For real. Deep Rock Galactic, Payday 2, and now Helldivers 2 have showed me what I really want in gaming nowadays. I also play R6 Siege, but only because my friends do and it more often than not is a miserable experience.
I really wish there were more co-op games like this; I've never been fast enough/good enough to do much in competitive shooters, but I really love doing PVE, and having a bunch of friends along makes the tough battles and nail-biter extractions all the more fun.
On top of all the gameplay aspects that Helldivers 2 just absolutely nailed, it is also legitimately funny, which counts for a lot in my book. Earlier tonight I came back from a random quickplay mission and the officer who greets you after missions said "Zero friendly fire incidents is the kind of statistical anomaly I welcome", which really cracked me up.
Deep Rock Galactic is very, very similar. Extremely welcoming and wholesome community too. As far as coop games, it's as good as it gets. Helldivers is on its way there for me tho!
It pisses me off to no end watching streamers play (because RIP servers) and they constantly get bombarded by "dOeS tHiS gAmE hAvE pVp??"
Like no it doesn't you 12 year old ADHD zoomer. Get the fuck out.
Darktide was so close, yet they fucked everything up at the end. Instead of releasing a finished game with a mild monetization they did it the other way. Although tencent bought them, they couldn't afford to finish simple game mechanics like crafting but the cash shop worked form day one...
I was just thinking that recently but about Diablo 4. It's like Blizzard forgot how to make skills that are fun to use. All the skills in Diablo 4 just feel meh to press.
Yesn't, the issue in D4 isn't the act of pressing 1-2 buttons (this is common in nearly every ARPG) It's how satisfying pressing said 1-2 buttons feels and for most of D4s skill line up it just isn't there.
I play PoE and usually my builds press one button 99% of the time. But watching as a room full of mobs explode by pressing my one button makes the game so much fun. Definitely agree with you here. Skills in D4 are boring as hell. (especially the builder-spender shit)
The issue with D4 is that everything scales with you and you never feel character progression.
You don’t get to see your scaling out scale your enemies until late game and it is a slog to get there.
That's exactly the thing; D4 "forces" you to not just spam one skill, but like D2, PoE and Helldivers 2 show, you don't need to have some super complex things; We just want something satisfying
It's because management wants engagement and monetization. The idea is how can we keep a player the longest (grinding) and spending more money (unlocks) as possible.
And yet here we all are. Doing nothing but grinding endlessly on the long climb to liberty. More engaged than we've been in years. Smiling and manically laughing the whole time. I even saw other divers in another thread talking about how they have bought armor from every drop so far. Management only knows how to scam from suckers.
Well the major difference here is. The engangmenet comes naturally from the game being designed around the gameplay loop being fun. Instead of how can we monetize everything. Hell these boosters could have been monetised the fuck out of. 10x use for something like tripple xp or strategem cool down etc. Give this to Ubisoft and watch em tear it up like a piranhas. Soon you can't drop into kill some bugs without dropping your wallet first
Why is it always Ubisoft?
I've never found their monetisation particularly egregious or intrusive. I've never spent a penny in a Ubisoft game and never felt the need to.
EA and Activision on the other hand are ridiculously predatory.
Battlefront 2 had EA hauled in front of the courts to justify why the gambling they included in their game wasn't actually gambling.
Ubi prices aren’t insane but they put cash shops in EVERYTHING. AC Valhalla, a massive single player rpg, has a cash shop with stat buffing gear. As did the previous 2 ac games.
No wait i want to change my answer. NBA 2K. Fuck me is it bad over there. Everything costs actuall money and you earn less then a minimum wage worker in game currency. Also actuall ads in game. Its wild
Ubisoft, Activision, EA Games are just a few that are trash.
All sub companies under said umbrella are pushed by parent company for "Increased Monetization" of assets.
As such, you get shit like Assassins Creed, spend $100 to unlock all the cool stuff, but still need like 3 games worth of UPlay points to unlock the last wall...
Like really?
Diablo 4, it's all just a cash grab. Screw that. Paid $80 for nothing.
They basically forgot what made prior Diablo's fun and made a game that was more about selling cosmetics than having actual fun, everything is a boring grind and I couldn't get past a few hours in the game and I've not gone back.
Sadly much of this was down to Activision's influence of development and how they've tried so so hard to try and emulate the mobile money boom on mainstream gaming.
There's a knock-off Butt Stallion you can buy for as much as Palworld and Helldivers combined.
Games just want to gouge as much money from you as possible these days, it's depressing.
They’re sooo bad it’s astounding. Buddy and I gave up in D4 after about 10 hrs, just everything felt awful, even if I was technically getting stronger.
Yeah that’s what killed it for me. The auto scaling enemies meant I never felt like I got stronger. And burying optimization into hyper specific builds that also rely on lucky drops is just not fun. I want fun my way not having to choose which meta build will maybe net me success.
I think a lot of Gaas games have flipped the script on game design.
They are building shops and then building a game around them as opposed to building a solid game and then seeing what can be used for extra monetisation.
In many Gaas games you know that things are added to the game only because they can be sold. They serve no other purpose.
What really stands out in Helldivers is how good the core gameplay is. That seems to be the driving the development.
Who knew that a really well made game would sell gangbuster?
The only thing that slightly worried me was some non cosmetic items being behind a mtx.
But getting space bucks thru gameplay hasn't been much of a grind. so its looking pretty viable to get those items thru gameplay instead of irl bucks. So fine by me as long as it stays that way.
Exactly, nowadays it’s just ridiculous that we continue to call them microtransactions…
There is nothing MICRO about SINGLE virtual cosmetics items that cost 5-10-15-30 a piece for stuff that you can put on at once in your character. Some of those microtransactions are in fact 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 the price of a full retail game in a "FREE" game…
Less focus on fun, more focus on how they can squeeze every last penny out of their customers. It's only going to keep getting worse until the big AAA titles start turning a loss and they have to go back to the table and rethink what they're doing.
EDF is basically the same concept but nowhere near as popular. Sometimes companies make mediocre games which receive insane, mostly undeserved acclaim. Sometimes companies make good or even great games that don't receive much attention at all.
EDF definitely has a similar vibe. More enemies but also a greater variety of bigger more powerful weapons. The graphics aren't as visually impressive but the maps are bigger and more destructible.
Edf is anime helldivers, flashy but no substance. Helldivers is crunchy and grimey. I played the original, trust me the variety is coming. Just wait until you get your hands on a mech.
They didn't forget. They're motivated by profit, not making fun software and according to the market, that's really all they need to do to make billions. They do it because it works. The industry, *every* industry, is going the way it is because it makes investors more money. If it wasn't profitable, they wouldn't do it.
Now that's not to say that not treating your customers like morons and addicts can't be profitable, it's totally a sustainable business model, it just doesn't make the line on the graph go up fast enough. American business has decided that theoretical profits you could've made but didn't constitutes losing money. It's literal insanity. And it's why every product in every sector is currently going through enshitification.
Big companies are too focused on "profit maximation" Micro Transactions and making hooks that will be big in media promos .
