Recent reviews by Landar486

EDIT/UPDATE: as of march 6th 2024 midnight, sony is waiving the account requirement. everyone is currently free to play helldivers again that couldn't/wouldn't be able to. Per playstation tweet:

"Helldivers fans -- we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward.

We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans."

This very enjoyable product, probably goty material, is now again free to access for all, so my opinion will shift to positive. However i am vigilant, so wait & see i guess if/when sony screws up again.


edit2: ...apparently countries without psn still can't get this anymore? continue the fight for these people!

Good game at its core, but some nitpicky issues are afoot.
Incomplete? voice acting on the ship. Singular lines feel like token inclusions, but they do sound well presented in cutscenes.

Combat: Love the design of the gameplay loop. Many options to dispatch your enemies as well. However..
Wounds: unless you completely turtle & use aegis every turn, you 100% will be taking them, which means:

Downtime: While not as brutal as Xcom/2, you CAN still use wounded soldiers, but in exchange you have to prioritize their safety even more. ..makes sense i guess.

The UI: pretty clunky, but at least it prevents misclicks with lots of 'are you sure?' prompts. The barracks & unit preparation could use a big bit of streamlining, however.

The units: basically...they're big hulking shiny silver space marines with 4 classes which...aren't exactly explained if you're new, but after a couple level ups, they all can feel like unique units. especially with the customization which is mostly regalia on the armor bits.

The "go" timer: Isn't an auto-fail like in other similar games, but it is important to manage. Every turn it goes up by 15-20% by default, and if you use special attacks/psycher abilities it increases further. I liked it more after realizing how to manipulate it when it's near 100%. ...and it can happen multiple times per mission, at 100% it's used for spawning reinforcements, buffing the enemy/nerfing yours randomly, placing damage/debuff areas on the map...

The Sound: I would say everything sounds great and appropriate, and it does... but it all sounds kind of subdued. Playing other WH40K based games, i usually have to turn down my sounds because the weapons, explosions voices and hulking armor sound like they should sound, but this one i have to turn it up for the same effect. ...just nitpicky but yeah. (why does the xcom 2 conventional/magnetic grenadier cannons sound meatier than our storm bolters?)

My only real gripes are how long it takes to heal wounds, and my current inexperience to manage the base resources which aren't really explained either ingame. There IS a codex to read at least with some information that I haven't read, so maybe that'll smooth things out. ...also that some items are lost to pre-order hell and the character behind extra cash is pretty lame. Could've just made it cost 60 by default and put both of those in there.

I say yes to this if you want another strategy game in your arsenal. Definitely on sale at the least.

I am giving this a thumbs up. But there are a few issues I have with the game.

First off, the always online thing. I hate it. But i have no control over that and hope the devs make an offline/direct connect to friends mode in the future.

In game... It does not present a lot of information to you. Or enough for me at least. There is a "radar", that only tells you where enemies and objectives might be(more on that later). Not even a compass telling you what direction you're going, or a minimap function. But it does the job i guess.

Status Effects: Not enough information. I mean, clearly freeze freezes, slow slows, but what does Charred do? does burn or bleed do anything besides damage over time? There is no in-game encyclopedia for the status effects and I may have ignored some probably good weapons in the early game because of it. or class abilities. on that...

Picking a class: Beyond "This is suited for long/medium/short ranged combat with (themed) abilities", that's it. That's all you get. You don't even get to see the skill point trees until you get in the game, and the skills are level locked, which is normal, but you don't get to see what they do or what they are, with an admittedly nice example movie, until you reach that level, often in combat, so you can't pay attention to that easily besides looking at your skills window.

The gameplay: Is the selling point for me. Sure the gameplay loop is often walk, fight, walk, fight, but the enemy variety is enough to keep a first time player on their toes. I still get complacent and forget they sometimes have shotguns and can 1-shot me if i feel careless. But the difficulty can scale to your needs, or wants, and you can steamroll the game or keep it interesting or feel hopelessly outmatched. People have described the gameplay and mechanics to gears of war meets mass effect, and i'd agree to a point. The plot is nice enough to keep things connected, too. It's just satisfying overall to me.

