Helldivers 2 Review: "A Refreshingly Fun Power Fantasy"
excels in a wildly entertaining duality, frequently swinging between incredible power fantasy and chaotic hilarity. Arrowhead Game Studios' third-person co-op shooter, playable with up to four people online, comes nearly a decade after the first, a top-down shooter which was released in 2015. While the original garnered a small, dedicated player base, is already off to a blistering start, having so many concurrent players in its first weekend that the game's maximum server capacity was hit. It only takes a handful of missions to see the innate brilliance of, and a couple dozen hours have revealed a satisfying depth in its gameplay synergies, but the game's longevity remains to be seen, despite genuinely fascinating use of its always-online, live-service nature.
In, players are tasked with spreading Super Earth's managed democracy – a satirical front for an authoritarian, highly militaristic regime wishing to control the galaxy. To bring liberty to distant planets, players, as elite soldiers known as Helldivers, are lowered into orbital drop pods and fired onto the planets that are currently the Galactic War's front lines. Missions vary based on objectives, enemies, difficulty, and time limit, but they all have one thing in common: leveraging an incredible amount of firepower. There's a visceral gratification to firing a hundred-some bullets into a swarm of encroaching alien bugs, or calling in a rolling bombardment from orbit on a fortress controlled by deadly robots.
Helldivers 2 is a refreshingly fun power fantasy.
Two things become almost immediately apparent when playing: shooting a lot of bullets at a lot of enemies feels really, really good, and the game's own wanton disregard for the safety of the Helldivers makes it a practical slapstick comedy. Friendly fire is a cornerstone of, and defending a position by raining lead down on a platoon of space bugs can instantly turn from incredibly badass to hysterical as soon as a teammate accidentally steps into the
