*****Changing Review Due to Game-changing updates******

****09/17/20204****UPDATE: They reverted all the nerfs and buffed everything... they actually listened and followed through. The game is, once again, amazing.



The game was amazing... then the developers nerfed the fun out of it. I don't think they will reverse course, despite their empty promises to do so. If they DO, I'll update this review but until then, this game is a mil-sim shooter in space and my statement "But with all that opposition, Super Earth equips you to conquer it handily with ridiculously overpowered weapons and stratagems, making your bag of meat and bones a walking battalion." is no longer true- You're incredibly UNDER powered.
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TL;DR: Amazing co-op experience with friends, challenging but fun experience solo - 9.5/10

I played the first Helldivers when it came out and up until about a year before Helldivers II released. I was excited for this game, to say the least, but not prepared for just how awesome it ended up being. Arrowhead is an amazing studio and you should check out all of their previous games. Magicka, Helldivers 1, and Guantlet stand out to me as other fantastic co-op experiences from them.

It's like Halo and gears of war had a baby... a vicious, merciless, killer of a baby. You're outnumbered all the time and everything but the smallest enemies has more health than you- sometimes you'll enter combat in the center of a giant war where bullets and rockets are whizzing past your face... or directly into it. But with all that opposition, Super Earth equips you to conquer it handily with ridiculously overpowered weapons and stratagems, making your bag of meat and bones a walking battalion. The guns sound and feel amazing, explosions will send you flying across the map, and nothing quite warms the cockles of your heart like the eye-scorching visuals of tactical nukes re-shaping the battlefield in front of you. Its all very action packed, challenging, and often times hilarious. It's best enjoyed with friends but still fun, albeit challenging, alone.

As a special note on solo gameplay- this game is meant to be played with others and the difficulty skyrockets when you're on your own. This isn't to say it isn't fun- just be warned that it isn't for the feint of heart.

Basically, you complete missions and the better you do, the more experience and requisitions you get. Along the way, you can find Samples on your mission and bring them back with you. All these currencies are used to purchase the upgrades that make your Helldiver more powerful. At the start of each mission, you can determine your loadout based on the items you have unlocked.
Experience - Earned by completing missions on any difficulty, broken down by objectives. Experience is the currency that unlocks weapons, armor, stratagems, and ship modules making them available for purchase.
Requisitions - Earned by completing missions on any difficulty, broken down by objectives. Also found at points of interest randomly. Used for purchasing unlocked stratagems.
Samples - Collected during missions. There are three types: common, rare, and super. Common samples spawn on all difficulties but the other two only spawn on higher difficulties and scale alongside them.
Medals - Earned for successfully completing missions or found on missions randomly. Used to purchase Weapons, armor, emotes, and boosters. You can also purchase a limited amount of Super Credits with medals.
Super Credits - Found randomly on missions or purchased with real money. Can be used to purchase armor and weapons but none of the armor and weapons that can be purchased this way are better than what can be unlocked with Medals.

I was so worried that this game would be ruined by micro-transactions but I am happy to report that I have spent 0$ on the game beyond my initial purchase and have felt no need to. That said, I do plan to buy some cool armor to support the devs at some point. The Super Credits are entirely optional and affordable- you can buy a full set of armor for 2-5$. There is also a paid-for season pass type feature but its just some more stuff like you would get with Super Credits, not game-changing, not required, but cool.