Helldivers 2 (PS5/PC)

[hudson]

Well I've been pretty hyped for this. I never played the first game (well I have now due hype reasons - it's a fairly different game though), but after seeing the recent trailers, I've been getting some Lost Planet, Socom vibes. I was very much in need of a fun 3rd person shooter. So, I picked it up!

I've only played a handful of missions so far.

From what I've played so far, both with friends and randoms has been a laugh. The strategems (back up equipment you can call upon from the skies are limited so some tact is required. These will resupply you, or do airstrikes etc - you can unlock more as you level up. Levelling up unlocks things like new weapons, strategems, and other gear. You can also unlock new skins with the games currency which you can buy, but you can also get these creds in-game too.

The game loop is basically, squad up, pick a planet that needs assistance against the the bug aliens which are trying to take over, see there's this war going on and it's up to us to like win it, I think. It's like Starship Troopers innit?

The missions so far, are like take out Big Daddy bug or something, but once you've done that you can hang about the planet looking for loot and stuff for level up purposes etc. Then you can make it to the extraction point to get out of dodge.

The gunplay is really nice. I like the pistol which pops. Nades are cookable which is nice.

I love the environments. The graphics are surprisingly really nice (I thought this was gonna be indie game levels - if you get my meaning).

You can play alone, but it will be a challenge. I tried with randoms and the controller call-out buttons and in-game text chat were very useable.

Not had any issues getting into a match. I'm playing on PS5 in performance mode.

Anyway, I've probably missed some stuff out. I've barely scratched the surface and look forward to ploughing more time into it this weekend.

8/10 going off first impressions.

Video of a mission... The video actually givess a great impression of the game loop and japes.

[Tobal]

Well you must have some super special connection if you're getting randoms in, matching making just doesn't work for me and nearly everyone else by the looks of it right now and hasn't for most of the day, and looking at people on twitch playing co-op are those with pre-made lobby.

Trying to play this solo is terrible, zero balance, just kite mobs around throwing grenades at objectives when you have chance.

[hudson]

No special connection. I played for a few hours and never hit any connection issues. What platform are you on?

[Lebowski]

I had a few games early eve match made on PS5 with no problems, Where this came into its own was with a group of friends, though this is first and foremost a multiplayer game and I don't think you're going to have a good time playing solo or with random people. The loop here is to complete a mission, unlock new cosmetics weapons and special abilities, all while killing bugs and advancing the war effort across multiple planets, thus making you stronger and cooler looking in the process. I really enjoyed my first night on this and haven't laughed so much in ages, the devs have crafted a really cool playground for you to kill giant bugs with your friends the weapons feel really meaty and nice and talking down the giant bugs together feels great it never feels like your in each other's way and the friendly fire really elevate your need to work as a team, and can create some hilarious scenarios.

Theirs so many cool toys to play with too, from orbital bombardments, automatic gun turrets, drones that follow you and fire on enemies, rocket lauchers that require a teammate to hold the weapon with you, you can even call in a jet that will put down napalm over a wide area. The best weapon we found was by fixing a massive gun in game it gave us access to a nuke that we didn't stand back far enough from and half our team were wiped out. It was crazy how big the explosion was. We also learnt early on that the minefield gadget was both brilliant and also massively deadly to your team, with most death in our team because of this. One of our team thought it would be helpful to deploy a minefield over a bug nest, but it makes getting in close to seal up the bug tunnels pretty tricky. I really like how you deploy special weapons too, you pull up a menu on L1 and have to key in a series of button presses on your dpad it's all pretty simple but doing this while getting attacked requires cover from teammates and can really turn the tide of the battle when you're able to pull in some crazy explosives from the sky. Special shoutout goes to your ship's Ordinance Hero game which is an arcade game on your ship where you can practice the button presses needed in game that we played far too much between missions trying to beat each other's scores


Theirs very little story here you're a nameless solder in a Starship Trooper style war with bugs, bringing a very over the top "American" version of freedom and democracy to the galaxy. it's like you're in your very own B Movie, you even get to name your Super Destroyer from a set list of options, two of my faves ship names so far are the ombudsman of Wrath, and The Elected Representative of Destruction. Missions are timed and see you tasked with things like repairing a rocket silo killing, getting a radar station up and running again or killing a super Bug, you also have a series of secondary objectives to that net you more XP and more in game currency like sealing x amount of bug holes or clear out specific areas of the map. Missions cumulates with an extraction where you get two minutes of holding the bugs back before hopping on a ship and getting out alive, how well you do on a Misson directly relates to your mission rewards, it works well as you get special rewards for extracting the whole team and for things like having revives left so its in your interest to protect your team and work together.

