All in all, Helldivers 2 is a fantastic co-op game with lots of content (and arguably the best structure to live service I’ve seen in a long time) wrapped up in a nice $quarenta package. The price point is right (even if you take into consideration the additional $20 “upgrade”), the content is plentiful and it feels like a game that respects your time. I genuinely have a hard time saying anything negative about the game, especially now that the servers are stabilized and the developers are active on Twitter (X, if you care about that detail) updating the community about game updates and stability hiccups.

For example, some enemies are so heavily shielded they can only be put down by explosive weapons capable of tearing through the steel, so you’ll want to have at least one player who can call down the Recoilless Rifle, a rocket launcher that’ll make short work of anything that stands in its way. It’s especially cool that any equipment summoned can be shared with anyone on the team, encouraging teamwork and allowing your friends to benefit from your untimely demise by looting your corpse.

You can still extract once the timer has run out. But if you do, you lose the ability to use your Stratagems. This might make the wait for the extraction ship a little more challenging as you fight off enemies, but it's also worth going to unlock the "In the nick of time" achievement.

Plus, some elements of the post-processing, like the screen-space reflections, didn't give very much of an Unreal impression to me. It turns out that the game is using a modified version of the discontinued Autodesk Stingray game engine, which makes more sense. A variant of this engine powered the excellent Warhammer 40K: Darktide, and while Helldivers 2 isn't quite as striking, I think the game looks strong overall. But Environmental critiques are fine but perhaps miss the point: Helldivers 2 is an action-packed title, and much of your time is spent engaging with the game's insect and robotic foes. These firefights can look pretty extraordinary, especially when all four players are tightly clustered, trying to defend an objective. The key here is how enemies react when shot: each bullet strike spawns little bits of blood or smoke, alongside chunks of viscera or mechanical bits. It makes the simple act of firing at enemies satisfying.

Just like in Helldivers 1, you’ll have access to a variety of different weapons and stratagems. Optimize your loadout for the situation you expect to be in. If you’re expecting heavily-armored enemy units, ditch the regular assault rifle and go for laser weapons, explosives, or call in an airstrike with your stratagems.

You'll have personal orders and major orders. The major orders will last for multiple days and reward you with Requisition Slips. Personal orders update daily, and you'll be rewarded with medals for completing them.

will heavily rely on cooperation between you and your comrades in order to take down incoming hordes of enemies. Because of this, communication and teamwork are key, but that doesn’t mean the missions you embark on will be easy.

The universe of Helldivers 2 will grow and change to give our players refreshed gameplay, introducing new tools, new challenges, and new threats from around the galaxy.

For example, resupply drops apply to the whole team, so if someone uses it, your Supply Stratagem will also enter cooldown. The other thing you'll share is redeployment. If you've got a full squad, you'll have 20 chances to come back, but these are split between the four of you. You can see these in the top-left corner of your screen at all times.

The gameplay is still largely similar from the first game, you choose from a list of missions with varying difficulty levels and objectives and get dropped into the map from a landing spot of your choice. You can choose to accomplish the missions immediately if you so desire, or you can aim to complete every side objective in the mission.

We also learn a little bit about how important it is to strategize with your comrades to avoid lacking essential amour or equipment for certain enemies which you’ll inevitably need to face.  

Your strategy also depends on which mission you’re taking on, and you do need to consider your armor alongside your weapons. As stated in the co-op and combat trailer, each mission will require specific load-outs which are worth considering, so you’ll need to get really familiar with your available equipment in order to successfully take down any larger enemies.

I’ve played with lots of people who have ended up effectively role-playing as actors from the Starship Troopers film, yelling “Now that’

Doing so would get you more rewards, but it may leave your timer to 0 and you wouldn’t be able Helldivers 2 Gameplay to use your stratagems or support items that you call down from your ship anymore.