Recent reviews by Midnight_Q

EDIT: I am amending the review and inverting the recommendation, though I am leaving the original text below.

Sony has retracted the requirement that PC players link a PSN account to Steam in order to play. Likewise a number of the issues listed below (the damage over time effects, for example) have been fixed. The game isn't perfect, but it is an impressive achievement regardless.



Original Review:
Helldivers is an amazing platform and an amazing idea. I really hope it leads to a whole new genre from studios not afraid to try crazy things and go big.
Unfortunately, Helldivers also feels like a game designed by passionate geniuses and then taken over by people who have no idea how anything works that are learning on the fly.
Game balance is done out of spite and from a spreadsheet rather than from knowledge gained from practical experience. If they see people good enough to play the game solo and have fun (I am not one of these people, it's a skill issue) they will nerf and ruin any gear commonly used by these people in order to stop them rather than based on how this will effect the rest of us.

This all while the game has fundamental important aspects that have been unreliable or flatly nonfunctional since launch. Features that do not work. Simple actions that occur during normal play that will crash the software. Using any weapon that causes damage over time effects not doing damage unless you are the one hosting the game (still there, has been since launch, not fixed). A bug for months where if the host of your game was on a Playstation 5, your weapons did drastically more damage to enemies (then they nerfed the weapons and ruined them for all of us without fixing that bug because as mentioned above, they don't "balance" based on anything but a spreadsheet and what soloing youtubers are using that week.

On the morning of May 3rd, Arrowhead, the developer, posted an announcement containing the following:

Originally posted by Arrowhead:

Due to technical issues at the launch of HELLDIVERS™ 2, we allowed the linking requirements for Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account to be temporarily optional. That grace period will now expire. See details below in this post.

Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behaviour. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal.

As such, as of May 6th, all new HELLDIVERS 2 players on Steam will be required to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account. Current players on Steam will start to see the mandatory login from May 30th and will be required to have linked a Steam and PlayStation Network account by June 4th. PlayStation Network accounts are free and easy to set up using this link

I agreed to no such thing. I will not give my data to a company with a known problem with data security including, but not limited to, the following:

October 2023: Sony Notifies Employees of Data Breach
September 2023: Sony Investigates Alleged Hack
August 2017: Hacker Group Accesses Sony Social Media Accounts
December 2014: PlayStation Network Taken Down by Christmas DDoS Attack
November 2014: Hackers Steal 100 Terabytes of Data from Sony Pictures
June 2011: Sony Pictures Website Hacked, Exposing One Million Accounts
May 2011: Personal Details on 25 Million Sony Online Entertainment Customers Stolen
April 2011: Hackers Access Personal Data of 77 Million Sony PlayStation Network Users
July 2008: PlayStation Site Targeted with SQL-Injection Attack, Prompting Visitors to Download Fake “Antivirus Scanner”


The game options include the ability to turn off cross play so interaction with PSN players isn't possible. Yet rather than disable the feature for those who either can't or won't create a PSN account "or else" they are threatening your ability to use the product you already paid for with three days notice.

I have tolerated a lot of amateurish stuff from this team because they seemed to have caught lightning in a bottle with this one but I'm tired of it and the third party account requirement was the last straw.

There are aspects of this game that show a real brilliance that genuinely seems to have all happened by accident. It is an incredible technical achievement even with its ever lengthening list of "known issues" and it is really fun to play with friends.
Unfortunately mismanagement is not something that can be overlooked forever.

I have applied for a refund on the grounds that they sprung this on us three days before the date that we have to give our data to sony "or else" and changed the terms of use post sale. I do not expect to get the refund but I will be uninstalling and no matter how great the game looks or feels when it's working, I can't recommend it based on the studio themselves. I wondered why the first Helldivers never topped 6700 players on steam, now I get why.

I played for a while last night and enjoyed it but I am leaning toward a refund. $40 worth of microtransactions in a $70 single player game is unacceptable. One save file in the last game was a terrible design decision that never should have made it through initial planning. One save file EVER (The main menu is Load last save, Load Last Inn Save, Microtransaction Store, Options, Quit) with no new game is unacceptable and stupid. The performance on my system, which is high end, is completely unacceptable. Particularly from an engine that gives a solid 120+fps in other games.

It's very disappointing since I liked what I played and would have put in a lot of hours if the game had any respect for the player whatsoever.

EDIT: Just for the record it has been nearly two full months since this game released and they still have not bothered to patch performance. This is what you get when you cross an auteur idiot director who has no clue what made his last game good and a studio that doesn't care a bit about the product.

Compared to what was produced a decade ago, this is an inferior product in nearly every way.

Unit model quality, UI, Sound, and unit/opponent AI are sub par at best or game breakingly bad at worst.

Unit AI is essentially nonfunctional. Opponent AI is overpowered, omniponent, will fire from across the map/through the fog of war, cheat openly, and seem to only operate similar to zerg. They are also capable of firing through map geometry such as hills, trees, houses, and mountains.

