Video Game Reviews

Helldivers 2 Review

I've been playing this game for awhile now, with my buds and now I'm making a review of it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Premise:

Helldivers 2 is a sequel to the previous Helldivers game that was released back in 2015, with Helldivers 2 releasing last year in February and being made by Arrowhead Studios and published by Playstation Studios onto Playstation and later ported onto PC via steam. Helldivers 2 takes place in a sci-fi future that takes nationalism and imperialism to the highest peaks, that a lot of extreme people would greatly enjoy. 

Helldivers 2 is a one to four person co-op game that can be played by yourself, with friends or random people that you can work with. Once the team is assembled, you dive into a campaign which compromise of one to three randomized missions playing on a theme against one of three opposing factions. The Terminids, The Automatons and the Illuminate. The Terminds are a series of bugs that specialize in there numbers and biological warfare that make it very difficult to fight against when surrounded and the stronger enemies: The Impaler, The Bile Titan, and the Charger being some of the more tankier and more harder enemies to take down. The Automatons are a series of robotic soldiers that specialize in weaponry and technology with the stronger enemies showing this off even more: The Hulk, and Striders being the biggest reasons. The Illuminate are the latest enemy faction that take the numbers of the Terminids and the technology of the Automatons and dials it up to eleven, with alien technology being a big issue to deal with, namely the jetpack troopers and the walkers with shields. 

Each mission has a maximum amount of time of 40 minutes to complete the mandatory main objective, optional side objectives and optional spawn areas: Hives, Fabricators, and Ships being the spawn areas that often take a grenade or powerful launcher to destroy them. The mandatory main objectives range from destroying powerful enemies, saving high priority citizens, defending a base for 20 minutes, a limited amount of time to take down the spawn areas before the mission is over. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gameplay:

Helldivers 2 is a third person/first person shooter, utilizing a variety of sci-fi weapons mixed with modern day weaponry. 

In order to start a mission you either attack a controlled planet or one planet that is being attacked, and then select a mission. You will then be able to use up to four stratagems and one booster to help out the squad. The stratagems will range from orbital weaponry and eagle strikes, weapons and drones, or sentries and towers to aid you.

Once thats done you can start the mission and dive down onto the planet you chose, to begin the mission and scout the map to take down the enemies. Once thats done you have to get to extraction and wait for the ship to land to get you out of there, once one person boards the ship, a 20 second time limit begins, and will end when all people get on board or when the time finally ends.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lore:

The lore of Helldivers 2 is a bit basic easy to understand, and also difficult. Most of the lore for the game depends on the players actions during the Second Galactic War, and of course from the first Helldivers game that I think is still going on but I could be wrong, so I won't discuss this that much.

From what I can tell Helldivers 2 follows the idea that Super Earth, the protagonist planet for Helldivers 2, won the first galactic war, destroying the Automatons and making the Illuminate extinct same with the Terminids only for the nations to one by one return from the dead and start terrorizing the planets that Super Earth has under its control. Each group has a certain event tied to them, that the players can hamper or try to take down permanently. For Terminids, its the predator strain, for the Automatons, its the jetpack brigade, and the Illuminate its the Meridian black hole. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Live Service:

The live service of Helldivers 2 is probably one of the best ways to do live service in video games, unlike a certain Suicide Squad game.

Helldivers 2 reacts to the over all player count and what the players do. Depending on what planets they liberate, what planets they lose, and if they are able to accomplish the major order, but if the players fail to do any of the above, then the map and the lore changes to accommodate it, which I really like, as it makes what the players accomplish impactful... until it is reversed and a planet is lost after players spent a week or more to take it back.

And with the updates that make the game more fun, and better to play, it makes playing Helldivers 2 very enjoyable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ending Thoughts

I would rate this game a 10/10! 

Arrowhead is one of the few developers, that I've noticed, that care about there fans and want to make a good game, and one that I'm glad my friends introduced me to, so I'm able to play with them when we can't hang out in the real world.