Since its launch in early 2024, Helldivers 2 has become one of the most unique and unexpected success stories in gaming. It’s easy to forget about its road to where it is today given its popularity, but a relatively unknown IP transitioning to a third-person live service multiplayer-only game was a particularly unique challenge, especially with the hindsight of how much trouble other live service games have had since Helldivers 2 launched.
Of course, developer Arrowhead Studios delivered on that challenge and then some, and the game has now broken sales records for PlayStation. Now on Xbox, Helldivers 2 represents a landmark moment for PlayStation Studios games published on Microsoft’s platform, and it remains one of the industry’s premier live service multiplayer games for its endlessly satisfying combat and quick but impactful mission structure.
“Those moments of chaos and confusion make for some of Helldivers 2’s most memorable moments, though.”
If you’re new to Super Earth, Helldivers 2 is an online-only shooter where you and up to 3 other Helldivers in your squad drop onto various planets throughout the galaxy to fight enemy factions and complete missions for the sake of spreading Managed Democracy and repelling the galaxy-wide invasion from the major enemy factions.
After a quick but worthwhile tutorial where you’re introduced to basic mechanics as well as the game’s relentless tongue-in-cheek tone and hilarious propaganda, you’re dropped right into the Galactic War as a reinforcement for Super Earth. And you’ll do that over and over again, not just because your Helldiver will die many times in the name of Liberty (although that will happen too), but also because the game gets its hooks in you quickly and never lets go.
Each mission you complete for Super Earth is a small part in a larger Galactic War against the enemy factions of the Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminate. Missions of you doing things like finding and killing a certain number or type of enemies, destroying specific buildings, and erecting the Super Earth flag in key enemy territory, and they all end with an extraction sequence that requires you to defend your ship’s landing area. While they may sound complicated, limits missions usually to 40 minutes and guides you well with the mini-map, allows you to focus on getting to your target location and finding enemies to kill.
And there definitely are a lot of enemies to kill, both in number and in type. Across each planet, there are larger community-wide events going on that each mission contributes to, adding just a little bit of progress in the war against bugs and machines.
As you look across the galaxy at ongoing campaigns and future missions, you can see over time how much progress the community has made, and it gives an overarching weight to every mission that feels like progress even if you didn’t perform as well as others in your squad. While these do feel like the closest thing to a true narrative campaign that Helldivers 2 has, they allow you to see overarching progression without taking you away from helldiving for too long.
“Your ship comes in handy between missions as well, allowing you to travel between planets and prepare for your next mission.”
It’s understandable that they’d want to keep you in the action, because being on the ground spreading Managed Democracy is where this game really shines. There are tons of different enemy types that you can fight within each faction that build in size and power over time. From grunt-like Terminid Scavengers to mech-like Automaton Hulks, you and your squad have a lot to fight across every mission, but you also have a lot of weapons to use against them.
For starters, gunplay feels great. It’s simple and responsive without feeling too easy, and expressive enemy animations make every shot feel extra weighty. On top of a trove of different guns and explosives you can unlock, you can also use your ship to provide different Stratagems for you in battle. Alongside universal needs like Reinforce and Resupply, you can also choose additional Stratagems for each mission that allow for new weapons, deployable mechs and turrets, or direct airstrikes on certain areas. The sheer number of possibilities with different weapons and Stratagems make every mission feel different and chaotic, where there can be explosions and gunfire coming from every angle and you get split up from your squadmates.
Those moments of chaos and confusion make for some of Helldivers 2’s most memorable moments, though. The environments are beautiful and diverse, allowing for tons of creativity with weapons and strategies, and it’s always just as fun to see what’s happening as it is to play it. Plus, friendly fire is on, and the game does a great job at making you feel powerful yet expendable, so it can often be beneficial to create chaos that may very well kill you or a teammate.
Sadly, this does mean is that the game is almost always more fun to play with friends than solo because there’s more of a chance to create those types of chaotic memories, and while the game’s performance has definitely improved over the last year and a half, it still has a tendency to stutter when chaos ensues with a full squad. But at the end of the day, whether solo or together, Managed Democracy always comes out ahead, and it’s that feeling that you have a slight edge in battle and that anything could happen that keeps you coming back for one more mission.
Your ship comes in handy between missions as well, allowing you to travel between planets and prepare for your next mission. It’s customizable and expandable over time to allow for more Stratagems and weapons, and you’re often sent reminders and other humorous propaganda from Super Earth. It would be easy to make a game about an ongoing invasion by enemy forces trying to destroy democracy feel dreadful and overwhelming, but this keeps it light and fun across the board.
“Helldivers 2 continues to build on its unexpected success with its launch on Xbox, and it’s a better time than ever to jump into the Galactic War and spread Managed Democracy.”
Where much of the weapon and cosmetic diversity comes in, though, is in the Warbonds: the in-game battle passes that unlock both new types of weapons and special armor, emotes, and capes. While Helldivers 2 originally launched with just 2, there are now 17 by my count, which typically cost 1,000 Super Credits, save for the lone free Warbond and the “Legendary” Halo ODST crossover that costs 1,500 Super Credits.
There are some opportunities to gather Super Credits in the free Warbond and across other channels, but you can also buy exactly 1,000 Super Credits in the store for $10, on top of the $40 price tag. These luckily aren’t pay-to-win bundles and certainly focus more on cosmetics than weapons, but it’s definitely disheartening to see what is at this point the majority of content locked behind unnecessary microtransactions.
Helldivers 2 continues to build on its unexpected success with its launch on Xbox, and it’s a better time than ever to jump into the Galactic War and spread Managed Democracy. Even though it may be an overwhelming amount of content for solo players and newcomers, especially with its Warbonds, this is the type of multiplayer shooter that makes me want to continue progressing long past the point where I unlock every Stratagem or without purchasing a new battle pass.
It makes every mission quick and to the point, and the chaos that happens within the mission that you and your squad create for yourselves is always enjoyable, especially combined with the over-the-top propaganda coming from Super Earth. Helldivers 2 makes it as fun as possible to send in bombs and rain down bullets on hordes of bugs and robots, and it’s about time we get back to the Galactic War and continue fighting for Liberty.
This game was reviewed on Xbox Series X.
