HELLDIVERS 2 - One Year of the Second Galactic War

It has been one full year since HELLDIVERS 2 released, becoming a surprise success not even its developers anticipated. In a year full of many ups and downs for the game, I wanted to look back on my personal Game of the Year and reminisce about the good and the bad times I went through.

Become a HELLDIVER

I joined the war about 16 days after it started and a lot had happened. Over 400,000 Helldivers came to defend Super Earth, which caused a lot of server issues when the developer expected more along the lines of 10,000 people playing. Luckily for me, it was around this time when most of these issues were fixed. It didn’t exactly hit me that I was playing a live service game until a good while later. Battle passes (called Warbonds) are available at all times, the premium currency could be grinded out in-game, and I was logging in every day to contribute to the war effort. This was the kindest live service I’ve ever played.

One of the key fights that I still remember after dozens of Major Orders was on Maevelon Creek. The Battle for the Creek was a horror show that both united and divided the community. The planet held little importance to the overall war effort due to its location, but it was one of the toughest yet fun locations to dive in, having to fight in dense jungles against the Automatons. The trees spoke binary. This created a group of players called “Creekers” who would only fight on the Creek… which took away players that could’ve assisted in helping complete various Major Orders. What was a symbol of a Helldiver’s determination and will to fight against impossible odds soon turned into losers who stubbornly fought losing battles. However, after several failed MOs and morale dwindling, an order was made to take the Creek. It was already most of the way there by the time it was made a target, but it reinvigorated players, and those who fought there all got a sweet new cape. It's a prime example of what makes HELLDIVERS 2 so great while also being a serious case study on why propaganda works.

Every 26th of October.

That being said, there was a mounting rage coming from a good portion of the community. People were blaming others for failed Major Orders, such as bugdivers who would never touch the bot front. There was also the fact that weapons were being balanced to “encourage build diversity,” but it ended up just making favourite weapons worse.

Eventually, the vitriol reached its peak after the nerfs to various weapons and mechanics (especially fire… right as a flame-based Warbond was releasing), frustratingly hard enemies, the underwhelming Escalation of Freedom update, and the whole PSN debacle with Sony requiring every player to have a PlayStation account or they don’t get to play at all. Considering getting an account wasn’t available to every country and using a VPN could result in a ban, HELLDIVERS 2 had to be taken off sale in 180 countries. This was a serious blow to where I even put down the game in protest. There also came a flood of negative reviews and a new faction called the Chaosdivers: players who wanted nothing more than to destroy Super Earth and fight back against all the bad changes to the game. However, they soon became known more as griefers and jerks who used it as an excuse to ruin others' fun.

My greatest accomplishment.

However, this all changed all of a sudden. The PSN requirement was rolled back by Sony (ruined reporting players and still blocked countries), there were sweeping changes that reverted nerfs and made underused weapons better, enemies became easier to deal with, and there was a 60-day plan to improve the state of the game. Even the Chaosdiver were placated and turned more into a roleplay community. We’re still waiting on that Steam review bomb cape that was promised a while ago, but it looks like we’ll only receive it once everyone can play HELLDIVERS 2 again.

The year ended with a sudden and dangerous surprise: the long-waited Illuminate faction suddenly and violently joining the war during the Game Awards in the Omens of Tyranny update. 120,000 Helldivers returned to show the squids why they were nearly wiped out a century ago. Unlike the bugs and the bots, the Squi’th are currently using hit-and-run tactics, never holding down a planet and leaving as soon as they can, regardless of whether they succeed or not. We also got to fight in urban environments currently exclusive to Illuminate attacks.

Just another day for the Helldivers.

A lot has happened since the very day the Helldivers were reactivated to defend Managed Democracy, and these days, the game is doing pretty well with a healthy player count and even a movie on the way. I’ve laughed at all my failures, cheered when we contributed to a real-life charity, gasped in awe as we turned Meridia into a blackhole, and rushed to my PC when the Illuminate arrived. I reached Level 150 in around 400 hours… and yet, here I am at 770 and still going strong. It’s been a real rollercoaster of a year for HELLDIVERS 2, and hopefully, it’ll be smoother now, but I will gladly continue this ride into Year 2 of the Galactic War on Tyranny. If you’re itching to join the war effort, there’s a guide for beginners available to get into the fight the right way.