So, Helldivers 2 is fun as hell when it's working properly. When it's not working properly, you end up wasting 20-40 minutes in an match with nothing to show for it.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3209621507

The fun: four player co-op just as easily played with randoms as with friends. For the most part, the players I've teamed up with have all been team oriented and are just having fun. Some teams use mics, some don't, but most of them keep their eye on the prize and either stick together or break off into 2x2 teams to cover more ground. Typically, extractions only get called when the map is complete or the team is starting to get overrun.

The gameplay loop is addictive with fun objectives; amazing combat with a wide array of weapons, equipment, armor and orbital drops; a fairly robust system of upgrades; cool worlds to run around on; and so on. There's nothing quite like watching an enemy compound or an ICBM explode.

For me, I found missions against the Automatons to be easier to learn the ins and outs of the game than the Terminid missions, but both are cool.

The graphics can be pretty stunning, and the audio alternates between hilarious and visceral.

Hugging things out and playing rock scissors paper never lose their charm lol.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3208593191

Another cool thing worth mentioning are the levels of difficulty. As you finish missions in one difficulty, you unlock the next, rinse and repeat until all difficulty levels are unlocked. With higher difficulty comes greater rewards, some of which are unique to the higher levels and necessary to unlock most ship upgrades. And you can select the difficulty each time you're going to go on a mission. Matchmaking is tied to this system, so you'll always be teamed up with players wanting to play at the same difficulty level as you.

A lot of experienced players will play at the lower difficulty levels to help new players out as well, which is really cool.

However, the rough launch was indicative of the bugginess that seems to get worse with each patch. Presently (as of the time of this writing), getting a network error while in a mission or an extraction game crash, and losing whatever progress from said mission are the bugs dujour. That is incredibly frustrating, especially when it happens in consecutive missions. You might go five or ten missions without it happening, but happen it will.

The developers are insanely active, but it is far from a seamless experience as any casual glance at the forums will confirm. They seem more interested in expanding their premium Warbond storefront than fixing network error and crashing issues; and seem to really enjoy nerfing popular weapons while also increasing enemy difficulty lol. And the whole "Joel is messing with everyone" thing has become stale at best.

I have experienced a trio of intentional team killers who were also the match hosts in my time so far. At some point, you just gotta light them up. They kick you, you block them, and life goes on lol. Mostly though, team kills are both inadvertent and funny.

As mentioned before, most quickplay matches are fun as hell when they don't glitch out, and the majority of players really want the same thing you do. Bullets, lasers, explosions, and good times.

I have been playing exclusively on the Steam Deck and it's been great as a handheld game. It maybe took a match or two to train my eyes to the combination of a ton going on at a super fast pace combined with the smaller screen, but after that, it's been stellar. The only caveat being finding a convenient key for 'push to talk' that doesn't disrupt other keyed gameplay features. I settled on right trackpad personally.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3209305720

So with that in mind, I do definitely recommend the game and intend to keep playing it for some time to come, but with the caveat that you will almost certainly experience some bugginess at some point or another. I imagine you can enjoy this game for months if not years, and despite this having been a gift, I'd say cost vs value is definitely there if the devs actually focus on fixing the numerous issues with the game instead of focusing almost exclusively on thinking of new Warbonds to sell you and new quirky in character X posts to...ummm...post.

So, [i]Helldivers 2[/i] is fun as hell when it's working properly. When it's not working properly, you end up wasting 20-40 minutes in an match with nothing to show for it. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3209621507 The fun: four player co-op just as easily played with randoms as with friends. For the most part, the players I've teamed up with have all been team oriented and are just having fun. Some teams use mics, some don't, but most of them keep their eye on the prize and either stick together or break off into 2x2 teams to cover more ground. Typically, extractions only get called when the map is complete or the team is starting to get overrun. The gameplay loop is addictive with fun objectives; amazing combat with a wide array of weapons, equipment, armor and orbital drops; a fairly robust system of upgrades; cool worlds to run around on; and so on. There's nothing quite like watching an enemy compound or an ICBM explode. For me, I found missions against the Automatons to be easier to learn the ins and outs of the game than the Terminid missions, but both are cool. The graphics can be pretty stunning, and the audio alternates between hilarious and visceral. Hugging things out and playing [i]rock scissors paper[/i] never lose their charm lol. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3208593191 Another cool thing worth mentioning are the levels of difficulty. As you finish missions in one difficulty, you unlock the next, rinse and repeat until all difficulty levels are unlocked. With higher difficulty comes greater rewards, some of which are unique to the higher levels and necessary to unlock most ship upgrades. And you can select the difficulty each time you're going to go on a mission. Matchmaking is tied to this system, so you'll always be teamed up with players wanting to play at the same difficulty level as you. A lot of experienced players will play at the lower difficulty levels to help new players out as well, which is really cool. [b]However[/b], the rough launch was indicative of the bugginess that seems to get worse with each patch. Presently (as of the time of this writing), getting a network error while in a mission or an extraction game crash, and losing whatever progress from said mission are the bugs dujour. That is incredibly frustrating, especially when it happens in consecutive missions. You might go five or ten missions without it happening, but happen it will. The developers are insanely active, but it is far from a seamless experience as any casual glance at the forums will confirm. They seem more interested in expanding their premium Warbond storefront than fixing network error and crashing issues; and seem to really enjoy nerfing popular weapons while also increasing enemy difficulty lol. And the whole "Joel is messing with everyone" thing has become stale at best. I have experienced a trio of intentional team killers who were also the match hosts in my time so far. At some point, you just gotta light them up. They kick you, you block them, and life goes on lol. Mostly though, team kills are both inadvertent and funny. As mentioned before, most quickplay matches are fun as hell when they don't glitch out, and the majority of players really want the same thing you do. Bullets, lasers, explosions, and good times. I have been playing exclusively on the Steam Deck and it's been great as a handheld game. It maybe took a match or two to train my eyes to the combination of a ton going on at a super fast pace combined with the smaller screen, but after that, it's been stellar. The only caveat being finding a convenient key for 'push to talk' that doesn't disrupt other keyed gameplay features. I settled on right trackpad personally. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3209305720 So with that in mind, I do definitely recommend the game and intend to keep playing it for some time to come, but with the caveat that you will almost certainly experience some bugginess at some point or another. I imagine you can enjoy this game for months if not years, and despite this having been a gift, I'd say cost vs value is definitely there [b]if the devs actually focus on fixing the numerous issues with the game instead of focusing almost exclusively on thinking of new Warbonds to sell you and new quirky in character X posts to...ummm...post.[/b] [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code]