This is some of the best co-op gaming I've done in a long while. The comical vibe that's clearly inspired by Starship Troopers is wonderful and the dialog both spoken and written is on brand and hilarious. The set up is perfect and leads to one of the best times you can have with friends. The shooting feels great, killing bugs and robots in the name of democracy is as patriotic as it gets, and the simple act of changing outfits (which always look badass, especially the capes) is gratifying as hell. When this game sings, it belts so loudly and proudly and BOY is it fun.
It must be said, however, that during the launch, the servers were absolutely ill-equipped to handle the gigantic number of players trying to log on. it does NOT feel good to fork over 40 dollars only to sit around for an hour just simply waiting to get into a game and then give up. This happened for over a week, and frankly that's pretty awful. To be fair, it's a small team and Helldivers 1 never had anything close to this player count, so I can't blame them fully for not expecting big numbers. But it happened and it was pretty unbearable. If you're starting now, you shouldn't encounter this at all anymore, which is wonderful! The devs did a fantastic job pulling themselves out of the hole and should be commended for it.
Otherwise, there are small gripes like micro transactions (something that's always unwelcome but seemingly unavoidable now), which aren't super intrusive and can be ignored, but still stain the experience nonetheless. It's also still buggy in places, albeit nothing like what it was at launch. Harder difficulties are brutal and it's a truly excellent challenge, but playing with less than 4 players is essentially not possible. You can always open up the game to random players, but communication is so key to survival that playing with friends that know who is talking, where, and when is almost a necessity.
Overall, Helldivers 2 is a banger of a game with some blemishes that don't ruin it, but certainly make you wish they weren't there. The story and gameplay is evolving day to day, so with that in mind, things can and will change, and I'll be here ready to dive into hell. For Democracy.
It must be said, however, that during the launch, the servers were absolutely ill-equipped to handle the gigantic number of players trying to log on. it does NOT feel good to fork over 40 dollars only to sit around for an hour just simply waiting to get into a game and then give up. This happened for over a week, and frankly that's pretty awful. To be fair, it's a small team and Helldivers 1 never had anything close to this player count, so I can't blame them fully for not expecting big numbers. But it happened and it was pretty unbearable. If you're starting now, you shouldn't encounter this at all anymore, which is wonderful! The devs did a fantastic job pulling themselves out of the hole and should be commended for it.
Otherwise, there are small gripes like micro transactions (something that's always unwelcome but seemingly unavoidable now), which aren't super intrusive and can be ignored, but still stain the experience nonetheless. It's also still buggy in places, albeit nothing like what it was at launch. Harder difficulties are brutal and it's a truly excellent challenge, but playing with less than 4 players is essentially not possible. You can always open up the game to random players, but communication is so key to survival that playing with friends that know who is talking, where, and when is almost a necessity.
Overall, Helldivers 2 is a banger of a game with some blemishes that don't ruin it, but certainly make you wish they weren't there. The story and gameplay is evolving day to day, so with that in mind, things can and will change, and I'll be here ready to dive into hell. For Democracy.