It's depressing that after hundreds and hundreds of hours into CoH2 and waiting impatiently for this as the last game was just falling apart at the seams after all this time, we get this. This game isn't unfinished. It is the finished sum total of bad decisions, corner cutting, poor design, poor quality assurance, and profit being a goal over producing a product that will make people happy for another 10 years.

I hated having to refund this because I really, really, wanted it to be good. I kept saying "maybe mods will make it better, make it playable, or fix it" but I have to face the reality that a broken thing can be fixed but something that never worked in the first place isn't broken. It's just not fit for purpose.

A lot of people are on the honeymoon hype right now and won't agree but I would add this to your wish list, watch it, but avoid for now.

The progression is, unfortunately, as narrow as a thread. You have to get item 1 to get ability 2 before you can get weapon 3, etc. Technology is locked behind overtuned boss fights. The game may have 37 bosses or whatever, but you can't kill all of them until basically the end of progression. Otherwise it's a boringly linear order.

The map is huge and varied and that's to the game's benefit but you can't teleport with ANY crafting materials on you and this is a flat out bad decision. The game doesn't facilitate moving your "castle" once its built without literally 6+ hours of work as you walk across the map over and over (also losing 25% of the materials you used to build it) so if you built in a bad spot, you're screwed. Need to farm materials? Artificial time extension of long travel times that waste your play time are there to greet you. It's not fun, adds no challenge, and just eats time that could be spent enjoying yourself.

The combat is poorly tuned for anything less than coop. Since you don't have a "level" in any real sense, your capability is entirely dependent on "gear score". Need to kill a boss that's just on the cusp of your "gear score" but he's too hard after multiple attempts and you're just not getting there? In any other game, you'd go out and get a little stronger, put on some levels and then give it another try. In this, the guy is gating off your ability to improve and get that better gear with the aforementioned linear progression so you're basically just screwed.

The PVP is essentially a grief fest and trolling vehicle. Came there to have a fun time by playing right? Well, your fun level is going to be determined by how many trolls there are in the world with you. This experience is best had in a curated community with people that are going to look for a similar experience. This isn't a problem with V Rising itself, it's a common thread in any game like this.

The big one: No character portability. It's not like Valheim where your friend with a life outside of games wants to play together on the weekend so you can just drop in with your main and have a good time. You're locked to the server and have to complete literally dozens of hours of linear progression every time you join a new game. Built your castle in a bad spot and you'd like to restart rather than spend 8 hours moving it across the map one backpack load at a time on foot because you aren't allowed to teleport for reasons unknown to anyone? Well, you'll be restarting that character too, including all of the tedious boss fights you've already overcome.

Basic take: The game is cool and has a ton of potential but it's just not there yet. Once the honeymoon phase wears off and the majority of players realize "Wait, I have to do all of that grind again?" the numbers are going to drop like a stone. Maybe once they get a little farther in development it will be a little more worth it but for right now the majority will probably be done with the game in a couple of weeks.

TLDR Maybe on a 50%+ off sale, otherwise, avoid like the plague. If I hadn't left it on for an hour while I was working and racked up more than 2 hours, I would be refunding.

This is a mix of Serious Sam and Doom with anything that made either of those games good taken out.

Cons:
AI is stupid.
Levels are completely linear hallway leading to obvious fight arena room, rinse repeat.
Dialogue is trying too hard and it really gets dumb and annoying.
No more multi objective open area levels.
No more weapon variety.
No more weapon augmentation. Spend points from orbs you find around the level to unlock minor "upgrades" like more ammo and that's it.
Melee combo system feels tacked on and weak, like the weapon doesn't even connect to enemies, they just pop.
Firearms are bland and 100% cookie cutter shooter standard. Pistol, shotgun, weak SMGs, grenade launcher, rail gun, shuriken launcher. That's it.
No more Borderlands style replayability to farm weapons.

Pros:
... The music is ok I guess?

I can't believe the same studio that turned out SW2 made this. Two was such a great experience with a wonderful melee system, tons of weapon variety and customization, and so much replayability. It also had about 5 times the gameplay length. I spent the last couple of years regularly checking the store page hoping for more info on this because I loved the last game so much and this is just a sad disappointment. I can't believe it took them this long to turn out such a bland, linear, experience.

Deep sale only, otherwise, play through the second one again.

2/10

Online service down for two days is unacceptable and lazy.

Controls are sluggish and barely responsive.

The majority of the game is faceroll easy punctuated by cheesy multi stage boss fights with 1 hit death mechanics.

It might be good in a year but right now it feels like it wasn't finished.

Edit: After an additional 20 hours suffered through, this should be a hard pass for at least the next 6 - 12 months. This game has potential but is in no way a release state. Large numbers of skills literally do not work. The fights are often buggy. The player stash randomly wipes and takes everything with it.

The boss fights are poorly designed, full of cheap mechanics, and buggy enough to make them unwinnable on occasion. As an example, the act two boss has telegraphed attacks that effect portions of the room. They couldn't even manage to code it so that there was enough of a delay between one shot kill mechanics to ensure that they didn't all happen at once. They definitely didn't test it.

