One of the best co-op action games in a while.

Helldivers 2 is an action packed third person shooter for up to four players with action so explosive and dramatic it feels cinematic.

It features lots of weapons, air/orbital strikes and armor and cape customization so you can look like your ideal avatar of democracy while liberating both beautiful and desolate planets from freedom hating robots and bugs.

It’s also clearly focused on being fun rather than getting you to spend as much money as possible on microtransactions, so as it stands it's very well worth the money and so far everything points to it likely only getting better in the future.

That is my TLDR, read further for details.

This game has one of the best loading screens in gaming and that is why I dedicate an entire section to talk about it.

Before jumping into action you will select a mission, enter a “hellpod” and then select your gear and confirm drop location in the mission area. After that up to four hellpods, depending on players on the team, are launched into the planet.

The sequence starts with an alarm blaring and a ship voice declaring that a launch has been initiated. As this happens an epic theme starts to build up. You are next presented with a shot of your destroyer from the distance from where you see the hell pods launch just as the music blasts into an absolutely epic theme. The next few seconds see the hellpods during atmospheric entry while surrounded by fire until you load into the game and your pod lands into the planet.

It feels dangerous and absolutely epic, setting the tone for the action that is to come.

In principle this game reminds me of games like Earth Defense Force series or the more recent Starship Troopers Extermination, where the spirit of the gameplay is to blow up aliens with the biggest bombs possible.
Currently in this game you face the Automatons, a heavily armed robotic faction, and the Terminids, a faction of bugs that range from small to titanic.

Aiming and firing weapons has a weight to it. The game represents this with a circle that follows and moves around your aiming reticle and represents the actual direction your weapon will fire at. This is slower for heavier weapons or less precise depending on if you are standing, crouching or prone. It takes a minute to get used to but it feels great when in the heat of the action.

You will see the effects of your shots on enemies, making all guns feel great to fire no matter how effective (or ineffective) they are. Automatons will lose their arms, legs or pieces of equipment when shot. Terminids will lose limbs and slowly bleed out. When ineffective, shots can ricochet off armor and hit anything nearby. Big explosions will leave craters behind that can be used as cover.

Character movement in the game strikes a pleasant balance between arcade and realistic. You are able to make snappy movements like rapidly changing directions even when sprinting, yet you can be slowed down by hits, environment elements like snow, mud or deep foliage.
Besides the usual walk/run and crouch you can also prone and dive, launching yourself into the prone position. When prone you can aim in any direction and your character will change postures to aim, allowing you to go from aiming on your belly to aiming on your back and vice versa.

You can aim and shoot in any direction while diving, giving room for some Epic Gamer Moments™ to happen as if you were Max Payne jumping and shooting with explosions all around.

The game also has stealth mechanics in it, making you harder to see when crouched or prone and also depending on the armor perk you have.

The game currently offers a decent amount of primary, secondary and support weapons along with grenades, air/orbital strikes and other types of emplacements.

Amongst the tools you can currently acquire to spread democracy you can find; Rifles, snipers, shotguns, pistols, multiple grenade types, rocket/grenade launchers, a railgun, mortar/cannon/minigun turrets, multiple types of air/orbital strikes that include all manner of boom sizes and crowd control effects.

Lets just say you have a lot of toys at your disposal and all of them are a spectacle to watch regardless of actual usefulness.

As for character equipment and customization, you can equip different armors with stats and perks on them and helmets and capes as cosmetics.

The game currently offers 9 difficulty tiers so there is plenty of wiggle room for all manners of gamers.

As you go up in difficulty the amount of weapons that remain effective or efficient diminishes and at the same time some strategies, like stealth or patrol avoidance, can quickly outmatch others. This can lead to “optimizing the fun out of the game”, so this game is best played with a group of friends or like-minded gamers at the difficulty you have the most fun at.

Soloing is also possible even on the highest difficulty, but the amount of effective strategies is diminished even further.

The environments are beautiful and varied.

Lush jungle planets, desert planets, frozen planets, barren planets, volcanic planets, red grass planets, you name it. There is a bit of everything and there are dynamic day and night cycles and some weather effects like fog, rain, thunderstorms or even firestorms.

