Standing with a prestigious 9/10 on IGN and rated “Very Positive” on STEAM, “Helldivers 2” took over the gaming industry by storm in February and shows just how powerful a game can be with the power of social media influence and community building.
With the gaming industry sitting in quite the lull with the release of another disappointing Call of Duty game and more Triple A titles such as “Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League,” it’s no surprise that indie developers with games like “Lethal Company” and “Palworld” have been doing so well. Riding off the theme, “Helldivers 2” came out at a perfect time.
At first glance, Helldivers 2 looks just like another third person PvE horde extraction shooter with repetitive gameplay. This, however, cannot be further from the truth. Coming out in February as a sequel to the original Helldivers, the game pivots the camera from a top-down shooter to an over the shoulder third person cinema blaster. With commendable graphics and beautifully smooth gameplay, the surprise lands on the fact that it was created on the same engine as the original game being made almost 10 years prior.
Along with its impressive visuals and smooth gameplay, the game provides a very simple to understand and fair progression system allowing players to constantly find themselves with new content in new situations. Whether you’re saving up samples in the game to upgrade your ship or scouring the planets for requisition slips to buy yourself an on-demand nuke, the game always has you moving forward towards a goal.
To further connect the Helldivers community as well, the game offers up to four player co-op per match. But there’s more ways to help the Helldivers community than just playing together. A unique way the game works is that all players all work together to liberate planets to 100% allowing them to liberate a sector and move to the next. Every player is in it together. You win a match with your squad, and you can see the percentage go live knowing you contributed to liberation.
Speaking of planets, you will never find yourself in the same boring landscape as the game boasts a massive 53 sectors with a total of 253 planets with each one different from the last. Pair that with the fact that all planets have weather conditions such as meteor strikes and fire tornadoes, and there won’t be a single moment in the game where it won’t look like a cinematic masterpiece.
The most impressive thing surrounding “Helldivers 2,” however, is by far its community engagement. It has been near unavoidable to approach social media in recent months without seeing “Helldivers 2” content, for gamers and non-gamers alike. The community spawned its own set of memes such as Malevelon Creek, which describes a particularly difficult planet that players have been struggling to liberate since the launch of the game.
There are also dedicated social media accounts that hold the sole purpose of providing real-time updates to Helldivers to round up the troops when they are losing a planet or need an extra edge on one that’s close to liberation. These accounts also provide updates on additional changes to the game, such as the releases of new weapons and features that the community grows excited from.
It’s easy to find yourself playing this game for hours on hours having a fun time even when you are getting absolutely smoked, which may be fairly common as it is an extremely difficult game. With a huge community engagement and a stunning visual landscape with smooth gameplay, “Helldivers 2” should be on any gamers radar.
