These past few months have been great for video game enjoyers, especially ones who like to stay away from triple A titles. To name a few, there is Armored Core 6, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty, Lethal Company, Pal World, and now the latest joy and remodel of horde shooters, Helldivers 2. 

Helldivers 2 is a horde shooter made by a Swedish video game company, Arrowhead Game Studios, who made the original in 2015. Helldivers' setting is based on 3 things, bugs, terminators, and bombing planets from orbit with enough ordinance to glass an entire galaxy. 

Arrowhead Game Studios was made by creative university students in 2008, that would make games such as Magika, and of course, Helldivers. The type of games they make can be summarized in 2 words, friendly fire. To think that one of the best 3rd person games of the year came from a group of people who often made platform games and isometrics, is rather surprising, unless you see that the engine they're using is Bitsquid, (or Autodesk Stingray now). Which also was the engine used in games such as the Warhammer hoard shooter Darktide which explains its ability to process entire hordes of enemies running towards you. Arrowhead Games Studios seem to never lose their passion to make fun, creative projects. 

What I love about Helldivers, besides its game dynamic, is its attention to detail such as your skull insignia on the bottom of your boot, or your helmet, which they brag about in the lore, that actually deflects heavier hits. There are also other small details in the game that bring uniqueness and polish, such as “real time” broadcasts on your ship tv that spew propaganda to you. 

When fighting bugs, or socialist automatons, your character reacts differently depending on the planet your fighting on, such as snow planets, which cools your weapons down, ice, which gets your character to actually slip and slide, sand storms, which reduce visibility, and snowballs from which you can make out of the snow and throw at enemies and your friends to slow them down and annoy them with. The terrain is also destructible, allowing you or the enemy to leave their mark.

When fighting the Bugs to the East or the Automatons to the West, various small details can be noticed, such as Bugs slaming into the ground to call for reinforcements, or in the Automatons case, firing a flare into the sky to alert a nearby dropship. It's also worth noting that you can shoot limbs off of bugs and terminators to destroy their weapons and hinder their individual ability to fight you. Your first person HUD (heads-up-display) also has a dynamic crosshair, from which adds depth to the in-game fighting dynamics. 

As you stand on your ship for the first time, you can see various stratagems, or basically airstrikes loom down on to enemies from other players, cementing that fact that you are a cog in a galactic war, when above an automaton-controlled planet, you are reminded that they aren't defenseless as sometimes you can see them fire shots at other destroyers, and even destroy them, though there is no proper space combat. When you move across various planets and systems within the Helldiovers universe, you can actually see your ship in real time, cycle through various systems to your objective, and “warp” to the planet you desire to fight on. 

The rocket launchers have back blast, your character screams when you hold down the triggers of weapons, you can land stratagems on enemies and friendlies and kill them instantly, the Automatons have marching songs, your character get covered in bugs, blood, and dirt, there are voice lines for each kind of injury you can receive, such as “Sweet liberty! My leg!”.

The gameplay loop of this game is simple, yet fun, meet on your ship with your friends, pick the operation you want, coordinate your loadouts, drop, destroy objectives and drop bombs and guns, and evacuate before the enemy kills you. What is also fun about the game is the freedom from which you can finish and complete your objectives, wanna burn stuff? Go right ahead! Wanna glass your enemies with strategies from orbit? Sure! Wanna keep it quiet? Try the sensory stealth approach (side note: killing and having friends is a core gameplay element and difficulty multiplier). Not to mention the scenery is also mesmerizing.

Helldivers aesthetics and settings are a satirical dystopian which uses hyperbolical American culture where bravery and courage drown out common sense, and it is absolutely hysterical! Various parts of the lore of Helldivers are subtle, often seen in the loading tips and in-game advertisements. The lore happens live and is shepherded by the community and game devs, one such example is propaganda broadcasts across youtube about a planet referred to as “Malevolence Creek” which is essentially the Vietnam of Helldivers 2. Which become in-part lore of the current game cycle. 

Helldivers 2 recently had a vehicle update, and is expected to have various groups from the first game, such as boss battles and a previous faction we are yet to see from the first game, the Illuminate. 

When Helldivers first released, most of the reviews were negative, mostly because of the games anticheat, which was ineffective, and it also has access to files deep within your computer, including the innards of windows. Helldivers 2 is also littered with various glitches, which hopefully will be fixed in the future. A major issue with Helldivers 2 is that it wasn't intended to be such a massive videogame of the current decade, as such, many people want to play this game, the servers are mostly already filled at the moment and it will require you to sit and stare at its loading screen to be let in whilst waiting in its cue. Recently, XBOX players were unable to play Helldivers 2, as it was a Sony exclusive, various people on PC and Playstation desperately wanted XBOX players to join the fun for “reinforcing”. Currently, XBOX, PC, and Playstation players are all able to play Helldivers 2 in unison.

Despite these bugs, Helldivers in full swing, has earned the hearts of various game enthusiasts to call Helldivers 2 a dream game.