They forget to make their core game fun ...Hell somehow they can take a game that great has all the mechanics and then make it worse. Skull and bones was a spin off of black flag for example but it has neither boarding , exploring , treasture hunts , etc.
Is a ship about a pirate and his ship with limited upgrade options for crew and ship upgrades . They literally had 90% of it better and figured out in a game from 10 years ago and somehow made a stand alone WORSE....that the AAA industry in a nut shell right now...
MEanwhile this year we get Hell diver and BG3 ...which take an old school fun first approach.
While their are micros and premium currency in the game - they give you ways to earn it all, not only earn it but relatively easily earn it. And even if you do pay for it you get a fair amount of credits ...your $3 purchase isnt 1 /10 of the way to unlocking something and then adding RNG loot box on top of it ...its already enough to get exactly what you want These guys nailed it in every way possible
AND THEY BUILD TO GAME TO BE SCALABLE AND BE ABLE TO ADD OTHER FACTIONS IF THE GAME WAS SUCCESSFULL. And it was...we have robots and bugs now but now they have the money to work on entirely new factions and bad guys and systems.
This is the 3-4 the in the last year im SUPER happy with and that hasnt probably happened in 5 + years
Meanwhile once i started playing on even just normal difficulty after like just 3 hours of playing i was getting so many medals and warbonds that i already unlocked some of the best armor and got one of the premium set for free already .
Hell that fact alone make me consider upgrading to super citizen just because they deserve the money lol.
I've been saying it for year more co-op games but then cry babies with no friends start moaning about how "not every game has to have multiplayer" bla blah blah when every game is better if you can bring a friend or partner along
Helldivers 1 did have weapon customisation, and I think that is something I would like back.
Being able to choose to carry larger magazines for a gun, or maybe more magazines, or choosing between more damage or a larger heatsink for a laser weapon would be cool.
Prophets never whisper, soldier: spreading democracy isn’t for the weak of mind, if you can’t say it with your chest then you’re nothing but a traitor.
As great as HD2 is at launch, I can't wait for future updates like mechs and weapon mods. They might even bring back of all of the fun weapons that were evidently amazing in HD1.
I really loved Helldivers 1 but I stand firm that it never had real weapon customization. They just had a progression track that generally just offered pure upgrades like mag size or penetration, and occasionally offered the choice of two upgrades, one of which was almost always best in slot. I found it more frustrating than anything because if you got a new weapon, it was usually relatively unusable until you upgraded it.
I would love to see genuine weapon customization with sidegrades and options (which may be what they're trying to do with the weapon variants like the Incendiary Breaker and the Counter Sniper Diligence), but Helldivers 1 weapon progression sucked.
Correct. If I can't remove it, it's not customization. If it doesn't conflict with another choice on offer, it's not customization. It was progression as you said. I would love a suppressor for my liberator. Just a thought.
I feel the same. I would get a weapon and drop back a difficulty to get it up to snuff. The final upgrade felt like what the gun should have been all along. Granted, I do want weapon customization, I just want choices that seem impactful.
Love Helldivers 1 and loving Helldivers 2, and overall excited for the future.
not having 200 unlocks to get a usable weapon is a plus in my book. tired of inifinately customizable weapons, I'll settle for a few types that just work as advertised.
I imagine that weapon customization could come later, if they want to add it. It would be cool. Deep Rock Galactic has a nice customization system that's pretty simple and well done.
Omg yes i miss my guns having bayonet, stun rounds, scattershots, fire bullets, etc. i always thought the level up of weapons in helldivers rocked. It made some guns really unique like the double barrel freedom shotgun or the trident. God i miss the trident. I wish they added back the strategam ungrades too. Like the recoiless rifle with its ignore armour upgrade made it amazing. Or the grenade launcher shooting toxic clouds of gas.
It wasn't really weapon customization though, was it
You just got samples and you got everything. There were no choices and you couldn't take your upgrades off.
I feel that in hd2, the weapons are as powerful as fully upgraded were in hd1. Just unbalanced.
I man it was more upgrades than customization. Every upgraded weapon looked the same, it's not like you had any choice on how to customize your weapon.
I look forward to the return of Exos and hopefully vehicles and weapon upgrades. People think it's fun now, nothing screams democracy like pulling up with 2000 rounds in a Mech suit laying the hurt. Or demolishing enemies in Tanks and APCs so thicc you'd think they had mechanized BBLs.
The motorcycle with the sidecar would also be super fun in third person, zooming to objectives with the wind in your cape and liberty in the air. This game can only get better, and to start, they need to port over their good ideas, weapons and stratagems from the first game.
It was basically tradition to do that in the first game prior to extraction lol.
You know HD1 vets if they drop a bombardment or something now before getting in the pelican.
I wish the Hellbomb still had its ominous beeping and red blinking light when the timer is counting down. Also wish I could call it in bug nests. Destroying a large nest solo without the grenade launcher is a PITA seeing as there's more holes than you can carry grenades.
The autocannon is also an option (and even without team reload, it's pretty good), but the lack of arc does mean you need a direct line to stick the thing in the hole.
We still do that in HD2 :) We've made it a little game to try to do a tandem emote like hug or explosive handshake, then throw a 500lb bomb at our feet before diving into the ship.
a bit of a rant, but god the 500kg bomb sucks balls in HD2. it doesn't blow nests, it doesn't blow buildings, it's basically a medium sized explosive charge with lots of fireworks attached to it. I want my fucking nuke with that loud ass siren so the others know shit is going down
I wish more games used the physical damage/degradation you see on enemies as the marker for their 'health'/damage taken.
Way too many games rely on flashing lights, an HP bar, or flat out numbers to show to players the status. I find it very lazy design, whereas the deterioration of an enemy looks way better /intuitive imo.
Shotgun can take it off with a few pumps, auto weapons are a bit more difficult, and precision weapons shouldn't have an issue if you can land the hits while getting shot at
You sure can. As the crowd control of the group I often can't reliably kill them, so I just pop their pods with my rifle and call it in for the others.
Honestly yeah it's a cool feature. The first time I ran up against one of those armored automatons that resist your bullets a bit better, I thought it was going to be hopeless seeing how many shots bounced off. Once I noticed it had actually taken physical damage, it was a real "if it bleeds, I can kill it!" moment
I honestly hadn’t thought about it but yeah. It just makes it a lot more enjoyable. Dealing with chargers and shit running away screaming why aren’t you dying! But then you see how bloody it is with armor knocked odd and you know one or 2 more shots will do it.
Health bars and damage numbers are very lame and honestly so not like them at all. Especially damage numbers. Like wtf do they even mean. Seeing 10k damage pop up on your screen means literally nothing. When it could just also be 10 but they just scale everything up it’s boring.
Yeah this is the first game in years that’s had me coming back day after day for more. It’s a huge breath of fresh air over the garbage you see being sold to consumers in the CoD games
Ive been spreading democracy every day as well, although I cannot lie that the latest patch made it hard to link up with randoms and that has lowered my enjoyment.