The environments are lovely We started off on a snow like planet, and it's rare for a game like this to offer up so many environmental hazards we found ourselves wading through deep snow or skating about on ice and having to dodge freezing lakes and strange alien crystals that explode slowing you and causing freeze damage, diving forward on ice sees you skidding along too, the game world feels like the devs really want you to explore and mess about in these environments. It's not just snow planets, so far we've seen barren and inhospitable planets with rocky outcrops, explosive plants and poisons gas spewing out from the planet's core, and lush environments where you're trampling through massive fields of Moreland like plant and shrubs. Theirs a fair bit of environmental destruction at play too, during one extraction we started off in a base and as the explosives went off all around us buildings fell down and the bugs came from all angles before we limped into the drop-ship.

Based off last nights play for a team it's 10 out of 10, playing solo it's a 7 or 8 all day, but then it's not meant to be played this way. What I do know is I'm itching to get back online and unlock some more weapons, and it's been a while since a game has grabbed me the way this has, it's a great package and a pretty decent price for what you're getting which is a solid multiplayer experience just don't go in here expecting to play solo.

[fishbowlhead]

Hotfix incoming today for matchmaking apparently.

[Tobal]

Based off last nights play for a team it's 10 out of 10, playing solo it's a 7 or 8 all day, but then it's not meant to be played this way. What I do know is I'm itching to get back online and unlock some more weapons, and it's been a while since a game has grabbed me the way this has, it's a great package and a pretty decent price for what you're getting which is a solid multiplayer experience just don't go in here expecting to play solo.

I assume by solo play you mean solo queue rather than playing alone, as playing it as 1 player game is an awful experience no where near a 7/10 game. Hopefully the match making fix comes out shortly for ps5.

[hudson]

I can matchmake with randoms. I must be lucky

[fishbowlhead]

I assume by solo play you mean solo queue rather than playing alone, as playing it as 1 player game is an awful experience no where near a 7/10 game. Hopefully the match making fix comes out shortly for ps5.

I think a lot of people are trying to play this like halo or gears where your nigh on invincible, this definitely isn’t that. Your absolutely a vulnerable squishy meat bag and planing planing planning is the order of the day to every encounter.

[Lebowski]

I think a lot of people are trying to play this like halo or gears where your nigh on invincible, this definitely isn’t that. Your absolutely a vulnerable squishy meat bag and planing planing planning is the order of the day to every encounter.

definitely it can go from you feeling like a team of crazy alien bug killers to it all falling apart very quickly, one mission we got the drop on the giant bug, by sneaking up on him and dropping an orbital bombardment right next to him for an instant kill, another mission saw us getting too cocky at a nest and getting overrun by these massive green acid spitter things, scattered out of ammo and getting melted by walls of acid requiring a fallback some more team focused coordination of what we were taking down.

[hudson]

The splash back from some of the explosions shows how much of a bag of mince you are. It's hilarious though.

[fishbowlhead]

definitely it can go from you feeling like a team of crazy alien bug killers to it all falling apart very quickly, one mission we got the drop on the giant bug, by sneaking up on him and dropping an orbital bombardment right next to him for an instant kill, another mission saw us getting too cocky at a nest and getting overrun by these massive green acid spitter things, scattered out of ammo and getting melted by walls of acid requiring a fallback some more team focused coordination of what we were taking down.

The very first drop on my very first mission I dropped directly ontop of the boss bug solo, it was a hilarious way to be introduced to the brutal reality of the game, it was also utter carnage, it required no less than dipping, ducking, dodging and more dipping.

[nonny]

Apparently you can get the PC version running on steam deck (around a solid 30fps) if you use Proton-GE 47 or 48 but it currently only works in desktop mode... that anti-cheat is causing the issue.

[QualityChimp]

This is probably the first game that's on the PS5 that I really want to play.
It's still not enough to make me want to upgrade, but this is totally my bag, baby.
I'll probably play some EDF, but watching a couple of gameplay videos, everybody was having a blast (literally), with nuke strike, orbital cannons and grenades.
Some nice cause and effect like the laser satellites creating craters or a player to close to a blast getting a broken leg.

->Open Spoiler<-

" Helldivers 2 is Outrageous Fun...if you can get it to start

[hudson]

memember the lost planet times? They were the best of the times.

Deffo has Lost Planet influence, I'd say. Oh I miss that Lost Planet clunk!

[fishbowlhead]

Named my ship the “Stallion of Morality” to defend democracy.