Helldivers 2 Thoughts

Helldivers 2 is a weird one, I've been a Sony first party games fan for a while and one thing I've always seen is that every time they would attempt a multiplayer game whether it would be only that or have a single player, they would never get the audience that they were looking for and never really broke out to mainstream success. They would have cult followings but never become mainstream. Enter Helldivers 2, the first game I ever recall where Sony published a multiplayer game that is apart of the Playstation brand where it broke out into the big leagues, I've seen people cosplay as Helldivers 2 characters at conventions and that was the final nudge to make me play this game. I had PS Plus for one month so I might as well jump in even though I still can't help but hold a grudge at the Xbox 360 for popularizing online paywalls for console multiplayer. That was a big hurdle to get past to play this game since PS Plus I didn't have much use for outside of the occasional sale.

With all that out of the way, what did I think? I wanted to like this game, I really do but despite having a lot going for it, the game to me is just okay at best.

What I liked about Helldivers 2 is the gunplay and weapon feedback. Weapons have decent punch and killing hordes of enemies felt gratifying to do. I like the look and designs of the game even if it can be derivative of franchises like Starship Troopers and Halo, everything in terms of moment to moment shooting and the aesthestics, the game nails. I also like that it even uses Metal Gear Solid 5's movement system like being able to crouch, go prone, dive, dive into prone, and shoot while knocked down, the fact that there is even a game that uses that uses MGS5's moveset in the context of a third person shooter is pretty cool. It was another thing that piqued my interest regarding the game.

However there is one thing that held the game back for me and that is the fact that it's a multiplayer live service game without a traditional campaign. I know me being the introverted gamer that I am I was better off playing a dedicated single player game but I'd argue that even games like the Sqaure Enix Avengers game did try to have a single player, it wasn't very good, but it could've been implemented to some degree with this game.

As it is without one, I just play with random people randomly through matchmaking and while I do get some fun out of it, I just get bored after extended hours since there is no story or campaign mode. I'm not the kind of guy to condemn a game for having a bad story but I tend to like games even gameplay driven ones to have some narrative.

So much of Helldivers 2 mainly just consists of doing of objectives on a map where it's "do x" or "destroy y" while fighting hordes of enemies and then waiting for a chopper extraction when done. It starts to get so one note and samey, maybe this is what live service games are all about, I don't know, I only ever played the aforementioned Avengers game when it comes to those kinds of titles.

The more I was playing Helldivers 2, the more I felt like playing 2 hours of the game felt like I have seen everything. Leveling up takes far too long if playing on medium difficulty or below which is worse for me since anything higher than medium doesn't even make me an effective helping gun or meat shield since I die so quickly.

Overall, I wanted to really enjoy Helldivers 2 for how popular it is and for being the first multiplayer Sony 1st party game with mainstream success but live service games really aren't my thing. Maybe if they ever add a campaign I could try to play it again which is doubtful, but as it stands, I certainly won't be touching live service titles, and at the same time since I won't be, it means I won't be one of those guys on the internet who whines about all the time knowing that those games aren't aimed at them and aren't their thing.