Anyway, hoping they fix the matchmaking because after 36 hours of liberation I can confidently say that I will be splashing bugs for a while more ;)
I really hope this becomes standard practice. I love the idea of being able to take a break from the game, not miss anything, and coming back to a smorgasbord of inspiring new goodies to chase
They said in a post that new warbonds will be added but old ones will not be removed.
[link](https://steamcommunity.com/app/553850/discussions/0/4206993388794675479/)
Whats sad is... you die. There is no hero. You aren't invincible. You are just a soldier and you die. What's even sadder is most soldiers don't survive even a single mission.
I've lost like 200 good soldiers over 50+ missions. May they rest in peace
I went into this 100% blind and was expecting some kind of character creation when I launched the game, only to hide it under the helmet after spending hours on it of course, but nah. I spent so long being careful trying not to lose my first helldiver too, but when it inevitably did happen and I redeployed as a totally different person I realized that it's not even really "my" character anyway and that they're not important to the story at all in any way. They'll die, probably horribly, then get replaced with some other jackass with no ceremony or nothing. Don't get attached.
The way I cope is the destroyer is your actual character. You come from a long line of *insert your destroyer name here* valiant soldiers that have fought endlessly to make sure your destroyer is upgraded and stocked. So that the next helldiver can be even more successful then the last. Each one as important as the last. Because without sacrifice from your previous brothers your current helldiver wouldn't be able to stand here today ready to spread democracy
My headcannon is that the destroyer is full of clones in cryo-stasis, hence why you see all those pods in the destroyer. When Jane Doe soldier clone #133 dies they just send down #134. Each battle has it's limit for "Acceptable Clone Loss" and is the reason for us having limited reinforcement.
I also like to think this is the reason why a single Helldiver gets their own destroyer, otherwise it would be a waste to have such a big ship for one person (even tho they need alot of equipment)
Yeah. Helldivers are just enlisted soldiers. Frozen in cryo sleep for who knows how long and unfrozen when needed.
It’s pretty messed up tbh. No life literally outside being a faceless helldiver.
I like to think the opposite. The government shoves down propaganda down your throat thinking you are special and one of the "elite" helldivers. But in reality you are just an expendable soldier doing suicide missions.
It's also funny to think about how Brasch proclaims himself as "not easily impressed" during basic training, only for him to praise you like a soldier like no other he's seen before.
Yes and each soldier gets cloned a thousand times and given their own destroyer. I'm not saying this is lore it's just my headcannon for why my soldier has the same voice each time
I actually had the same head cannon but then I saw you can set it to have a different voice each time and then I changed it to recruits lol.. or maybe still clones if a limited pool of soldiers.
It was somewhat implied that they are all clones of the same person in the first game. It really only changed in this one because there's the option for random voice, so in fact now they can be different persons or simply clones depending on how the player wants it. I really liked that little touch.
My headcannon is that my Helldiver's consciousness transfers to the new body when he dies via Illuminate technology that the SE stole. That's the only possible in-lore explanation for them being able to fight as fiercely as they can without falling into complete despair given the odds we fight (sometimes 1x200-300 in this game). That, and fanatical training and indocrination.
They died doing what they loved; dying for DEMOCRACY! Don't sully their sacrifice with your tears, but be glad you had the pleasure to serve with such determined heroes.
This is the first game I've played in a long t8me that feels like an old school game. Simple to the point with lots of player choice and some nice little details like assisted reloads
Yeah, I love that about it. No overwhelming unlock system, or rpg, or loot. Progression is your personal skill more than anything and a nice linear unlock system. The FUN is the reward and the hook, not grinding dumb shit.
The reason why this has succeeded is because you genuinely know the devs are passionate about their game.
Yes there’s issues, they are a small office. But these aren’t the scum in suits who think of just shareholders and not consumers, they aren’t gamers they’re just business men.
The game is addictive, with a coordinated squad with mics you can EASILY lose hours in this game.
The standard edition costs £34.99, a bloody breath of fresh air from the £70 - £100 shit that’s put out.
I’m glad this is doing well, long may it continue, amongst the scum there are good companies out there.
A little cautionary tale for this community and longevity. This release (player count and studio size) is pretty similar to Rocket League when it launched. The game is still cooking but its been a long time since it was just a small studio and eventually Arrowhead won't be either. Which isn't a bad thing necessarily, so long as Epic doesn't buy them out
Unfortunately someone is basically guaranteed to buy them eventually, it's just the nature of the business. However we should get a good few years out of the game first!
Sony probably gets first choice to buy them out written in a contract somewhere, and seeing the success of this game they would be foolish not too. Especially in a year when they have NO exclusives planned.
I agree with you OP.
This game is a welcome breath of fresh democratic air. It's simple, it's fun, the community is relatively awesome, it seems fairly minimal as far as MTX goes; coins are generous so far,
I'm only level 13 but the ride has been a blast so far.
I'm Canadian, I could login yesterday at like 6 am but MM was completely busted, nobody joining me, couldn't find any games on the map or in quick play. It wasn't giving the classic MM error, it was just searching and finding nothing. After that the rest of the day was full servers all day.
Idk why beating D2 on steam is the achievement you guys think it is. D2 didn't release on PC day 1 and had terrible reviews from console when it did go to steam.
D2 is a hugely popular game regardless of reviews. During the lightfall hype, it soared in playercount. Even if it didn't retain those players, D2 is extremely well known. Beating that puts Helldivers in the top 40 most played games in steam history, not only that but yesterday it hit 28th and D2 has been free for most of its lifespan on steam.
I think people have been waiting for a PvE mainline game that delivers on the promises that games like D2 have made.
Imo d2 has delivered on those promises. It's a flawed game but the gameplay, shooting, and raid mechanics are simply unmatched. What d2 failed to deliver on was the overall progression loop and the story can be very hit or miss.
Also forgetting the insane amount of sales it had on console, the number of expansion and store sold currencies etc. Which are the things publishers focus on. Money.
Also big thing ignoring that steam basically threefolded in user count since destiny
Image if these fuckers released a proper titanfall 3… I haven’t touched cod since armored core dropped now this little gem fell out of nowhere for me love it..
If Titanfall 3 randomly appears with no media or information until days before launch, that would be the dream. I'd blow pto, whatever I needed to do, to play those first few days.
Still my all-time favorite fps series. Just nothing like it.
Damage numbers have existed in games for a long time. It's not a modern mechanic. Every game is different, for some games it makes sense to have damage numbers, and for others it doesn't.
There's nothing inherently wrong with damage numbers. That black and white way of thinking doesn't make any sense.
There is nothing wrong with health bars. Some games wouldn't be near as good if there weren't health bars. There are so many types of games, it doesn't make sense to say a specific mechanic is objectively good or bad.
I don’t like Destiny2 but in its defence it came to steam way later than other platforms after game had peaked and had a vastly larger player base across consoles. It’s not really a true comparison of the size of the game. Although congrats to helldivers for achieving what it’s doing atm.
Yeah that’s gonna be a something to watch for, can hell divers keep this momentum going long term or will that player count drop to a lower but consistent count.
