Recent reviews by [GWJ] Al

Helldivers 2 is the Galaxy Quest of Starship Troopers games.

Not to get reductive but if you're an old timer like me you might remember a game called Red Storm Rising which came out in *checks Google* Oh God. When?!

I mean, well, that's not important. What's important was that I was a fun game and you'll be happy to hear this game has that same kind of vibe, giving you slow, stalking submarine sim game play punctuated by bursts of frantic activity when the shooting starts or when you suddenly realize that you're careening towards a navigation hazard way too fast.

Picking up the pieces of a bad encounter, be they pirates or your own bad navigation then you'll need to start engineering. Scavenging parts to keep enough of your ship working to get back to port is stressful and satisfying but maintains a nice level of accessibility.

The open world gives you a lot of different avenues to take as well, which is nice. Want to make your money moving high value cargo that you'd prefer the authorities not scan? You got it. Want to stalk the space lanes looking for cargo to liberate or pirates to bring to justice? Go for it. Want to be on the up and up, moving cargo and passengers? Sure. Want to take a break from all of that to dive into a space opera that spans over seven governments? Yeah, that too.

All in all, I've been having a blast with the game.