One of the most memorable missions I’ve had so far was during the daytime in one of the lush planets and it became nighttime around the middle of it, then soon after it started raining and after a while when the rain was gone I noticed a beautiful green moon (maybe a planet) in the horizon I didn't see before. Moments later our team lit up the sky with a massive explosion from an ICBM launch. The whole thing looked beautiful and immersive from beginning to end.

This is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously and has an obvious dose of satire on it. Marketing material, some sparse text logs and crew member commentary make it clear that you are just a cog in the machine and some things are not what they seem. Completing mission objectives and failing to extract is still considered a victory because you are expendable. The default voice setting of your character is set to a random voice because of this since every time you die and are reinforced, thematically you are playing a new helldiver.

So, similarly to Starship Troopers, the theme is the perfect excuse for the gameplay, because eating the propaganda and blowing stuff up in the name of freedom and “managed democracy” is really fun.

• Vehicles are confirmed, with mechs coming first.
  
• At least one more enemy type will be included. The Illuminate from the first game are mentioned. The Cyborgs (also from the first game) are said to be imprisoned in “Cyberstan”, a planet north of Super Earth in the galactic map, and are confirmed to be the creators of the current Automatons. I expect them to escape or be rescued by their creation and join forces.
  
• Boss fights. The first game had boss fights and there are clues in the environments alluding to new and bigger enemies.
  
• Plenty of armors, guns and new stratagems will be added over time in the form of monthly warbonds. One worry about this though is the fact that there are currently 2 helmets with hidden stats on them. This makes me think originally helmets and capes had stats, and considering there is a premium currency, maybe some part of the monetization was walked back in the name of fairness and could potentially come back later on since said premium currency can be used to buy armor pieces from a rotating store.
  
• New mission types and environments. In the first game the galactic war could reach Super Earth, featuring city maps.

10/10 Democracy simulator.