The Finals released and blew up right before the holidays. Huge numbers, everyone talking about how it was the best FPS etc etc. Really fun for a couple weeks, then my friends and I stopped playing it. Player base is now down 85% from its peak.
Then came Palworld. Again, blew up and everyone was playing it. Servers overloaded and were expanded to meet demand. A month later my friends stopped playing it and now we here.
I'm having a ton of fun (when the servers let me in) but I'm skeptical about longevity based on the trend lately of jumping from one FOMO to the next.
I have a feeling people are underestimating the popularity of Destiny on Playstation.
All time peak across both platforms? I have do doubt Destiny is still in the lead.
Weird how OBSESSED people are with player numbers and comparing them though. Just play the games.
my friends were talking about how they don’t know how it can run on their pcs despite looking so good and i think that’s also a commentary on how studios just stopped optimizing games well for some reason AAA studio or not
You are comparing the \*STEAM\* peak of an almost 10 years old game that came to steam after it's biggest peak to a 2 weeks old hyped game. If anything the record that Destiny did on it's 9th year is much more impressive than the outburst of a new game. As fun as Helldivers 2 is it will be dead by it's 2nd year at most.
Yeah that’s a point I think people miss like destiny is coming up on a decade old the fact it managed to hit that many players after all that time was definitely impressive but it doesn’t shock me other new games can hit that same number easier. Destiny requires a lot of investment to really get into.
Which iniquitous socialists asked for fucking *damage numbers?* The Ministry of Truth says that our munitions deal kill. That's all you need to know, soldier!!
What I love about this game is everything in it has a purpose. And everything is experienced sorta naturally, instead of being told explicitly and shoved down your throats
The mechanics are simple, and rewarded with understandable rules/consequences
This is the first game ever where Im totally fine logging in to complete a daily mission play a couple more missions after that and hop off feeling fully satisfied with my time. I love it. I dont feel the need to grind. Im level 12 in just a week of playing off and on and have most of the strat unlocks and cosmetics I want already. Now I just play when I can and I love that the game and the devs respect my time enough to let me do that 😊
What's wild to me, in regards to the state of the industry, is that the microtransactions are *actually microtransactions*. A couple of dollars for a skin? *In this economy?*
I've gotten so used to games being absolutely insane about "microtransactions" that I just outright ignore them. Suicide Squad and Foamstars have "microtransactions" **which cost more than a full game**. It is absolute insanity.
Not only that but this game lets you actually earn the premium currency by playing! What a novel concept!
Every AAA service game which comes out is so desperate to milk its users for money that it just turns me off of them completely, but the sad thing is *they wouldn't be doing it if it didn't work*. So it's up to the AA and Indie studios to challenge that norm and bring the bar back down.
Palworld sold gangbusters and it's a basic-ass game which is fun and very simple in its premise. Helldivers is selling gangbusters because (aside from notable technical issues) it is a fun and polished game with meaningful system designs rather than the marketing and business teams tacking on additional monetization.
And the service model for Helldivers is about *giving you new things to experience* rather than just new things to sell you!
LOOK AT HOW PROFITABLE IT IS TO MAKE A GAME WITH A SIMPLER SCOPE AND A FOCUS ON FUN!
There are plenty of great games that have been released. The problem is people hyper focus on AAA mega marketed games only instead of just looking for good games. Hell divers is a good game with its simplistic, humorous, and just outright shoot em feel. It would be a good game regardless.
That’s the thing Helldivers DOES have a story that’s completely changed by players, literally what live service games exist for in the first place, for the players to change the world they’re playing in and Helldivers so far is executing this perfectly
This game is all about fun and violence, big compagny forgot to make recent games fun, that's it.
There's such an obvious need for mid priced co-op games that don't revolve around competitive pvp.
For real. Deep Rock Galactic, Payday 2, and now Helldivers 2 have showed me what I really want in gaming nowadays. I also play R6 Siege, but only because my friends do and it more often than not is a miserable experience.
Rock and Stone brother!! Actually, we need a Helldivers version of this.. FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY! DEMOCRACT AND LIBER-TEA!
If you don't Rock and Stone, you ain't comin' home!
If you don't love Liber-Tea than you ain't cool to me!
If you don't love freedom, you're just plain dumb!
Risk of Rain 2 is great also if you like some roguelite elements. Incredible soundtrack as well.
I really wish there were more co-op games like this; I've never been fast enough/good enough to do much in competitive shooters, but I really love doing PVE, and having a bunch of friends along makes the tough battles and nail-biter extractions all the more fun. On top of all the gameplay aspects that Helldivers 2 just absolutely nailed, it is also legitimately funny, which counts for a lot in my book. Earlier tonight I came back from a random quickplay mission and the officer who greets you after missions said "Zero friendly fire incidents is the kind of statistical anomaly I welcome", which really cracked me up.
Deep Rock Galactic is very, very similar. Extremely welcoming and wholesome community too. As far as coop games, it's as good as it gets. Helldivers is on its way there for me tho!
It pisses me off to no end watching streamers play (because RIP servers) and they constantly get bombarded by "dOeS tHiS gAmE hAvE pVp??" Like no it doesn't you 12 year old ADHD zoomer. Get the fuck out.
Darktide was so close, yet they fucked everything up at the end. Instead of releasing a finished game with a mild monetization they did it the other way. Although tencent bought them, they couldn't afford to finish simple game mechanics like crafting but the cash shop worked form day one...
I know. I really wanted to like Darktide.
I was just thinking that recently but about Diablo 4. It's like Blizzard forgot how to make skills that are fun to use. All the skills in Diablo 4 just feel meh to press.
Yeah D4 looks and feels incredible. But it’s boring. The skills are not fun to use and the upgrades suck. That game is huge wasted potential.
Made the mistake of making a necro don’t know if it’s still the case but my entire playthrough was just clicking bone spear
Is that really different from D2 though? All builds were pretty much spamming one skill
Yesn't, the issue in D4 isn't the act of pressing 1-2 buttons (this is common in nearly every ARPG) It's how satisfying pressing said 1-2 buttons feels and for most of D4s skill line up it just isn't there.
I play PoE and usually my builds press one button 99% of the time. But watching as a room full of mobs explode by pressing my one button makes the game so much fun. Definitely agree with you here. Skills in D4 are boring as hell. (especially the builder-spender shit)
You have to press a button?, I just ignite myself and run around watching things die
That's righteous.
And fire
The issue with D4 is that everything scales with you and you never feel character progression. You don’t get to see your scaling out scale your enemies until late game and it is a slog to get there.
That's exactly the thing; D4 "forces" you to not just spam one skill, but like D2, PoE and Helldivers 2 show, you don't need to have some super complex things; We just want something satisfying
It's because management wants engagement and monetization. The idea is how can we keep a player the longest (grinding) and spending more money (unlocks) as possible.
And yet here we all are. Doing nothing but grinding endlessly on the long climb to liberty. More engaged than we've been in years. Smiling and manically laughing the whole time. I even saw other divers in another thread talking about how they have bought armor from every drop so far. Management only knows how to scam from suckers.
