Helldivers 2

A large-scale cooperative third-person extraction shooter, Helldivers 2 continues the story of humanity’s fight against alien invaders across fronts spanning the entire galaxy. After their defeat in the finale of Helldivers, the vicious foes have regrouped and launched another assault on the worlds of humanity. Once again, the “Helldivers” have been called into action: elite soldiers who can fight for freedom and democracy with the biggest, coolest, and most explosive weapons in the galaxy. Despite lacking a serious plot or a unique protagonist, the game has built a huge fan base thanks to its fast-paced, chaotic gameplay, funny friendly-fire mechanics, high difficulty, and well-designed co-op systems.

The Helldivers series takes place in a hypothetical sci-fi future where the Federation of Humanity has conquered the galaxy under the wise leadership of Super Earth. People prosper by taking part in military campaigns to destroy any life forms that threaten their values and freedom. Namely, giant bugs, communist robots, and the mysterious Illuminates.

The sequel, Helldivers 2, focuses on satirizing authoritarian regimes, relentless propaganda, and the military industry. For example, Super Earth may seem like a symbol of freedom and liberalism, but in reality, it is an ultra-authoritarian regime. Sarcasm and mockery can be seen in the style of the game’s environments, the posters and videos shown to players, the character designs, and the lines spoken during combat. The sincere enthusiasm of soldiers who “live for 20 minutes,” as they talk about freedom, liberalism, and shared values, recalls the meme-worthy intro to the 1997 film Starship Troopers. But the creators of Helldivers 2 have taken the parody even further, sometimes pushing it to absurd levels.

The sequel’s events follow on from the original, but you don’t need to know what came before. Helldivers 2 simply has no script, large cast of characters, or staged scenes. The developers direct events, while every player and the entire community help shape the story by actively taking part.

There is a galaxy map with sectors, subsectors, and planets that players fight over. The players’ task is to liberate a planet from one enemy or another. The developers, meanwhile, make sure the process of democratization is costly for the human team, handing out bonuses or penalties in the form of hordes of cannon fodder.

New types of enemies are added, and humanity goes on the defensive. Weapons or powerful vehicles are added to the map, and the liberation of the galaxy speeds up. A new alien faction suddenly attacks, and the community finds itself in trouble on every front. The developers’ direct influence on gameplay is what sets Helldivers 2 apart from other live-service games.

Based on the community’s successes in the galactic war, the developers release news updates about another success in democratization or its sudden failure, writing the story as they go. While keeping players engaged in what’s happening.

Each planet in Helldivers 2 has a unique terrain-and-ecosystem combination, drawn from a set of core terrain types (sand, rocks, hills, tundra, ice, jungles, meadows) and environmental conditions (sandstorms, thick fog, rain, heat, and more, including volcanic eruptions, meteor showers, and fire tornadoes). This combination is permanently assigned to the planet.

The locations where players land, however, are randomly generated based on the planet’s terrain and environmental conditions, as well as the difficulty selected by the players. This creates a unique setting, with its own features and challenges, making every landing exciting. The environment actively affects gameplay, while the changing day and night cycle adds variety to the experience.

Adapting to the environment is an important part of success. For example, the deep snow on an icy world slows movement, but the cold gives energy weapons an advantage by keeping them cool. An ion storm that breaks out during the fight for democracy will cut off communication with orbital support. Or take a sandy world: it won’t hinder movement until the wind kicks up the sand, but its high temperatures limit your weapon choices to firearms. And all this takes place under the threat of a scorching fire tornado.

Players travel between planets aboard spaceships that serve as fully featured hubs. Acting as an operations base, each ship lets players customize their loadout and ship, unlock new gear, weapons, armor, and ship upgrades, and buy cosmetics. The hub also serves as a social space, where players can form groups, review landing intel, and prepare for the mission.

Each landing includes a set of main and optional objectives, regardless of the selected difficulty. Most main objectives are designed to take 40 minutes and involve defending facilities or areas; finding useful resources; evacuating civilians; locating data and transmitting it to base; or simply raising a flag. A smaller number of objectives take 10–15 minutes and involve killing a certain number of enemies or wiping out enemy bases or nests.

Optional objectives are side missions that especially eager and experienced players can complete without losing focus on the main landing objectives. For example, they might activate a radar station, retrieve data from a rescue capsule, eliminate a special target, destroy a research station, activate an artillery emplacement, destroy an anti-aircraft gun, and more. These objectives may be marked on the map from the start or discovered by players themselves.

As is standard for live-service games, Helldivers 2 players receive personal daily missions. The community also gets orders from Command, such as conquering or defending a planet.

The core gameplay is simple: complete the landing objectives and evacuate while exposed in the open, as enemies charging in from all sides try to stop you. The situation quickly descends into chaos as players struggle to complete objectives, make constant strategic decisions while short on everything, and keep their fingers on the trigger. Friendly fire and limb injuries add a touch of realism, making things even more intense.

You can mow down your enemies with an arsenal that includes revolvers, submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, marksman rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, hand grenades, and mines. Each weapon has its own stats (damage, rate of fire, recoil, and penetration) that affect how effective it is against different enemies. Armor comes in three types: light, medium, and heavy. Each offers a different playstyle and passive bonuses to your character’s stats.

Stratagems are a unique feature of Helldivers 2. Players on the ground can call them in, and they are dropped from the ship at a designated spot. Their only limit is a cooldown. Stratagems provide players with supplies, healing items, and other equipment bonuses, or powerful ways to fight enemies—air and orbital strikes. They add variety to the tactical options available during gameplay.

Progression in Helldivers 2 has several parts. Completing missions earns players samples (resources of three rarity levels), medals, requisition slips, Super Credits , and experience. The amount of rewards depends on the difficulty of the drop, the objectives completed during it, any caches found, and plain luck. Difficulty is its own reward: the more successfully you complete drops, the tougher missions the game will offer you.

Each reward has its own use. Experience builds up into levels, which determine a player’s rank and the available drop difficulty, and let them buy new stratagems. Medals earned after each drop can be used to buy better weapons and gear in the store. Samples unlock new ship modules. Super Credits—the equivalent of real money, which can also be found in the game—unlock cosmetic items.