[h2]Summary[/h2] One of the best co-op action games in a while. Helldivers 2 is an action packed third person shooter for up to four players with action so explosive and dramatic it feels cinematic. It features lots of weapons, air/orbital strikes and armor and cape customization so you can look like your ideal avatar of democracy while liberating both beautiful and desolate planets from freedom hating robots and bugs. It’s also clearly focused on being fun rather than getting you to spend as much money as possible on microtransactions, so as it stands it's very well worth the money and so far everything points to it likely only getting better in the future. That is my TLDR, read further for details. [h3]Getting ready for action[/h3] This game has one of the best loading screens in gaming and that is why I dedicate an entire section to talk about it. Before jumping into action you will select a mission, enter a “hellpod” and then select your gear and confirm drop location in the mission area. After that up to four hellpods, depending on players on the team, are launched into the planet. The sequence starts with an alarm blaring and a ship voice declaring that a launch has been initiated. As this happens an epic theme starts to build up. You are next presented with a shot of your destroyer from the distance from where you see the hell pods launch just as the music blasts into an absolutely epic theme. The next few seconds see the hellpods during atmospheric entry while surrounded by fire until you load into the game and your pod lands into the planet. It feels dangerous and absolutely epic, setting the tone for the action that is to come. [h3]The action[/h3] In principle this game reminds me of games like Earth Defense Force series or the more recent Starship Troopers Extermination, where the spirit of the gameplay is to blow up aliens with the biggest bombs possible. Currently in this game you face the Automatons, a heavily armed robotic faction, and the Terminids, a faction of bugs that range from small to titanic. Aiming and firing weapons has a weight to it. The game represents this with a circle that follows and moves around your aiming reticle and represents the actual direction your weapon will fire at. This is slower for heavier weapons or less precise depending on if you are standing, crouching or prone. It takes a minute to get used to but it feels great when in the heat of the action. You will see the effects of your shots on enemies, making all guns feel great to fire no matter how effective (or ineffective) they are. Automatons will lose their arms, legs or pieces of equipment when shot. Terminids will lose limbs and slowly bleed out. When ineffective, shots can ricochet off armor and hit anything nearby. Big explosions will leave craters behind that can be used as cover. Character movement in the game strikes a pleasant balance between arcade and realistic. You are able to make snappy movements like rapidly changing directions even when sprinting, yet you can be slowed down by hits, environment elements like snow, mud or deep foliage. Besides the usual walk/run and crouch you can also prone and dive, launching yourself into the prone position. When prone you can aim in any direction and your character will change postures to aim, allowing you to go from aiming on your belly to aiming on your back and vice versa. You can aim and shoot in any direction while diving, giving room for some Epic Gamer Moments™ to happen as if you were Max Payne jumping and shooting with explosions all around. The game also has stealth mechanics in it, making you harder to see when crouched or prone and also depending on the armor perk you have. [h3]The tools[/h3] The game currently offers a decent amount of primary, secondary and support weapons along with grenades, air/orbital strikes and other types of emplacements. Amongst the tools you can currently acquire to spread democracy you can find; Rifles, snipers, shotguns, pistols, multiple grenade types, rocket/grenade launchers, a railgun, mortar/cannon/minigun turrets, multiple types of air/orbital strikes that include all manner of boom sizes and crowd control effects. Lets just say you have a lot of toys at your disposal and all of them are a spectacle to watch regardless of actual usefulness. As for character equipment and customization, you can equip different armors with stats and perks on them and helmets and capes as cosmetics. [h3]The missions and difficulty[/h3] The game currently offers 9 difficulty tiers so there is plenty of wiggle room for all manners of gamers. As you go up in difficulty the amount of weapons that remain effective or efficient diminishes and at the same time some strategies, like stealth or patrol avoidance, can quickly outmatch others. This can lead to “optimizing the fun out of the game”, so this game is best played with a group of friends or like-minded gamers at the difficulty you have the most fun at. Soloing is also possible even on the highest difficulty, but the amount of effective strategies is diminished even further. [h3]The world[/h3] The environments are beautiful and varied. Lush jungle planets, desert planets, frozen planets, barren planets, volcanic planets, red grass planets, you name it. There is a bit of everything and there are dynamic day and night cycles and some weather effects like fog, rain, thunderstorms or even firestorms. One of the most memorable missions I’ve had so far was during the daytime in one of the lush planets and it became nighttime around the middle of it, then soon after it started raining and after a while when the rain was gone I noticed a beautiful green moon (maybe a planet) in the horizon I didn't see before. Moments later our team lit up the sky with a massive explosion from an ICBM launch. The whole thing looked beautiful and immersive from beginning to end. [h3]The theme[/h3] This is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously and has an obvious dose of satire on it. Marketing material, some sparse text logs and crew member commentary make it clear that you are just a cog in the machine and some things are not what they seem. Completing mission objectives and failing to extract is still considered a victory because you are expendable. The default voice setting of your character is set to a random voice because of this since every time you die and are reinforced, thematically you are playing a new helldiver. So, similarly to Starship Troopers, [b]the theme is the perfect excuse for the gameplay, because eating the propaganda and blowing stuff up in the name of freedom and “managed democracy” is really fun.[/b] [h3]The future[/h3] [list] [*]Vehicles are confirmed, with mechs coming first. [*]At least one more enemy type will be included. The Illuminate from the first game are mentioned. The Cyborgs (also from the first game) are said to be imprisoned in “Cyberstan”, a planet north of Super Earth in the galactic map, and are confirmed to be the creators of the current Automatons. I expect them to escape or be rescued by their creation and join forces. [*]Boss fights. The first game had boss fights and there are clues in the environments alluding to new and bigger enemies. [*]Plenty of armors, guns and new stratagems will be added over time in the form of monthly warbonds. One worry about this though is the fact that there are currently 2 helmets with hidden stats on them. This makes me think originally helmets and capes had stats, and considering there is a premium currency, maybe some part of the monetization was walked back in the name of fairness and could potentially come back later on since said premium currency can be used to buy armor pieces from a rotating store. [*]New mission types and environments. In the first game the galactic war could reach Super Earth, featuring city maps. [/list] 10/10 Democracy simulator.