Helldivers 2 (2024)

Random things that would be cool to see in Helldivers 2:

• Stealth! A stealth warbond of silenced weapons, an outfit that makes it both harder to be detected and increases personal radar range, some kind of remote explosive, and a stratagem of stealth support of some kind, like a signal that makes you have Predator-esque invisibility for like 20 seconds.

• Eagle laser/plasma strafing run: no different than the normal strafing run other than using plasma and laser rounds, so less impact damage, but can possibly cause fire or electric damage to the targets and the immediate area.

• A circumferential perimeter orbital barrage. The walking barrage is awesome, and the 120 and 380 barrages are awesome too, but having an "oh shit" barrage that fires in a 360 on your point would be cool. The laser kind of does this, but I envision this as being sustained for longer and being only a single use. Something you can save for extraction if you need to, but it's also not OP, in that it won't save you, you'll still have to defend yourself like all hell.

• Solo missions: missions that are designed to be completed by one person, with a different extraction type, like a self-propelled escape pod you get into after configuring a console to take off. No extraction area defense, just gotta complete your objective and get out of there as fast as possible. No bunkers that require another person to open and minimal samples, so that it doesn't become more lucrative than group play. Just a medal and requisition bonus.

• Illumination orbital: night missions or forest missions are really cool, so it would be awesome if you could call in a flare to illuminate a certain area for a period of 10 seconds or so just so you can get a good idea of what you're seeing. I thought maybe just a radar orbital that scans all enemies within, say, 20 meters of where your orbital lands, but that 1) is probably too helpful and 2) gets away from the boots-on-the-ground feel they're going for with the game, where the tech is more grounded and not too advanced.

• Self-destruct/explosive drone stratagem: a remote piloted drone that detonates on command. Limited range from the pilot, single use per mission, to take out objectives or tough enemies without exposing oneself.

• A hand-held front-facing shield to accompany the use of the electric spear. I really like using this weapon in close quarters and find it a little easier to defend myself with than a pistol or secondary shotgun, but a shield to help reduce, if not negate entirely, the damage from being engaged by more than one enemy (the Voteless come to mind, it's easy to get surrounded by them).

• Multi-squad missions. 4 players per map is awesome but I wonder if the engine is robust enough to support even larger missions and maps that support or encourage two fireteams (4 players, 8 total) to complete, with some kind of dependent objective. Not quite a raid but just a mission that requires you to prime area A for objective B. Maybe completable with 4, but much easier with 8.

I fucking love this game.

Speaking of Helldivers 2... It's so disheartening. I can't like it no matter how many times I can find positives in it. The game is fun, mind me, when it doesn't behave like a waterlogged piece of wood.

For every bug squished (ah ah ah), another one crops up:

• The exo-suit explodes if you shoot from the wrong angle.
• You can die and the game will tell you to 'use a stim' and won't let you be reinforced by other players, forcing you to relaunch the game.
• Friend lobbies are still botched, can't invite people from the in-game menu (0 Friends online, always even when they're right there in my lobby), can't join on people currently playing the game from the Steam friendlist if it's "friends only", they have to open it up to everyone and let you in, then close it again o you don't get the random dude that loudly chews and breathes through their mic.

Instead of reconsidering armor capabilities for Bile Titans, they decided to 'spawn less' but to make bug tunnel breaches, scouts and other more common bugs in higher difficulties much more plentiful which means for one Bug Tunnel Breach (that you cannot stop unless the animation begun for a frame, anything more and you're too late and even then, sometimes it happens anyway before the fart) you can get up to six/seven Bile Spewers, a dozen of Hunters and more of the tiny Recons that can fart and cause other Bug Tunnel Breaches.

They made the Breaker semi-useless by nerfing its armor penetration so now even shooting a Charger in the face is the most painful thing you can imagine since there is only two spots you can hit it from without wasting an orbital strike/a Spear shot/a Recoilless Shot on it and it's a. its ass (which means you have to play tag with it and hope a friend shoots the ass, which takes a while) and b. its face which is still armored and you have to use Anti-Material Sniper shots to take him out if you have time to take aim and fire. And there's multiple Chargers spawning per-Bug Tunnel Breaches because they're considered "not as challenging as Bile Titans).

How to turn a game from fun to a total rage-inducing anger fest.

Had my Leroy Jenkins moment.
My squad was getting our butts kicked by robots and we had to take out their bot factory. Usually we just call in an air strike, but our comms were jammed.

The robots were surrounding us, we were pinned down behind a rock, so I decided to make a move. I sprinted into the facility, robots all around shooting at me, threw two grenades through the factory windows, & as I died from laser fire, the factory blew up, saving my squad.

I have a very big love and hate relationship with this game. This game is extremely bugged. Everything the players tell you it will "100% work" has worked on them 2 out of 10 missions.

Everything above Tier 7 is a endeavor in anger, impatience and bugs after bugs (and not the enemy kind of bugs). Railgun, spears and orbital strikes aren't consistent in their damage: sometimes they will one-shot a Bile Titan, sometimes they will simply graze it despite landing on the same exact spot as the one-shot which would be a balanced experience if there weren't four - on average - Bile Titans spawning.

Every Bug Breach has at least 6 Yellow Bile Spewers, a dozen of smaller bugs that can call bug breaches and a myriad more of hunters, who are faster and attack at a higher rate than what you can shoot them/recharge them.

It's to the point where it's not challenging, it's just plain aggravating and unlikely that you would want to do the next tier of difficulty - which sucks since you need the epic samples that are found in extremely small quantities in the 7 to 9 difficulties.