game harder... one of the only things that comes off as "bullshit difficulty" in this game) waiting to get extracted at the end of a level -- which leads to intense shootouts for a couple minutes, so you're not off the hook until you're actually gone -- and we weren't paying attention, and after all this struggling, the vehicle landed on us... mission over, we failed. We laughed, and Helldivers gives you the tools for a lot of funny shit while making you work for everything you have.
You can upgrade all your stuff of course, get new abilities (I can't remember what they're called now), guns, etc. And when you're in a mission you have to enter a combination to use your skills, which is a neat touch that makes you concentrate.
The most interesting part is something I haven't been able to fully experience, which is a shame. You're constantly aiding other plays in this fight against 3 different types of enemies with their own worlds. The balance of power shifts as you complete mission and get points towards the human side. After you've beaten the 3, there's apparently a war of some sort, and then the game resets. This idea that it's always multiplayer is awesome, I just wish that you got MORE points. As the community goes down, this feature will become more and more difficult to experience. I want to do it but I haven't been able to. Still neat.
