Helldivers 2

A large-scale cooperative third-person extraction shooter Helldivers 2 continues the theme of humanity's struggle against alien invaders on fronts spanning the entire galaxy. The vile enemies, having regrouped after their defeat at the end of Helldivers, have once again descended upon the human world. And once again, the "Helldivers"—elite soldiers capable of fighting for freedom and democracy using the biggest, coolest, and most explosive weapons in the galaxy—have been called upon. Despite the lack of a serious plot and a unique protagonist, the game has amassed a huge fan base thanks to its dynamic and chaotic gameplay, amusing implementation of friendly fire, high difficulty, and well-tuned cooperative mechanics.

The Helldivers series takes place in a hypothetical sci-fi future where the Human Federation has conquered the galaxy under the wise leadership of Super-Earth. Humanity thrives by participating in military campaigns aimed at exterminating any forms of life that threaten their values and freedom. Namely, giant bugs, communist robots, and mysterious Illuminati.

In the sequel Helldivers 2, the focus is on ironically mocking authoritarian regimes, rampant propaganda, and the military-industrial complex. For example, Super-Earth, which appears to be a symbol of freedom and liberalism, is actually an ultra-authoritarian regime. Sarcasm and mockery are evident in the style of the game environment, posters and videos shown to players, character designs, and battle dialogues. The genuine enthusiasm of the "20-minute-living" soldiers talking about freedom, liberalism, and shared values is reminiscent of the meme-worthy intro of the 1997 film "Starship Troopers," but the creators of Helldivers 2 have expanded the parody element, sometimes to the point of absurdity.

The events of the sequel continue the original, but knowing their background is not required. Helldivers 2 simply does not have a script, numerous characters, or set pieces. The developers direct the events, and each player and the entire community, by actively participating in them, steer the story in one direction or another.

There is a galactic map with sectors, sub-sectors, and planets for which the battle is fought. The players' task is to liberate the planet from various enemies. The developers ensure that the process of democratization is costly for the human team by distributing bonuses or penalties in the form of hordes of enemies.

New types of enemies have been added—and humanity has gone on the defensive. Weapons or powerful equipment have been added to the map—the process of liberating the galaxy has accelerated. A new faction of aliens suddenly attacked—and the community is suffering on all fronts. It is this direct influence of the developers on gameplay that distinguishes Helldivers 2 from other live-service games.

Based on the successes on the fronts of the galactic war, the developers release news updates about another success of democratization or its sudden failure, writing the story on the fly. Thus maintaining engagement in what is happening.

Each planet in Helldivers 2 receives a unique terrain-ecosystem pair from a set of primary terrains (sands, rocks, hills, tundra, ice, jungles, meadows) and environmental conditions (sandstorms, dense fog, rains, heat, etc., up to volcanic eruptions, meteorite bombardments, and fire tornadoes). This combination is permanently assigned to the planet.

However, the locations where players land are randomly generated based on its terrain and environmental conditions, taking into account the difficulty chosen by the players. This creates a unique atmosphere, its own features and challenges, making each landing thrilling. The environment actively interferes with the gameplay, and the day-night cycle enhances the variety of experiences.

Adapting to the environment is a key component of success. For example, the deep snow of an ice world slows down movement, but the cold gives an advantage to energy weapons due to better cooling. An ion storm that breaks out during democratization will disable communication with space support. Or a sandy world—it doesn't hinder movement until the wind lifts the sand, but its high temperatures limit weapon choice to firearms. And all this under the threat of a scorching fire tornado.

Players "move" between planets on spaceships—fully-fledged hub locations. As an operational base, it allows configuring inventory and ship, unlocking new equipment, weapons, armor, and ship capabilities, and buying cosmetics. The hub also covers social functions: players gather in groups, analyze landing intelligence, and prepare for it.

Each landing includes a set of primary and additional missions, regardless of the chosen difficulty. Most primary missions are designed for 40 minutes and include tasks such as protecting objects or territories; searching for useful resources; evacuating civilians; finding data sources and transmitting them to the base; or simply raising a flag. A smaller portion of the missions is designed for 10-15 minutes and includes destroying a certain number of enemies; exterminating enemy bases or nests.

Additional missions are side quests that particularly diligent and experienced players can complete without being distracted from the main landing tasks. For example, activating a radar station, uploading rescue capsule data, destroying a special target, destroying a research station, activating an artillery installation, destroying an anti-aircraft installation, and more. They may be marked on the map from the start or discovered independently.

Standard for service games, Helldivers 2 players receive personal daily missions. For the entire community, there are command orders—such as conquering or holding a planet.

The core gameplay is simple: complete landing objectives and evacuate, finding yourself in an open field, while enemies coming from all sides will try to prevent this. The situation quickly descends into chaos as players are forced to persevere, completing tasks and constantly making strategic decisions, experiencing a shortage of everything, while not letting go of the trigger. A touch of realism in the form of friendly fire and limb injury accounting adds fuel to the fire.

Крошить супостатов можно при помощи арсенала, включающего револьверы, пистолеты-пулеметы, автоматы, дробовики, стрелковые винтовки, гранатометы, ракетницы, ручные гранаты и мины. Каждое обладает своими характеристиками (урон, скорость стрельбы, отдача и проникающая способность), влияющими на эффективность против конкретного врага. Броня разделена на три вида: легкая, средняя и тяжелая, каждая обеспечивает свой стиль игры, и пассивные бонусы к параметрам персонажа.

Стратагемы — уникальная фишка Helldivers 2. Они сбрасываются с корабля в указанную точку по запросу игрока с земли и ограничены только тайм-аутом. Стратагемы обеспечивают игроков припасами, аптечками и другими бонусами к экипировке, либо предоставляют мощные способы борьбы с врагами — воздушные и орбитальные удары. Этим они обеспечивают разнообразие тактических возможностей в геймплее.

Прогрессия в Helldivers 2 многоплановая, за прохождение заданий игрок получает образцы (ресурсы трех видов редкости), медали, реквизицию, супер-кредиты и опыт. Объем наград зависит от сложности высадки, выполненных во время неё задач, найденных тайников и простого везения. Сложность сама по себе является наградой, чем успешнее выполняются высадки, тем более сложные задачки будет подкидывать игра.

У каждой награды своя область прокачки. Опыт накапливается в уровни, определяющие звание игрока, допустимую сложность высадки, а также позволяют покупать новые стратагемы. Полученные по результатам каждой высадки медали позволяют приобрести в магазине лучшее оружие и экипировку. Образцы позволят открыть новые модули для корабля. Супер-кредиты — аналог реальных денег, которые также можно найти в игре — открывают косметические предметы.