Monetization: ...what? where? You buy the game and you play it. A rare thing in this era of gaming, and a welcome one. No BS, no fluff, you get what you pay for. A straightforward approach I dearly miss and will always support.

So... If you want a competent 3rd person loot-shooter that i'd describe as "a well cooked & prepared meal, but missing some condiments & trimmings" I say go for it. It does the job it sets out to do and I hope if the devs do expand on the game, they improve upon the systems and enrich the experience further.

Having never played this game before and only hearing about all the crap people give it. (legit crap though...see later) I enjoy this game a lot. Once you get past the first few areas, the combat picks up a lot and you really start to get a feel for the flawed characters, how they mesh together...or not, at times. Back to the combat though. Yes you control 1 character, and yes if s/he gets down'ed it's game over, but that adds to the sense of urgency in some battles that you need to control the game very carefully. Yes there's that silly auto-battle function, but you literally will not have fun with this game at all if you just rely on that. Paradigm shifting and having good setups is essential to winning mid-late game fights.

Yes the "exploration" is quite linear, but once you realize that, it makes you want to see every nook, cranny, horizon, etc. for what it is. And some places are just plain gorgeous, nearly on par with top level pc games. Also that linear'ness means you can't go back to any areas at all, on Cocoon at least, so find every treasure chest/orb you can. But yeah this is a beautiful game and stop and smell the roses sometimes.

The story? People say it's confusing or convoluted or whatnot. ...I found it fairly simple. You just have to pay attention to what's happening, read the bits of dialogue presented to you, don't skip the cutscenes. (lol telling this generation of gamers that is folly, i know). Don't let your ideas of a "perfect story" cloud what's going on. Listen to the character's plight, how they interact with each other and the world around them. Let the characters grow on you. ...Yes even Vanille, though if you use her in the party after a certain point, try to keep the volume down. Otherwise it'll sound like you're watching an adult film. Not sure what her voice actress was thinking in that regard.

You don't "level up" in a traditional sense. You gain points every battle you use to advance on the crystarium and increase the power of your roles and characters. The crystarium itself levels up though almost every time you face a major boss. The enemies do respawn in some areas, so grinding is possible. though early in the game if you want to grind you have to save/quit/load. Your weapons and accessories gain experience through using items gained by defeating enemies or buying at the conveniently placed shop consoles. (there are no "town hubs" to go to like other Final Fantasy games) Also your HP is restored after every battle.

The visuals, sound effects and music/soundtrack? All excellent. Areas that Square/Square-Enix never fail to deliver.

In short, i'm only halfway through the game, and I enjoy the crap out of it. Final Fantasy 13 has a reputation for being a polarizing entry in the series. People love it, or they hate it. ...I'm on the side of the fence that loves it for what it is. A charming adventure with a cast of quirky characters in a desperate situation trying to survive and get to know each other and grow as people. ...Who happen to have super powers.

My only gripes with this game are the quality of the port. No grapics options? Locked to 1 resolution? Alt-tabbing breaks some of the visual functionality and sometimes crashes the game. I wish i could go back to visit areas. Vanille's battle sounds reminding me of "adult content". The lack of being able to get gil without farming specific enemies in specific areas for sellable items. ...The lack of use for gil until the endgame. The game does lose framerate in high stress/action areas, even though my pc blows a PS4's specs out of the water. (this is a playstation 3 game, so...).

Right though. Give the game a chance. You'll either kick yourself for not playing this fantastic game sooner, or you'll hate it. It's fairly cheap as well, so, yeah.

Stardock is really good at updating their game here. Sins if a Solar Empire is an excellent way to meld space 4X and RTS gameplay in a grand package. You will be micromanaging a lot of planets and fleets and resources to conquer galaxies of varying sizes, and there is a decent multiplayer scene. The races are pretty well balanced, and have different aesthetics/special abilities, and the game itself just looks really really good. Be careful not to just stare off into space, literally.