Helldivers 2 review – an explosive co-op shooter with repetitive thrills

One of gaming’s many indulgences is the final stand. Faced with overwhelming odds, a party of heroes sprays bullets and laser fire into an enemy that overruns them. It’s a spectacle that Halo: Reach and Left 4 Dead have employed to great effect. Helldivers 2 doesn’t just capture that magic, it delivers it on demand in cargo containers. Arrowhead Games’ latest dives straight into having fun as your squad of four exterminates hordes of bugs and robots.

There’s not much of a narrative in Helldivers 2. Super Earth and its neighboring planets ward off Terminid and Automaton invasions with Helldivers, (mostly) willing recruits who drop feet-first into combat. Torching the locals or deploying an orbital strike is even more fun with three other players. Carpet bombing robots or being on the receiving end of a rocket barrage might sound like dumb action but Helldivers 2’s appeal only increases with time.

While Helldivers 2’s loadouts could be more intricate, I prefer its distinct guns without any customization options. Each player gets a primary and secondary weapon in addition to grenades. Special weapons like an Anti-Material Rifle or Arc Thrower can be summoned from your ship in addition to the aforementioned orbital strikes and sentries. Thanks to an assortment of weapons and summons (called stratagems), each choice helps distinguish your Helldiver from those of your allies. 

Missions range between defending objectives, realigning comms, and raising the occasional flag. While Helldivers 2’s mission variety can get stale in a couple of hours, detours like enemy nests and abandoned research stations provide some respite. Encountering enemies along the way will either test your stealth or your resolve, especially if they call in reinforcements. And on higher difficulties, you’ll need to pick your routes with your remaining lives and mission timer in mind. But these side quest-like diversions are worth it as they offer Samples, Medals, and Super Credits for ship upgrades, gear, and rare items. 

That last one, Helldivers 2’s rarest currency, is uncapped and can be earned in-game without spending a penny, a choice I respect in the era of live service games. As for new weapons, free and paid reward passes let you work your way up to specific rewards. I’d like an honest-to-goodness gun store but this does encourage experiments. 

The gameplay itself is tight, with Helldivers quickly pinging targets and threats before moving out together or in four different directions. Guns feel chunky and distinct, with roaring feedback whenever your aim topples a robot Automaton or bug-like Terminid. Calling in stratagems to decimate enemies looks spectacular, too, be it via the almighty 500kg bomb or a lawful evil mortar sentry. 

Helldivers 2 looks stunning with gorgeous alien environments, detailed character models, and enemy limbs that fly off amid laser fire and toxic goo. Moving from the original’s top-down view to a third-person one has done wonders for Helldivers 2’s immersion, especially when the red hue of robot visors emerges from a thick fog. 

Even without resorting to voice chat, I was able to engage in some quality camaraderie. A friend watched my back as I finished my agonizing Machine Gun reload. Another threw a respawn beacon on top of an enemy factory, resulting in my dead-on-arrival Helldiver obliterating the objective. As the last member of my squad, I sprinted into a friendly mine, promptly ending the mission with bouts of laughter.

Friendly fire forms the foundation of the good times I’ve had in Helldivers 2. Few games make you laugh when a stray headshot makes you sit out a team extraction. Thanks to a generous revive system and a minor XP cut for imperfect extractions, death isn’t punishing unless you’re near the top of Helldivers 2’s nine difficulty levels. 

The collaborative war effort doesn’t end with sharing ammo and opening doors together. A global map tracks the progress of every imperial mission in real-time, with contributions tipping the scales in an interplanetary warzone. But when you’re crawling in the dust and the trees in Malevolent Creek are speaking in binary chirps, panic deflates your lungs quicker than a bullet. Mashing a button combination to call in an airstrike while thinking about your near-empty gun magazine and being covered in green blood is both tense and immersive. Helldivers 2 hands out these cinematic moments like candy at a fair, making its calmer moments feel well-earned.

Helldivers 2 pits you against technical bugs in addition to the Terminids. I’ve found myself stuck in an ally ship’s defrosting area, unable to proceed with mission deployment. And teetering server issues tend to cut my weekend sessions short. Developer Arrowhead Games has been patching issues out at a steady clip though and I’ve rarely encountered game-breaking glitches. 

Helldivers 2 delivers hilarious fist-clenching moments with rock-solid co-op shooter fundamentals but is held back by repetitive missions. Every minute of it is fun and it’s among the few multiplayer experiences that have me daydreaming at work. While the content can feel sparse at launch, I hope steady updates bolster its live service offering.

Reviewed on PC.