Helldivers 2 (2024)

Started playing this a few weeks ago. Definetly a FOTM type of game. I have some buyer's remorse. The progression and MTX (+ battlepass) are off putting to me. It also doesn't help that I really love Earth Defense Force (5) and this game is basically a Westernized, less insane version of it.

It's got some gorgeous views and some really cool moments. But it feels overblown, overhyped. Mixed feelings.

Send backup! More democracy needed!

Really enjoying what Helldivers 2 has to offer which is good old fashioned action game-y goodness with a lot of subtle detail packed in if you want to explore it.

When you aren't explolding bugs or robots, the vistas are beautiful. The live service feature is woven in surprisingly well here too - as planets are "liberated" via the collective effort of online players, new planets are introduced with different biomes and complete day and night cycles. Eventually these planets will get over-run again so new players later down the line won't miss out and will get a chance to kill the native population once more! Yay!

I'm just impressed with how many cinematic moments they manage to pack into every mission. Seeing giant cannon lasers and orbital strikes being sent down in the distance knowing that somewhere out there another team is calling in everything they've got is pretty awesome. Switch your brain off or plan like a strategist. Either way you'll be blowing things up with a large payload of satire for Super Earth!

Spreading democracy one bullet at a time.

Absolutely loving this game. Been a long time since I bought a game that's almost entirely built around co-op and I've forgotten how much laughter and cool moments you can have with these kinds of games. Friendly fire is always on and you will end up nuking your squad by "accident"...

Also probably the first time I've seen a live service game where they aren't trying to aggressively sell you stuff. The premium currency can even be earned in game, and in abundance too - within 2 hours I had accumulated nearly half the amount required to unlock the premium pass. Personally I don't care about live service systems and battle passes, so I used the currency to buy armour from the store. Hoping they don't patch the quantity of currency found whilst exploring planets, currently it's a good balance between those who are impatient and want the premium stuff straight away, and those who are willing to play for a few hours and find the currency themselves.

Blast to play!

This sold me on pre-ordering the game, and I'm someone who typically condemns the act of pre-ordering (last pre-order was RDR2). The live service model they're going for, explained by the deputy game director Sagar Beroshi himself, seems to be an approach that I've wanted ever since 'live service' became a thing.

Sagar explains that the team love playing tabletop games and that has influenced how they want to treat the overseeing of the game. Effectively what they're proposing is that live matches will be overseen and watched by real human beings combined with a set of tools and I'm assuming ai. Think dungeon masters, or in this universe captains of the squads if you will; actions will be taken to either help or hinder your game. The example in the video was that someone behind the scenes decided to give one of the players a giant bomb to assist them mid match. They also spoke about modifiers that could introduce challenge mid game. Given that the game is built around the concept of an army with a high command dishing out orders, I think the devs stepping into the shoes of the high command under the guise of 'live service' could mesh the game lore and real world live service logistics together really nicely.

Another approach they're taking is the galactic war that effectively replaces a conventional campaign - it's the main mode that the entire player base will be working on and it involves working together to achieve global objectives across the galaxy. They're proposing that the enemy ai will react to the progress being made by players and strategise to attempt to out-smart us. This idea that players are fighting on a battlefront and could be encircled at any moment, or surprised in other ways as the war evolves is really interesting to me. I wonder if we'll be able to join distress calls if things go south? They're also talking about these strategies lasting years or however long the live service game lasts. Players who jump in from the start will see the entire arc of the war from start to finish. Sounds ambitious and I'm eager to see how it actually pans out in the real world.