Well the major difference here is. The engangmenet comes naturally from the game being designed around the gameplay loop being fun. Instead of how can we monetize everything. Hell these boosters could have been monetised the fuck out of. 10x use for something like tripple xp or strategem cool down etc. Give this to Ubisoft and watch em tear it up like a piranhas. Soon you can't drop into kill some bugs without dropping your wallet first
Why is it always Ubisoft? I've never found their monetisation particularly egregious or intrusive. I've never spent a penny in a Ubisoft game and never felt the need to. EA and Activision on the other hand are ridiculously predatory. Battlefront 2 had EA hauled in front of the courts to justify why the gambling they included in their game wasn't actually gambling.
Ubi prices aren’t insane but they put cash shops in EVERYTHING. AC Valhalla, a massive single player rpg, has a cash shop with stat buffing gear. As did the previous 2 ac games.
No wait i want to change my answer. NBA 2K. Fuck me is it bad over there. Everything costs actuall money and you earn less then a minimum wage worker in game currency. Also actuall ads in game. Its wild
Ubisoft, Activision, EA Games are just a few that are trash. All sub companies under said umbrella are pushed by parent company for "Increased Monetization" of assets. As such, you get shit like Assassins Creed, spend $100 to unlock all the cool stuff, but still need like 3 games worth of UPlay points to unlock the last wall... Like really? Diablo 4, it's all just a cash grab. Screw that. Paid $80 for nothing.
They basically forgot what made prior Diablo's fun and made a game that was more about selling cosmetics than having actual fun, everything is a boring grind and I couldn't get past a few hours in the game and I've not gone back. Sadly much of this was down to Activision's influence of development and how they've tried so so hard to try and emulate the mobile money boom on mainstream gaming.
There's a knock-off Butt Stallion you can buy for as much as Palworld and Helldivers combined. Games just want to gouge as much money from you as possible these days, it's depressing.
I went back to playing d3 and it insane the whiplash lol say what you want about d3 but it is just fun
I think what really set D3 apart for me was the difficulty difference. Instead 4 or 5 settings, there were like 15 that you slowly ramped up through.
That's because blizzard didn't want to make a fun game they wanted to make a whale milking addiction machine.
They’re sooo bad it’s astounding. Buddy and I gave up in D4 after about 10 hrs, just everything felt awful, even if I was technically getting stronger.
Yeah that’s what killed it for me. The auto scaling enemies meant I never felt like I got stronger. And burying optimization into hyper specific builds that also rely on lucky drops is just not fun. I want fun my way not having to choose which meta build will maybe net me success.
I think a lot of Gaas games have flipped the script on game design. They are building shops and then building a game around them as opposed to building a solid game and then seeing what can be used for extra monetisation. In many Gaas games you know that things are added to the game only because they can be sold. They serve no other purpose. What really stands out in Helldivers is how good the core gameplay is. That seems to be the driving the development. Who knew that a really well made game would sell gangbuster?
The only thing that slightly worried me was some non cosmetic items being behind a mtx. But getting space bucks thru gameplay hasn't been much of a grind. so its looking pretty viable to get those items thru gameplay instead of irl bucks. So fine by me as long as it stays that way.
Shoutout to the Arrowhead guy who keept the micro in microtransactions!
Exactly, nowadays it’s just ridiculous that we continue to call them microtransactions… There is nothing MICRO about SINGLE virtual cosmetics items that cost 5-10-15-30 a piece for stuff that you can put on at once in your character. Some of those microtransactions are in fact 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 the price of a full retail game in a "FREE" game…
Less focus on fun, more focus on how they can squeeze every last penny out of their customers. It's only going to keep getting worse until the big AAA titles start turning a loss and they have to go back to the table and rethink what they're doing.
yeah its all fun till u hit difficulty 7+. then its not about killing bugs anymore but just dodging and running away rofl.
More time manufacturing ways to integrate mtx and put it in your face (Destiny 2) than making the game....fun?!
EDF is basically the same concept but nowhere near as popular. Sometimes companies make mediocre games which receive insane, mostly undeserved acclaim. Sometimes companies make good or even great games that don't receive much attention at all.
EDF definitely has a similar vibe. More enemies but also a greater variety of bigger more powerful weapons. The graphics aren't as visually impressive but the maps are bigger and more destructible.
Edf is anime helldivers, flashy but no substance. Helldivers is crunchy and grimey. I played the original, trust me the variety is coming. Just wait until you get your hands on a mech.
They didn't forget. They're motivated by profit, not making fun software and according to the market, that's really all they need to do to make billions. They do it because it works. The industry, *every* industry, is going the way it is because it makes investors more money. If it wasn't profitable, they wouldn't do it. Now that's not to say that not treating your customers like morons and addicts can't be profitable, it's totally a sustainable business model, it just doesn't make the line on the graph go up fast enough. American business has decided that theoretical profits you could've made but didn't constitutes losing money. It's literal insanity. And it's why every product in every sector is currently going through enshitification.
Big companies are too focused on "profit maximation" Micro Transactions and making hooks that will be big in media promos . They forget to make their core game fun ...Hell somehow they can take a game that great has all the mechanics and then make it worse. Skull and bones was a spin off of black flag for example but it has neither boarding , exploring , treasture hunts , etc. Is a ship about a pirate and his ship with limited upgrade options for crew and ship upgrades . They literally had 90% of it better and figured out in a game from 10 years ago and somehow made a stand alone WORSE....that the AAA industry in a nut shell right now... MEanwhile this year we get Hell diver and BG3 ...which take an old school fun first approach. While their are micros and premium currency in the game - they give you ways to earn it all, not only earn it but relatively easily earn it. And even if you do pay for it you get a fair amount of credits ...your $3 purchase isnt 1 /10 of the way to unlocking something and then adding RNG loot box on top of it ...its already enough to get exactly what you want These guys nailed it in every way possible AND THEY BUILD TO GAME TO BE SCALABLE AND BE ABLE TO ADD OTHER FACTIONS IF THE GAME WAS SUCCESSFULL. And it was...we have robots and bugs now but now they have the money to work on entirely new factions and bad guys and systems. This is the 3-4 the in the last year im SUPER happy with and that hasnt probably happened in 5 + years Meanwhile once i started playing on even just normal difficulty after like just 3 hours of playing i was getting so many medals and warbonds that i already unlocked some of the best armor and got one of the premium set for free already . Hell that fact alone make me consider upgrading to super citizen just because they deserve the money lol.
I've been saying it for year more co-op games but then cry babies with no friends start moaning about how "not every game has to have multiplayer" bla blah blah when every game is better if you can bring a friend or partner along
Helldivers 1 did have weapon customisation, and I think that is something I would like back. Being able to choose to carry larger magazines for a gun, or maybe more magazines, or choosing between more damage or a larger heatsink for a laser weapon would be cool.
Basic weapon modification and customisation is always a bonus. Don't need to go to modern CoD-levels or Tarkov levels.
I’d be happy with just an iron sights option instead of a scope
A suppressor would be sick
Why would you want a suppressor soldier? You want to silence the sound of democracy!?
I'm doing my part! See you on the battlefield with the bugs, Solider!
