Helldivers 2 Completely Surprised Me (REVIEW)

Helldivers 2 is another great 2024 game. After multiple days of grinding and playing on and off stream, here's my official review of Helldivers 2, and why it might just be the game of the year, at least for now...
#helldivers2 #review #helldivers

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:45 The Story
3:33 Helldivers
4:06 Missions & War Effort
7:20 Gameplay & Combat
12:48 Weaponry
15:14 The Planets
16:10 Weapon Customization
16:30 Microtransactions
19:20 My Thoughts
19:54 Outro
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[torvasdh]

When you get jumped by a mob and have to escape to extraction while an entire army chases you, that 2 minute extraction timer is like a lifetime. It's so intense and so much fun.

[Estaran]

15:27 If you walk through deep snow, and another player walks behind you, the other player will be moving a lot faster because you already made a breach for them to walk in.

There are a lot of those systems at work in this game and I LOVE it! 😁

[mtaylorfilm]

Fun fact: The music is composed by Wilbert Roget II who worked on Destiny 2: Forsaken! Most notably the Vault encounter theme for the Last Wish Raid “Watchtower” 😍

[silentwraith]

A positive note for the premium pass, you get enough super credits from the standard track to get the premium pass and the pass never goes away, ever. It will still be here 2 years later.

[Strange_corn]

Fun fact: the water on some worlds will get rid of most blood and liquids that are stuck on your armor

[legoshi]

Im genuinely so glad helldivers 2 blew up, reminds me a lot of Risk of rain 2! Both of these games never really got the attention they deserved, then they randomly drop a sequel that absolutely knocks it out of the park.

[WinterFairy]

Just a note:
There are other armors available outside of the premium warbond that have the exact same passives and combinations of passives. Check the “superstore” every day for a chance to use far-fewer super credits on two different sets of armor.
On the other side of this: the incendiary grenade SLAPS 😂

[joebond]

I went into a "normal difficulty" match against the Robots with a friend.. and let me tell you I have never been more terrified in my life felt like I was in D day. I had Terminators coming from all directions and I was laying in a ditch in the ground whilst red bullets just fly over my skull. We died 5 minutes in and felt like an hour. What a game

[mrreemann]

Some neat stuff I like about Helldivers 2
- Buildings and terrain pieces like rocks and stuff are destructible. It isn't total environmental destructibility, but it is impactful in that a wellplaced airstrike in some ruined buildings can give your squad some much needed line of sight - especially if you're throwing down a few sentry guns. It adds a sense of dynamism to the map, watching a building get levelled, or a nice rock you were using for cover disappearing.
- The fact that the barrel of your gun doesn't line up exactly with your aim is very cool. It feels like you're actually aiming the gun, fighting against it's recoil without the struggle of pulling your camera against the recoil.
- The toggle options for guns - if you HOLD down the reload button, a menu will appear for your current gun, enabling you to change some of the gun's specs or performance. You can toggle your flashlight, change the RPM of machine guns, change the range for your sights...
- The friendly fire - it forces you to actually play strategically. You can't just blind fire whenever you see enemies, you have to work with your team to not blow each other away. It enforces tactical thinking, keeps you on your A-game and engaged with the game. You can't just tuen out as you rampage through bugs, you need to make sure your teammates don't hate you! Tangentially related, but Sentry guns DO NOT CARE if you are in front of them when they start firing. GET ON THE GROUND CADET. You gotta think about where you're throwing your Stratagems.
- Stratagems have so much variety, and the special "code" for each one adds that extra layer of tension. In the middle of a firefight, are you going to be able to keep your cool well enough to bring down an airstrike? It also means that the devs were able to have EIGHT different calldowns - because each stratagem has a unique code, the devs were able to make it so that players could have many options without it being overpowered - powerful stratagems have long codes, and a single mistake means you have to spend precious seconds that you cant really afford in a firefight retrying the stratagem code.
- Support equipment not being part of the default loadout is actually a really nice touch - players can't just run the most OP gear all the time - if they get careless and die, they will respawn sure - but without their gear. They can try and go get it back - it's just on the other side of this horde of bugs. "what's that? You don't have the necessary firepower available now to fight your way through the bugs? TOUGH SHIT CADET, WAIT FOR YOUR COOLDOWNS WHILE YOU RUN AWAY LIKE A COMMUNIST COWARD" Players are allowed to have strong builds, while still maintaining the threat of death.
- Stratagems must be THROWN. It means players need to try and get a high ground advantage for longer range airstrikes, or get up close and risk triggering the horde and wasting an airstrike on a mostly empty area (I save my airstrikes for nuking bug dens)

[TrippyTigre]

I love the sheer amount of attention to detail in this game. Ships warping in when people join your party. The ships staying together as you warp in 'real time'. The nuke blasts. YOUR ship deploying YOUR strategems and YOUR eagle coming in for covering fire and bombing runs. I am totally happy with the base game, but I can't wait for more!

[renatoruiz]

The general that you hear over the ship speakers is the Drifter. No lie.

[lilaredden]

All the armor perks that are available in pay shops are also available in the free warbond

[djwhyteryce]

HDII does an impeccable job of making you feel expendable, and part of something greater. You're just a lackey blindly following the flag of freedom, and the sense of comradery is so subtle but there is nothing in gaming like just posting up in the face of a horde and watching 4 streams of rounds eviscerate everything on the other side of my cross hair is just pure dopamine. I feel like this game has an RP-esque vibe, similar to DRG, instead of rock and stone, we scream while mag dumping LMGs

[vyst]

Something to note is, the premium armors have the same effects as some free ones, so really it's just a cosmetic option if you don't like the free versions. And the premium weapons are modified versions of free ones that in my view aren't really that good.

Plus the free warbond plus some grinding can get you enough supercredits to buy premium anyway. I don't like that there's a paid warbond in an already payed game, but at least they're able to be grinded for and permanent.

[PwnagInc]

Just bought it because of the positive coverage.
I may not even play it, but i will support devs that are still trying to keep gaming what it is supposed to be.
FUN!

[hitmanvr]

😂😂😂 Cross... Man I couldn't make this up..

I'm in a general building bathroom taking a 💩, listening to this video out loud. A guy comes in and goes, washes his hands. He must have been listening because he yells "hey man, what game is that??" And I returned "Helldivers 2, guy named Aztecross" he goes "imma have to check that out!"

😂😂😂

[gabriel]

The jump pack makes fighting bugs so much easier. You're basically a Mandalorian.

[randalrickens]

The armor in the free pass also have buffs. Not to mention if you have a day off just play the game, use your medals to buy super credits, keep an eye out for super credit, on the map... you'll have enough by the end of the day to buy the BP. I mean it's honestly one of the best versions of a BP I've seen in a bit

[TheQuatum]

This game is incredibly intense, a huge surprise. This is the perfect Starship Troopers video game.

Haven't felt such intensity in a game for a whole

[bobbobson]

I don't think i've been addicted to a game like this in a good while. Maybe since the launch of D1 or BO2. Like i'm at work just thinking about going home and squashing bugs with my squad and spreading democracy.

It has suprising depth and it's actually criminal how good the combat feels. You see and feel the impact of every bullet reflected on the enemies. It reminds me of how destiny just has this inner core of near perfect gunplay combined with statisfying feedback from hitting your enemies. The strategems are a real showstealer and they went all out.

Besides the server issues, the game is actually super polished as well and the monetization is imo very fair. Easily one of the best co-op or even mp games i've played the last decade.

As soon as the server stability has been fixed this game is probably the easiest recommendation/pick up i've played.