Our VerdictServer issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter.
Our VerdictServer issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter.
Our Verdict
Our Verdict
Server issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter.
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PC Gamer’s got your backOur experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you.Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.
Need to know
Expect to pay£35/$40
Release dateOut now
DeveloperArrowhead Game Studios
PublisherPlayStation PC
Reviewed onRTX 2070, i7-10750H, 16GB RAM
Steam DeckPlayable
LinkOfficial site
$36.99View at Amazon$39View at WalmartLow Stock$43.70View at WalmartSee all prices (6 found)51 Amazon customer reviews☆☆☆☆☆
$36.99View at Amazon$39View at WalmartLow Stock$43.70View at WalmartSee all prices (6 found)51 Amazon customer reviews☆☆☆☆☆
$36.99View at Amazon$39View at WalmartLow Stock$43.70View at WalmartSee all prices (6 found)
$36.99View at Amazon
$36.99View at Amazon
$39View at Walmart
$39View at Walmart
Low Stock$43.70View at Walmart
Low Stock
Low Stock
Low Stock
Low Stock
$43.70View at Walmart
See all prices (6 found)
51 Amazon customer reviews☆☆☆☆☆
51 Amazon customer reviews☆☆☆☆☆
☆☆☆☆☆
Starship bloopers
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
It’s not only the denouement of missions that make lasting memories either. In this four-player squad shooter (solo play is possible, but not much fun), every element harmonises explosively, resulting in scenes that really could have been choreographed for the movies. And, well, in a sense they were. Helldivers 2 is unashamedly a mash of sci-fi action film tropes, with a large slice of Starship Troopers on proud display, sprinkles of Aliens and the Terminator series on top. Every line of its code works to recreate thefeelof their iconic scenes—panic, bravado, dark humour—through improvised mayhem.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
Air and orbital strikes are a quick way to decimate swathes of enemies, but equally the surest means of butchering your friends.
Air and orbital strikes are a quick way to decimate swathes of enemies, but equally the surest means of butchering your friends.
It’s the same with automatic gun turrets, mine pods and beefy hand-held ordnance. You literally can’t live without them, but their deployment might work against you, whittling down your reinforcement stock faster than the enemy could have hoped. And even with an organised squad, mistakes happen simply because skirmishes escalate so wonderfully stupidly quickly in Helldivers 2. One minute, you’re in tight formation, calmly pinging distant threats (a very useful feature), the next you’re diving behind a rock to avoid a charging beetle, its chums burrowing up on all sides, your team scattered. Before the dust settles, someone saves an ally from certain death, someone goes down in a blaze of suicidal glory, and of course someone punches an airstrike command and lobs the targeting device without checking your position first.
Fighting fit
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
It’s not any one element of Helldivers 2 that makes it sing, however. They all conspire together. With the enemies, the numbers are huge—with framerate drops very rare—closing in like xenomorphs nesting in a reactor, but also the specifics of each kind force you to react differently, making you run, stand firm or dive to the dirt, scatter grenades or whip out a shotgun for close encounters. You learn that the bigger, deadlier creatures and androids, which start popping up in about the fourth or fifth of the game’s nine difficulty levels, have specific weak spots. Getting them in your sights is often a matter of using the terrain to your advantage or combining with a mate, one of you baiting the target while the other strikes from the rear.
Mission design, meanwhile, is involving and varied even at this early stage. From destroying bug nests or bot factories to grabbing soil samples or preparing the launching of an ICBM, objectives span multiple stages, which send you between traversing the sizeable maps to holding positions while stabbing inputs into terminals, manually moving machinery or waiting for processes to complete. Missions also offer multiple sub-objectives, tempting you to boost your XP and currency rewards, with the caveat that enemy forces increase the longer you stay planetside. Such decisions can balance your efforts on a knife edge.
The visuals and audio are spot on too. Each planet has a distinct personality—colour, natural cover, hazards, environmental features—while bugs are reliably disgusting and bots are as menacing as the Terminator influence implies. The sound is the star, though, from pitch perfect gunfire, reload clacks and explosions, to the chitter and squeal of insects, the perfectly-timed “Eat this!” and “For democracy!” barks of your team, and a score that’s equal parts jingoistic and dramatic. It’s almost a shame to turn on your microphones, although definitely advisable.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
Still, after 20 hours of play, a sense of grind did begin to kick in a little. The quantities of XP and currencies required to level up and grab more powerful stratagems, weapons and armour push you towards higher difficulty levels, which are tough to manage without well-organised and equipped teams. It can feel like a bit of a Catch 22, in which you need better gear to tackle their challenge, but it’s difficult to get that gear until you do.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
That’s less of a concern of course if you have a team of friends ready to dive with, and despite the hiccups, those initial 20 hours have largely been joyous. The prospect of unlocking more planets and more spectacular toys to play with, plus a hundred more last-ditch sprints to the dropship, is far more enticing than the vast majority of live service propositions.
Helldivers 2: Price Comparison
51 Amazon customer reviews☆☆☆☆☆
51 Amazon customer reviews☆☆☆☆☆
☆☆☆☆☆
$36.99View$39View$43.70ViewLow Stock$53.72ViewLow Stock$75.99$63.46ViewLow Stock
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$39View
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$43.70ViewLow Stock
$43.70View
$43.70View
$43.70
$43.70
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Low Stock
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Low Stock
$53.72ViewLow Stock
$53.72View
$53.72View
$53.72
$53.72
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Low Stock
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$75.99$63.46ViewLow Stock
$75.99$63.46View
$75.99$63.46View
$75.99$63.46
$63.46
Low Stock
Low Stock
Low Stock
Low Stock
Low Stock
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The Verdict86Read our review policyHelldivers 2Server issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter.
The Verdict
The Verdict
86Read our review policyHelldivers 2Server issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter.
86Read our review policy
86
Helldivers 2Server issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter.
Helldivers 2
Server issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter.
More about helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 is getting a film adaptation, even though Starship Troopers already exists
Helldivers 2 is getting a film adaptation, even though Starship Troopers already exists
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