This is the most addicted I've been to a multiplayer game since Left 4 Dead 2 or GTA during the pandemic. This game is honestly incredible. One of the best PvE Coop games out there, and one of the best communities I've ever seen, and am proud to be a part of.

What keeps me coming back besides the excellent gameplay and awesome metagame is how Helldivers 2 wears its influences on its sleeves very proudly, as it should with how well it's been executed. The world, tone and mechanics that the game has is very reminiscent of (but not limited to):

1). Starship Troopers (fighting alien bugs on planets far from Earth, the overly bombastic and satirical military tone, the fact that it seems for the massive amount of bugs you fight the only vehicles you get are some walkers, and it's mostly just ground troops thrown into the meat grinder).

2). Terminator (pretty self explanatory, fighting the Automatons gives a very Terminator 1/2 feel even down to the music and overwhelming nature of the Automatons).

3). Halo (Helldivers compared to the ODST's being called the Helljumpers, being dropped from orbit in pods into battle, even the aircraft that extracts you is called the Pelican).

4). Left 4 Dead (Enemies are incredibly satisfying to fight thanks to the feedback similar to how zombies in L4D2 are always fun to blow to pieces, not to mention the very arcade like fun and feel of the game).

5). Star Wars Battlefront 2 (The Galactic Conquest mode in that game is basically how Helldivers 2's metagame sort of plays out, but it's closer to a Dungeon Master that creates community events, defence campaigns of planets, and so much more. It feels like Galactic Conquest in BF2 fully realized, and with more than 1 player).

6). Warhammer 40K (A universe in constant war with other races, a general bloodhungry atmosphere cultivated by both the in-game characters and the fans referencing the game in memes that scratch that certain itch that can't really be explained by people not in the know but those within the fandoms revel in).

There are likely many other influences that I probably haven't played or can think of off hand that have played a hand in the direction that the developers took to craft. Either way, the game takes these influences and puts its own spin on it that is so original and awesome that it feels truly unique. It truly does feel like one of those perfect fantasy game concepts that you'd put together in your imagination.

Gameplay wise, the shooting and aiming feels very different from any other game. There are no hitscan weapons (lasers notwithstanding), it's all projectiles so leading your shots is necessary, but the game throws a very unique wrinkle into the mix: the aiming reticle is essentially split into 2 pieces: where you want to aim with the mouse, and a second circle where your character is actually aiming. This second reticle has drag and takes into account the direction of the actual gun and recoil from firing or your aim being thrown off by an attack. As a result, unless you are using a armor set with a specific perk on it, you can't whip your aim around all willy nilly, you have to pace and time your aim, which can be difficult under pressure, but adds to the fun challenge of the game.

The other wrinkle of the Gameplay is the use of Strategems, which are basically like killstreaks from COD except you can call them in at any time assuming they aren't under cool-down, or have run out of uses, etc. Airstrikes, orbital strikes, support weapons like different rocket launchers with different functions, support backpacks, automated turrets, even mech suits once you've leveled up enough to unlock them. Having only 4 at a time per player helps to act sort of like a class system without a class system specifically. There is a great variety of them to use, and most to all of them are viable as long as you use them smartly. Punching the codes in also adds to the challenge of trying to do it under pressure especially when completely surrounded, which can lead to accidental team kills, which leads me to the next point.

Team Killing is bound to happen in this game, whether by a bad stratagem throw, overly zealous aiming, even the backpack drones accidentally setting you on fire. TK's are just the name of the game. It adds to the frantic and panicky nature of the game, as doing things under pressure like aiming and trying to punch in codes is tricky and hard to do fast and properly. This can lead to some deaths and the game sometimes feeling like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (which it can be, cough cough random ragdolls cough), but it's for the best to do your best to not get frustrated by them, as honestly most of the time it's funny especially in hindsight, and this game is truly at its best in a semi casual setting. Getting sweaty and mad decreases the fun of the game, especially on the higher difficulties. I recommend sticking to the difficulty that you feel is most fun.

The difficulty and challenge is quite fair up to Difficulty 7 I find. 8-10 is honestly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ though, especially if not prepared. It can be fun once in a while to try out the highest difficulty, as it is exhilarating to barely extract alive, but it does end up feeling so stacked against you that you feel forced to rely on the meta Strategems and Weapons, which does limit a fair few off of the table since some of them are just too niche to be viable to survive on those difficulties. I find that personally up to 7 for bugs, and 6 for bots gives the best balance of fun and challenge, and also still allows for most of the weapon and stratagem sandbox to still be viable as long as you don't play dumb.

A coop game is nothing without good coop, and this game has some of the best I've played. Coordinating with your team is great, and this is like one of very few Steam games where players will actually use the in-game voice chat as well as the text chat, and in-game callouts instead of everyone having to hop in a discord server and arrange a whole meetup and whatnot. Any match where at least one person has a mic is infinitely better than a silent one where nobody is speaking, as even just one person can help to coordinate different plans, choose which objectives everyone should be going to and doing, etc. If you're gonna play this game, HAVE A MIC. You will have a much better experience than without, though if you are stuck without one, the in-game callouts are a decent substitute.

Customization is a bit limited, unfortunately. There isn't any options for changing the colours of the armours or weapons yet, though that does seem like something that might be added down the line. There are lots of options for the player cards and titles, emotes at the stats screen and during the game, so that's good at least. Paint jobs for the vehicles are locked behind most of the Premium Warbonds, so that's unfortunate.

My biggest problem with progression is with the Ship Modules, which require Samples that you can find on missions. The requirements for the samples for the Modules is ridiculous, and maxing all of them out takes a long ass time. I still haven't done it in my 77 hours so far. I will do it eventually, but man having to farm commons and super rares takes so long. They really need a way to boost the amount of samples you get, maybe a way to multiply it based on the difficulty of the mission or something.

Overall, there is so much to cover with Helldivers 2 that I can't do it justice in a couple paragraphs (I was 4000 characters over the limit for this review and had to delete several paragraphs just to be able to post it). I highly recommend this game even if you don't have friends to play it with, since this community is one of the best I've ever seen a game foster. It's a great time, whether you wanna be a sweaty meta abusing nerd, or just a casual 2 hour killer with the bois. This game is excellent, and I hope the support continues for a long time.