Helldivers 2 Review

deploying reinforcements the first time my squad fought a bile Titan was a disaster we dropped into a Hot Zone full of terminats and lost all of our extra lives before we even found the thing it took everything we had and more than a little luck to bring it down but somehow we managed to do that and get the entire Squad back onto our Evac ship and then we Dove right back in for More Hell divers 2 is hilarious smartly designed and intense especially when you're serving up a nice hot cup of Liberty with your buddies with varied missions a huge catalog of stuff to unlock and long-term campaigns against the bugs and robots to fight in the name of managed democracy helver 2 has enough laughs close shaves and pure unabashed fun to keep you plenty busy as you meet and then immediately kill all sorts of exotic life forms for the glory of super Earth [Music] no sweet Liberty look familiar after a gut-busting opening piece of mandatory propaganda explains that superar is under attack from the robotic automatons and the legal distinct but still totally the bugs from Starship Troopers terminats you're dropped into hell diver basic training this hilarious tutorial mercilessly gasses you up arm yourself and show that bug the true meaning of freedom and think gives you command of your own Super Destroyer spaceship I named mine the elected representative of family values from there you'll head right to the front lines each world has multiple missions with multiple objectives which range from destroying terminant eggs to activating your local nuclear armed ICBM just a regular day at the office for your average hell diver maps are distinct and unique even on the same Planet one might have a lot of water in Hills while another is heavily forested or covered in snow on top of that each Mission usually has a couple of optional objectives to complete like loading a piece of artillery that you can use later or terminating a treas in this broadcast combine that with bugs bursting up from underground and robot drop ships delivering reinforcements from above and no two missions ever play out the same wayel one preparing for Touchdown shooting is satisfyingly weighty and Hell divers 2 forces you to coordinate to succeed as a group or play smart if you're alone extraction complete one begin as you're racing against the clock if your mission timer hits zero you won't be able to call in any more strategems special abilities like orbital strikes or additional weapons like the rail gun your squad has a limited number of lives too so you have to pick your priorities manage your resources and choose where to spend your time then there are the cool little Touches for instance reloading discards any remaining rounds you have in a clip if your leg takes damage you won't be able to Sprint and if your arm is injured you'll be less accurate these TAA Tails make sure you're always thinking about how to best face The Horde around you hell divers 2 is also generous with the rewards that you can buy on your super Destroyer between missions don't have a cool weapon you'll probably find something fun to use temporarily during a mission and then be able to afford a better gun of your own after a few rounds one of my favorites is the anti-material rifle an anti- armor Behemoth that lets you take on huge bile spewing bugs without ever getting close to them and that's handy because they can kill you in a single volley if they do and then there's the rail gun you simply point it at a problem and the problem becomes a puddle at your feet sometimes there are even special events that give a specific strategy to every hell diver for a limited time you don't get to keep any weapons you pick up on the map once the mission ends but trying them out by finding them or during special events is a nice way to test them before unlocking something permanently one of the ways you'll do that is through a battle pass yes there's a paid version with lots of weapons and armor but there's also a free one with even more stuff and you can also just unlock gear the oldfashioned way by completing missions the free alone gives you almost enough premium currency to upgrade to the paid version and you can find more during missions if you explore enough it also Sports what might be hell divers 2's best weapon the breaker a fully automatic shotgun that Treads terminats and automatons alike that's not to say the premium battle pass doesn't have cool exclusives I love the explosive Liberator a high powered version of the basic Liberator assault rifle but you don't need them to succeed meanwhile strategems and ship upgrades can only be purchased Within game currencies you earn by completing mission objectives so there's plenty to unlock not tied to a pass a lot of these can make a huge difference in how you play one of the first things I earned was the ability to call in a stationary turret that automatically blasts away I found out the hard way that Friendly Fire is a thing and it can kill you if you stand in front of it which makes for some really funny moments but it's a legitimate game Cher when you have to hold off a swarm I've since upgraded to the mortar Sentry which I never leave the elected representative of family values without you can unlock every strategy currently available at level 20 which took me somewhere around 30 hours to hit progression definitely slowed down as I got closer to that point but levels still feel like they're coming when I want them to especially when I play at higher difficulties if there's a downside to this it's that there's so much stuff to unlock that it's tough to decide which things to get first some are noticeably better than others too but again hell 2 never feels like it's trying to trick you into spending money for something you don't know if you'll want in an era of nickel and diming the fact that you can comfortably ignore the paid battle pass entirely is [Music] awesome you'll need every strategy an ounce of teamwork you can muster to defeat the foes of super Earth and there's a ton of enemy Variety in Hell divers 2 there's your standard issue small bugs but there are also bigger guys that spit acid at you armored bugs that will charge you and bugs that can go invisible and I haven't even gotten to the robots with chainsaws for hands or the flamethrower sporting hulks or their honest to God battle tanks that will chase you hell divers 2 forces you to plan a strategy coordinate with your teammates and then think on the Fly once things inevitably go wrong my arm and it's a satisfying to pull off an improbable come from behind Victory as it is to accidentally blow up your friend with an air strike if hell divers 2 has any caveat it's that it kind of has to be played with friends to get the best experience none of the difficulty levels scale to your player count so you'll only really have a chance alone at the lower end of its nine options which will slow your progression when played with friends though hell divers 2 sings there have also been some performance issues around its launch with iffy matchmaking and postmatch rewards that don't always go through in a couple of games my frame rate resembled a PowerPoint presentation and one time this happened at minutes funny absolutely but not a good way to fight the foes of super Earth thankfully these problems have gotten rarer as patches arrive but they aren't 100% solved yet none of it stops hell iers 2 from being a ton of fun I love the way it delivers little pieces of lore through funny propaganda videos on your Super Destroyer so next time you find yourself unable to run aim or stay alive stick yourself with a Sim Soldier watch a few and you realize we might be the baddies that's the stuff is also intentionally over the top that it's impossible not to smile the existence of high casualty missions implies the existence of low casualty missions and we can some solace in that hell divers 2 has my regular Squad and I shouting things like looks like those robots could use some Freedom while playing how about a nice of Liberty and I always laugh when an air strike turns my hell diver into nothing but a bloody torso wearing a cape I also love that death means you get a new hell diver with a new voice there's so many little details like this that make hell divers 2 special hell divers 2 is the rare modern multiplayer game that does almost everything right it gives you a ton of freedom feels fantastic to play and has a smart progression system that doesn't push you toward paying real money it manages to keep its missions fresh by introducing a lot of enemies modifiers and objectives and varying them in interesting ways there are some matchmaking and performance issues that still need to be worked out and you can only go so far by yourself or with random players but if you've got a solid Squad it's an incredible time and certainly one of the most fun multiplayer Shooters I've played in years now if you'll excuse me I'm going to pour myself a nice hot cup of Liberty and get back to it those bugs and robots look like they could use some freedom for more multiplayer shooting check out our review of foam stars or for a different kind of alien bug killing our review of Deep Rock Galactic Survivor and for everything else keep it here at IGN

Channel: IGN

Views: 1,186,189

Keywords: Action, Arrowhead Game Studios, Cross-Platform Play, Cross-Platform Saves, Helldivers, Helldivers II, Local Four-Player Multiplayer, Offline Co-Op Multiplayer, Online Co-Op Multiplayer, Online Connection Required, Online Four-Player Multiplayer, PC, PlayStation 5, Shooter, Third-Person, helldivers, co-op, starship troopers, gameplay, impressions, helldivers 2 review, helldivers 2 review ps5, helldivers 2 review ign, helldivers 2

Id: gwSYHqPLnhs

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 17 2024