Here's a tip for "Team Wolcen". Do the damn testing yourselves. Early access is a festering breeding ground for suckup apologists all vying for a place at the top of the meaningless social tribe. They will never adequately T&E a product. You will know them because they are the ones shouting down anyone that actually does find an issue. These are the "git gud" crowd that often brag about achievements that they never actually accomplished but they don't want to admit that something is busted because it makes them seem weak in front of their "peers". This game has a lot of that.

To sum up: If you are REALLY interested, put it on your wish list and look into it every few months for updates. Maybe check the subreddit occasionally. Whatever you do, do not put down a dime on this game until it is massively updated and somewhere near a release state.

To start off, I enjoyed GW3. I see so many people trying to use the previous game as some sort of defense for this one. It isn't. Nothing can defend this one except an overhaul.

Just to get this out of the way, I got screwed by Star Wars. I left this thing running, like a moron, while I watched episode 3 of The Mandalorian (awesome show) and this put me over 2 hours "played" so I couldn't refund. Otherwise, I would have.

You can tell that the developers wanted to go with a sniper style Hitman with separate multi objective large maps that could give a lot of freedom in how you approach any given objective. You can replay each map and redo objectives for additional money and to complete challenges Unfortunately, while the game is packed with loads of different systems and aspects, not one of them works without something wrong with it.

The AI: The AI has two modes. The first mode is "off", where the enemies path around oblivious where you can walk up behind them without even crouching and they are totally oblivious. The second mode is psychic super soldier. The instant a single enemy sees you, every enemy within the encounter area is instantly not only aware of you, but your exact position. The standard grunts are immediately able to drill you with assault rifles without optics on full auto fire from more than 200 meters. you have to run and put a solid object between you and them or your life will drop and you will die in seconds.

Occasionally, you will have an enemy shooting at you with the sound of his full auto fire being decentralized so you can't even tell where it is coming from so it becomes impossible to shoot back. If you stop firing and relocate in a way that no enemies can see you, you have about a 50% chance that they still no where you are.

The animations: All animations are ponderously slow, cumbersome, and un-interruptable. Your character, supposedly a highly skilled assassin and infiltration specialist, re-chambers his bolt action rifle slower than a weekend shooter at a shooting range. Not at all like someone that is even remotely familiar with his weapon. This is likely done to add an arbitrary rate of fire to a bolt action gun but it feels sluggish and gets in the way.

Other animations like climbing, stealth takedowns, using devices, etc. all feel like they are being ponderously done by someone with no sense of urgency. They can not be interrupted and while they won't always get you killed, it will happen occasionally. You don't seem to care that someone walked in and started shooting you while you were slowly pulling out your smart phone, dusting it off, checking the screen, pointing it at a CCTV control box, then deciding to proceed with the process while still getting shot.

The weapons: All of the sniper rifles feel basically identical. The only difference is that the larger caliber guns can remove arms and legs. Other than that, they are basically reskins. The exception is the .308 semi automatic sniper rifle (I should note that it fires "fast" in the way that it shoots as fast as a bolt action in Sniper Elite or Battlefield) that actually feels usable.

The pistols feel weak, their only use is that they are able to be suppressed and since you are unable to fire your sniper rifle without looking through the scope, they are your only option for quietly killing someone at closer ranges.

Assault rifles are pointless in a lot of ways because you can't suppress them. You can only put an optic and the standard two magazine types. More bullets or faster reload.

The whole thing feels rushed and like it was either untested, or the developers just didn't care to make sure that it played well.

Other points:

The menus are un-intuitive and cumbersome.

You can complete a portion of the bounties in a map and reach an "exfiltration point" where you upload the "data" on what you just did to your corporate masters (though, why the hell this is a thing is beyond me. You are specifically told that your "handler", cleverly named "Handler", has a live feed from your mask so he can see everything you do.) but you can't leave the map to spend any of the money that you just earned. Just made enough for a new gun, thermal vision, special ammunition slot, or drone upgrade and you want to buy it? Well, screw you. you have to start the entire map over if you want to buy it.

A personal gripe: There are no pickups or collectibles in the maps. These huge areas have absolutely no point once you kill your target or steel his diary from a trash can or whatever. All you need to do is a google image search for the word gun and you could have added tons of in-map pick up only, unpurchaseable guns to add to your collection but no, You can buy five of the same assault rifle or some new sniper rifles whose only difference from the others is that they may not be able to be suppressed.

TLDR: Save this one for a VERY deep sale on a weekend where you have nothing to do or in the highly unlikely event of a rework by the developers. The AI is bad, the weapons are bland, alarm noises are loud and annoying plus they can't be turned off. The game does nothing well and a lot of stuff half way.

At first, it's a great card based strategy game that makes you think. Then you realize it's just built around ruining your good strategies with unfair mechanics and BS no-win scenarios.

You'll have fun, then you'll wish you had played something else. Just play something else.

Combat is terrible. Campaign presents unbalanced fights to create BS difficulty and the "turn based" is largely a mess. One of your units gets to go, then two - 3 of theirs, then one of yours. You spend entire fights doing nothing but relocating whoever is in the most danger. It was so close to being good but turned out being a tedious slog.