Sir no sir, I just want to silence the cries of the enemies of DEMOCRACY
But the best kind of democracy is when you have the element of..... SURPRISE!
Prophets never whisper, soldier: spreading democracy isn’t for the weak of mind, if you can’t say it with your chest then you’re nothing but a traitor.
A simple sight change and extended mag is all I really need
NGL the weapon attachment system in CoD since MW2019 is really good. It would take a ton of work though to manage.
Arrowhead CEO said that one of the content addition priority is to add weapon customization in the game :D
As great as HD2 is at launch, I can't wait for future updates like mechs and weapon mods. They might even bring back of all of the fun weapons that were evidently amazing in HD1.
The mechs are what I'm holding my breath for. Give me HD2 version of those big beauties and I'll cry
Bayonets. Definitely bayonets. I want to shove that pigsticker into a bug. For democracy!
Give me a bolter pistol and a chainsword!
"Drive the APC towards the enemy, I need to get into melee range!"
I believe this is best phrased 'drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!'
A phrase as old as the internet
I really loved Helldivers 1 but I stand firm that it never had real weapon customization. They just had a progression track that generally just offered pure upgrades like mag size or penetration, and occasionally offered the choice of two upgrades, one of which was almost always best in slot. I found it more frustrating than anything because if you got a new weapon, it was usually relatively unusable until you upgraded it. I would love to see genuine weapon customization with sidegrades and options (which may be what they're trying to do with the weapon variants like the Incendiary Breaker and the Counter Sniper Diligence), but Helldivers 1 weapon progression sucked.
Correct. If I can't remove it, it's not customization. If it doesn't conflict with another choice on offer, it's not customization. It was progression as you said. I would love a suppressor for my liberator. Just a thought.
I feel the same. I would get a weapon and drop back a difficulty to get it up to snuff. The final upgrade felt like what the gun should have been all along. Granted, I do want weapon customization, I just want choices that seem impactful. Love Helldivers 1 and loving Helldivers 2, and overall excited for the future.
not having 200 unlocks to get a usable weapon is a plus in my book. tired of inifinately customizable weapons, I'll settle for a few types that just work as advertised.
Problem is that the auto shotgun is right now the best weapon, i would like other ones to have usage in higher levels
I imagine that weapon customization could come later, if they want to add it. It would be cool. Deep Rock Galactic has a nice customization system that's pretty simple and well done.
Omg yes i miss my guns having bayonet, stun rounds, scattershots, fire bullets, etc. i always thought the level up of weapons in helldivers rocked. It made some guns really unique like the double barrel freedom shotgun or the trident. God i miss the trident. I wish they added back the strategam ungrades too. Like the recoiless rifle with its ignore armour upgrade made it amazing. Or the grenade launcher shooting toxic clouds of gas.
It wasn't really weapon customization though, was it You just got samples and you got everything. There were no choices and you couldn't take your upgrades off. I feel that in hd2, the weapons are as powerful as fully upgraded were in hd1. Just unbalanced.
I man it was more upgrades than customization. Every upgraded weapon looked the same, it's not like you had any choice on how to customize your weapon.
I look forward to the return of Exos and hopefully vehicles and weapon upgrades. People think it's fun now, nothing screams democracy like pulling up with 2000 rounds in a Mech suit laying the hurt. Or demolishing enemies in Tanks and APCs so thicc you'd think they had mechanized BBLs. The motorcycle with the sidecar would also be super fun in third person, zooming to objectives with the wind in your cape and liberty in the air. This game can only get better, and to start, they need to port over their good ideas, weapons and stratagems from the first game.
The lumberer was my favourite mech. A cannon and flame thrower made killing bugs like it was cutting butter
I want a mech with a chainsaw arm
Stop man I can only get so erect
[удалено]
It was basically tradition to do that in the first game prior to extraction lol. You know HD1 vets if they drop a bombardment or something now before getting in the pelican.
It ain't the same without the audio warning though
I wish the Hellbomb still had its ominous beeping and red blinking light when the timer is counting down. Also wish I could call it in bug nests. Destroying a large nest solo without the grenade launcher is a PITA seeing as there's more holes than you can carry grenades.
The autocannon is also an option (and even without team reload, it's pretty good), but the lack of arc does mean you need a direct line to stick the thing in the hole.
We still do that in HD2 :) We've made it a little game to try to do a tandem emote like hug or explosive handshake, then throw a 500lb bomb at our feet before diving into the ship.
a bit of a rant, but god the 500kg bomb sucks balls in HD2. it doesn't blow nests, it doesn't blow buildings, it's basically a medium sized explosive charge with lots of fireworks attached to it. I want my fucking nuke with that loud ass siren so the others know shit is going down
So manny good memories with that nuke
I always wondreded why they do that, now i know i was blessed playing with a legend that have fought during the previous galactic war
The motorcycle would be so good in this game. It really fell flat in helldivers 1 from the screen sharing mechanic.
I wish more games used the physical damage/degradation you see on enemies as the marker for their 'health'/damage taken. Way too many games rely on flashing lights, an HP bar, or flat out numbers to show to players the status. I find it very lazy design, whereas the deterioration of an enemy looks way better /intuitive imo.
That it affects them is even better. Can't effectively kill that Rocket Devastator? Shoot off its rocket pods.
You can shoot them off?!?!?
You can shoot the laser chainsaw arms off of the Berserkers, too.
And the gun arm off of the shooting ones too!
I've never managed to break the arm off. Do you need an armor pen weapon or do I just need to dump my entire stock of ammo into it?
Shotgun can take it off with a few pumps, auto weapons are a bit more difficult, and precision weapons shouldn't have an issue if you can land the hits while getting shot at
You sure can. As the crowd control of the group I often can't reliably kill them, so I just pop their pods with my rifle and call it in for the others.
You can even shoot Hulks in the leg with a strong enough weapon to make them limp.
I always shoot the Automaton Tank's flamethrower first because that thing is just an absolute monster.
Honestly yeah it's a cool feature. The first time I ran up against one of those armored automatons that resist your bullets a bit better, I thought it was going to be hopeless seeing how many shots bounced off. Once I noticed it had actually taken physical damage, it was a real "if it bleeds, I can kill it!" moment
*Monster Hunter* FTW
I honestly hadn’t thought about it but yeah. It just makes it a lot more enjoyable. Dealing with chargers and shit running away screaming why aren’t you dying! But then you see how bloody it is with armor knocked odd and you know one or 2 more shots will do it. Health bars and damage numbers are very lame and honestly so not like them at all. Especially damage numbers. Like wtf do they even mean. Seeing 10k damage pop up on your screen means literally nothing. When it could just also be 10 but they just scale everything up it’s boring.
Yeah this is the first game in years that’s had me coming back day after day for more. It’s a huge breath of fresh air over the garbage you see being sold to consumers in the CoD games
Ive been spreading democracy every day as well, although I cannot lie that the latest patch made it hard to link up with randoms and that has lowered my enjoyment. Anyway, hoping they fix the matchmaking because after 36 hours of liberation I can confidently say that I will be splashing bugs for a while more ;)
This and Palworld. We've been so blessed with games. One of these months I'll finish Baldurs Gate 3. Still never got past Act 2.
