Helldivers 2

The large-scale, co-op third-person extraction shooter Helldivers 2 continues the story of humanity's fight against alien invaders across fronts spanning the galaxy. After their defeat in the finale of Helldivers, the evil enemies have regrouped and attacked human worlds once again. Once more, the “Hell Divers” have been called into action: elite soldiers who fight for freedom and democracy using the biggest, coolest, and most explosive weapons in the galaxy. Despite having no serious storyline or unique protagonist, the game has built a huge fan base thanks to its fast-paced, chaotic gameplay, amusing friendly-fire mechanics, high difficulty, and well-designed co-op systems.

The Helldivers series takes place in a hypothetical sci-fi future where the Federation of Humanity has conquered the galaxy under the wise leadership of Super Earth. Humanity thrives by taking part in military campaigns to destroy any life forms that threaten its values and freedom. Namely, giant bugs, communist robots, and the mysterious Illuminates.

The sequel, Helldivers 2, focuses on satirizing authoritarian regimes, rampant propaganda, and the military industry. For example, Super Earth may seem like a symbol of freedom and liberalism, but in reality it is an ultra-authoritarian regime. The sarcasm and mockery can be seen in the style of the game’s environments, the posters and videos shown to players, the character designs, and the lines spoken in combat. The soldiers’ genuine enthusiasm as they talk about freedom, liberalism, and shared values despite “living for 20 minutes” brings to mind the iconic opening of the 1997 film Starship Troopers, but the creators of Helldivers 2 take the parody even further, sometimes to absurd levels.

The sequel’s events continue the original story, but you don’t need to know what came before. Helldivers 2 simply has no script, large cast of characters, or set-piece scenes. The developers direct events, while each player and the community as a whole help shape the story by actively taking part.

The game features a galaxy map with sectors, sub-sectors, and planets that players fight over. Their goal is to liberate a planet from various enemies. The developers, meanwhile, make sure the process of “democratization” is costly for the human team, handing out bonuses or penalties in the form of hordes of cannon fodder.

New enemy types are added, and humanity goes on the defensive. Weapons or powerful vehicles are added to the map, and the galaxy’s liberation speeds up. A new alien faction suddenly attacks, and the community struggles on every front. It’s the developers’ direct influence on gameplay that sets Helldivers 2 apart from other live-service games.

Based on the results of the galactic war, the developers release news updates about the latest successes in democratization or its sudden setbacks, writing the story as they go. Keeping players engaged with what is happening.

Each planet in Helldivers 2 has a unique terrain-and-ecosystem combination, drawn from a set of basic terrain types (sand, rocks, hills, tundra, ice, jungles, grasslands) and environmental conditions (sandstorms, thick fog, rain, heat, and more, including volcanic eruptions, meteorite bombardments, and fire tornadoes). This combination is permanently assigned to the planet.

The locations where players land, however, are generated randomly based on the planet’s terrain and environmental conditions, and on the difficulty chosen by the players. This creates a unique setting with its own features and challenges, making every landing exciting. The environment actively affects gameplay, while the changing day and night add to the variety of experiences.

Adapting to the environment is an important part of success. For example, deep snow on an icy world slows movement, but the cold gives energy weapons an advantage by helping them cool down. An ion storm that breaks out during the process of spreading democracy will cut off communication with space-based support. Or take a desert world: sand won’t hinder movement until the wind kicks it up, but high temperatures limit your weapon choices to firearms. And all the while, you’re at risk of being incinerated by a blazing fire tornado.

Players “travel” between planets aboard spaceships that serve as fully fledged hub locations. Acting as an operations base, a ship lets players customize their loadout and ship, unlock new gear, weapons, armor, and ship capabilities, and buy cosmetics. The hub also serves social functions: players form groups, review landing intelligence, and prepare for the mission.

Every landing includes a set of main and optional objectives, regardless of the chosen difficulty. Most main objectives take 40 minutes and involve defending facilities or areas, searching for useful resources, evacuating civilians, finding data and transmitting it to base, or simply raising a flag. A smaller number of objectives take 10–15 minutes and involve killing a certain number of enemies or destroying enemy bases or nests.

Optional objectives are side quests that especially eager and experienced players can complete without getting sidetracked from the main landing objectives. These might include activating a radar station, retrieving data from a lifepod, eliminating a special target, destroying a research station, activating an artillery emplacement, destroying an anti-aircraft emplacement, and more. They may be marked on the map from the start or discovered along the way.

As is standard for live-service games, Helldivers 2 players receive personal assignments each day. The community as a whole also receives High Command orders—for example, to capture or defend a planet.

The core gameplay is simple: complete the landing objectives and evacuate, having found a clear area, while enemies charging in from all sides try to stop you. Things quickly descend into chaos as players struggle to complete objectives, make constant tactical decisions while running low on everything, and keep their fingers on the trigger. Friendly fire and limb injuries add a touch of realism, making things even more intense.

You can mow down enemies with an arsenal that includes revolvers, submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, hand grenades, and mines. Each weapon has its own stats—damage, rate of fire, recoil, and penetration—that affect how effective it is against different enemies. Armor comes in three types: light, medium, and heavy. Each offers a different playstyle and passive character bonuses.

Stratagems are a unique feature of Helldivers 2. They are deployed from your ship to a location you choose when requested from the ground, and are limited only by their cooldown. Stratagems provide players with supplies, health kits, and other equipment bonuses, or powerful ways to fight enemies—air strikes and orbital strikes. This adds variety to the tactical options available during gameplay.

Helldivers 2 has several progression systems. Completing missions earns players samples (three types of resources with different rarity levels), medals, requisition, super credits , and experience. The amount of rewards depends on the difficulty of the drop, the objectives completed during it, any caches you find, and plain luck. Difficulty is its own reward: the more successful your drops are, the tougher missions the game will throw at you.

Each reward has its own upgrade path. Experience adds up to levels, which determine your rank and the maximum drop difficulty you can access, and also let you buy new stratagems. Medals earned after each drop can be used to buy better weapons and equipment in the store. Samples unlock new ship modules. Super credits are like real money, which can also be found in the game, and unlock cosmetic items.