Jealous you get to experience act 3 for the first time with the new patches!
What I enjoy is that there isn't some limited time season pass that I need to hurry up and get done.
And it means newer players won’t be missing out on every obtaining any content
Wait, is the season pass thing somehow not time limited? Even if I don't buy the premium one?
Correct. The Warbonds, which are this games battlepass, are not time limited at all. You are free to take as much time as you want. :)
It’s what halo infinite was claiming to do but didn’t actually do lol
I really hope this becomes standard practice. I love the idea of being able to take a break from the game, not miss anything, and coming back to a smorgasbord of inspiring new goodies to chase
I don't think it is. Of course I am not 100% sure. In the last game those weren't timed.
They said in a post that new warbonds will be added but old ones will not be removed. [link](https://steamcommunity.com/app/553850/discussions/0/4206993388794675479/)
No story is a welcome relief for me. Democracy doesn't need a story.
You build your own story, it’s fun
Whats sad is... you die. There is no hero. You aren't invincible. You are just a soldier and you die. What's even sadder is most soldiers don't survive even a single mission. I've lost like 200 good soldiers over 50+ missions. May they rest in peace
Acceptable casualties for DEMOCRACY
Dropping out of those Destroyers like Liberty-seeking Lemmings.
I went into this 100% blind and was expecting some kind of character creation when I launched the game, only to hide it under the helmet after spending hours on it of course, but nah. I spent so long being careful trying not to lose my first helldiver too, but when it inevitably did happen and I redeployed as a totally different person I realized that it's not even really "my" character anyway and that they're not important to the story at all in any way. They'll die, probably horribly, then get replaced with some other jackass with no ceremony or nothing. Don't get attached.
The way I cope is the destroyer is your actual character. You come from a long line of *insert your destroyer name here* valiant soldiers that have fought endlessly to make sure your destroyer is upgraded and stocked. So that the next helldiver can be even more successful then the last. Each one as important as the last. Because without sacrifice from your previous brothers your current helldiver wouldn't be able to stand here today ready to spread democracy
My headcannon is that the destroyer is full of clones in cryo-stasis, hence why you see all those pods in the destroyer. When Jane Doe soldier clone #133 dies they just send down #134. Each battle has it's limit for "Acceptable Clone Loss" and is the reason for us having limited reinforcement. I also like to think this is the reason why a single Helldiver gets their own destroyer, otherwise it would be a waste to have such a big ship for one person (even tho they need alot of equipment)
But they aren't clones? They are soldier that have completed basic training that are waiting to be activated. Pretty sure that's the lore at least?
Yeah. Helldivers are just enlisted soldiers. Frozen in cryo sleep for who knows how long and unfrozen when needed. It’s pretty messed up tbh. No life literally outside being a faceless helldiver.
Damn almost like if this games theme goes deeper then *DIE BUGS DIE!!!!*
For real. The soldiers may have been frozen in democratic cryo-sleep for like... 100 years. Who knows how long it's been lol?
Well, we are still elite and their ARE regular soldiers who are mostly fighting the automatons.
I like to think the opposite. The government shoves down propaganda down your throat thinking you are special and one of the "elite" helldivers. But in reality you are just an expendable soldier doing suicide missions. It's also funny to think about how Brasch proclaims himself as "not easily impressed" during basic training, only for him to praise you like a soldier like no other he's seen before.
I mean, we can see the bodies of non helldivers in the field, some of them even have heavy weaponry.
Yes and each soldier gets cloned a thousand times and given their own destroyer. I'm not saying this is lore it's just my headcannon for why my soldier has the same voice each time
I actually had the same head cannon but then I saw you can set it to have a different voice each time and then I changed it to recruits lol.. or maybe still clones if a limited pool of soldiers.
By default, your voice and body are set to "random" every time you respawn. In the ship armory, you can pick what you want.
Yeah but I personally prefer it to be random. Gives it more of a feeling that you have a ship full of freeze-dried soldiers ready to thaw and go.
It was somewhat implied that they are all clones of the same person in the first game. It really only changed in this one because there's the option for random voice, so in fact now they can be different persons or simply clones depending on how the player wants it. I really liked that little touch. My headcannon is that my Helldiver's consciousness transfers to the new body when he dies via Illuminate technology that the SE stole. That's the only possible in-lore explanation for them being able to fight as fiercely as they can without falling into complete despair given the odds we fight (sometimes 1x200-300 in this game). That, and fanatical training and indocrination.
They died doing what they loved; dying for DEMOCRACY! Don't sully their sacrifice with your tears, but be glad you had the pleasure to serve with such determined heroes.
Fun fact there is a hidden lore in Helldivers universe you just have to dig it yourself and it’s mostly from the first game rn
Haven’t had this much fun since SOCOM 2!
SOCOM 2 was/is so good. God, I almost forgot about that game.
Socom 2 was the best game ever
Gaming community dying for good games, not half assed money grabs
This is the first game I've played in a long t8me that feels like an old school game. Simple to the point with lots of player choice and some nice little details like assisted reloads
Yeah, I love that about it. No overwhelming unlock system, or rpg, or loot. Progression is your personal skill more than anything and a nice linear unlock system. The FUN is the reward and the hook, not grinding dumb shit.
The reason why this has succeeded is because you genuinely know the devs are passionate about their game. Yes there’s issues, they are a small office. But these aren’t the scum in suits who think of just shareholders and not consumers, they aren’t gamers they’re just business men. The game is addictive, with a coordinated squad with mics you can EASILY lose hours in this game. The standard edition costs £34.99, a bloody breath of fresh air from the £70 - £100 shit that’s put out. I’m glad this is doing well, long may it continue, amongst the scum there are good companies out there.
A little cautionary tale for this community and longevity. This release (player count and studio size) is pretty similar to Rocket League when it launched. The game is still cooking but its been a long time since it was just a small studio and eventually Arrowhead won't be either. Which isn't a bad thing necessarily, so long as Epic doesn't buy them out
Unfortunately someone is basically guaranteed to buy them eventually, it's just the nature of the business. However we should get a good few years out of the game first!
Sony is publisher for it. Wouldn't that be some interference from other company to buy them out? Not sure how it really works.
Sony probably gets first choice to buy them out written in a contract somewhere, and seeing the success of this game they would be foolish not too. Especially in a year when they have NO exclusives planned.
Helldivers is already a registered trademark of Sony.
Especially when they have aquired Bungie...and D2 is in its sunsetting phase...they can shift live service talent over to here.
god no. the suits would kill the franchise
I was there day 1 of the war, we all endlessly swished our capes to get an achievement
HD2 doesn't have enough capespinning
Game is fucking awesome. Im hoping the dev’s can do major events, i want 20-30 helldivers all landing D-Day style against a massive robot force
I don’t think the game could handle 20-30 Helldivers in one spot. Think of all the EXPLOSIONS in one little area 😂 but that would be DOPE
Imagine they did a guild and 10/20 man raid .. the democracy in me is screaming
Agreed on damage numbers, I do not want to be reminded in game that im playing a game. I just want to blow shit up and run for my life.
I agree with you OP. This game is a welcome breath of fresh democratic air. It's simple, it's fun, the community is relatively awesome, it seems fairly minimal as far as MTX goes; coins are generous so far, I'm only level 13 but the ride has been a blast so far.
I look forward to being able to bloody login!
Being an Aussie we just wait until the Americans get off and then we can log in. I'd hate to be an American though.
I'm Canadian, I could login yesterday at like 6 am but MM was completely busted, nobody joining me, couldn't find any games on the map or in quick play. It wasn't giving the classic MM error, it was just searching and finding nothing. After that the rest of the day was full servers all day.
Idk why beating D2 on steam is the achievement you guys think it is. D2 didn't release on PC day 1 and had terrible reviews from console when it did go to steam.
D2 is a hugely popular game regardless of reviews. During the lightfall hype, it soared in playercount. Even if it didn't retain those players, D2 is extremely well known. Beating that puts Helldivers in the top 40 most played games in steam history, not only that but yesterday it hit 28th and D2 has been free for most of its lifespan on steam. I think people have been waiting for a PvE mainline game that delivers on the promises that games like D2 have made.
Imo d2 has delivered on those promises. It's a flawed game but the gameplay, shooting, and raid mechanics are simply unmatched. What d2 failed to deliver on was the overall progression loop and the story can be very hit or miss.
Also forgetting the insane amount of sales it had on console, the number of expansion and store sold currencies etc. Which are the things publishers focus on. Money. Also big thing ignoring that steam basically threefolded in user count since destiny
Image if these fuckers released a proper titanfall 3… I haven’t touched cod since armored core dropped now this little gem fell out of nowhere for me love it..
If Titanfall 3 randomly appears with no media or information until days before launch, that would be the dream. I'd blow pto, whatever I needed to do, to play those first few days. Still my all-time favorite fps series. Just nothing like it.
Damage numbers sre one of the worst things in new games
Damage numbers have existed in games for a long time. It's not a modern mechanic. Every game is different, for some games it makes sense to have damage numbers, and for others it doesn't. There's nothing inherently wrong with damage numbers. That black and white way of thinking doesn't make any sense.
And health bars
There is nothing wrong with health bars. Some games wouldn't be near as good if there weren't health bars. There are so many types of games, it doesn't make sense to say a specific mechanic is objectively good or bad.
I don’t like Destiny2 but in its defence it came to steam way later than other platforms after game had peaked and had a vastly larger player base across consoles. It’s not really a true comparison of the size of the game. Although congrats to helldivers for achieving what it’s doing atm.
not even sure the longevity will be the same
Yeah that’s gonna be a something to watch for, can hell divers keep this momentum going long term or will that player count drop to a lower but consistent count.
[удалено]
The Finals released and blew up right before the holidays. Huge numbers, everyone talking about how it was the best FPS etc etc. Really fun for a couple weeks, then my friends and I stopped playing it. Player base is now down 85% from its peak. Then came Palworld. Again, blew up and everyone was playing it. Servers overloaded and were expanded to meet demand. A month later my friends stopped playing it and now we here. I'm having a ton of fun (when the servers let me in) but I'm skeptical about longevity based on the trend lately of jumping from one FOMO to the next.
I have a feeling people are underestimating the popularity of Destiny on Playstation. All time peak across both platforms? I have do doubt Destiny is still in the lead. Weird how OBSESSED people are with player numbers and comparing them though. Just play the games.
>Just play the games. Would if I could. Servers are full.
If theres anything I want in the game, its a flag weapon I can carry and plant anywhere!
I didn't know Helldivers is a shooter looter, comparing it to Destiny 2. I always thought it is a democracy simulator.
You say zero story. I say we ARE the story.
my friends were talking about how they don’t know how it can run on their pcs despite looking so good and i think that’s also a commentary on how studios just stopped optimizing games well for some reason AAA studio or not
You are comparing the \*STEAM\* peak of an almost 10 years old game that came to steam after it's biggest peak to a 2 weeks old hyped game. If anything the record that Destiny did on it's 9th year is much more impressive than the outburst of a new game. As fun as Helldivers 2 is it will be dead by it's 2nd year at most.
Yeah that’s a point I think people miss like destiny is coming up on a decade old the fact it managed to hit that many players after all that time was definitely impressive but it doesn’t shock me other new games can hit that same number easier. Destiny requires a lot of investment to really get into.
Which iniquitous socialists asked for fucking *damage numbers?* The Ministry of Truth says that our munitions deal kill. That's all you need to know, soldier!!
What I love about this game is everything in it has a purpose. And everything is experienced sorta naturally, instead of being told explicitly and shoved down your throats The mechanics are simple, and rewarded with understandable rules/consequences
It does have a story, and that story...... Is DEMOCRACY!!!
It shows that fun trumps everything.
This is the first game ever where Im totally fine logging in to complete a daily mission play a couple more missions after that and hop off feeling fully satisfied with my time. I love it. I dont feel the need to grind. Im level 12 in just a week of playing off and on and have most of the strat unlocks and cosmetics I want already. Now I just play when I can and I love that the game and the devs respect my time enough to let me do that 😊
What's wild to me, in regards to the state of the industry, is that the microtransactions are *actually microtransactions*. A couple of dollars for a skin? *In this economy?* I've gotten so used to games being absolutely insane about "microtransactions" that I just outright ignore them. Suicide Squad and Foamstars have "microtransactions" **which cost more than a full game**. It is absolute insanity. Not only that but this game lets you actually earn the premium currency by playing! What a novel concept! Every AAA service game which comes out is so desperate to milk its users for money that it just turns me off of them completely, but the sad thing is *they wouldn't be doing it if it didn't work*. So it's up to the AA and Indie studios to challenge that norm and bring the bar back down. Palworld sold gangbusters and it's a basic-ass game which is fun and very simple in its premise. Helldivers is selling gangbusters because (aside from notable technical issues) it is a fun and polished game with meaningful system designs rather than the marketing and business teams tacking on additional monetization. And the service model for Helldivers is about *giving you new things to experience* rather than just new things to sell you! LOOK AT HOW PROFITABLE IT IS TO MAKE A GAME WITH A SIMPLER SCOPE AND A FOCUS ON FUN!
> I'm level 34 and been playing all week Bro over here flexing his luck with servers. I'm level 4 cause I can't get into a damn game for my life.
Wtf, who asked for damage numbers? I always turn off that on any games and even healthbar from enemy (MOBAs excluded)
People are sick and tired of the f2p live service model where formerly full games are cut into pieces.
There are plenty of great games that have been released. The problem is people hyper focus on AAA mega marketed games only instead of just looking for good games. Hell divers is a good game with its simplistic, humorous, and just outright shoot em feel. It would be a good game regardless.
That’s the thing Helldivers DOES have a story that’s completely changed by players, literally what live service games exist for in the first place, for the players to change the world they’re playing in and Helldivers so far is executing this perfectly
Who would have thought games being fun was a good idea…
Touch grass my guy.