re: Helldivers 2 - Playstation Breaks Its PC Launch Record

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What game can helldivers 2 be compared to?

Why are so many people playing it?

Should I buy it?

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I'm not super up on all the squad shooters. The closest that I've played like this is The Divison, but other people might have better answers. It's a squad of up to four running around a map clearing objectives and fighting AI enemies.

So many people are playing it because it's good, simple fast paced fun with thoughtful progression and no over the top microtransactions. The vibe is similar to Starship Troopers with a ton of epic heroism and cool mechanics.

I bought it and have zero regrets. They will be updating it for a long time it seems and I will be playing for a long time.

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What game can helldivers 2 be compared to?

Why are so many people playing it?

Should I buy it?

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It's a lot of fun. The high-level view is that it's a co-op over-the-shoulder-view PVE game where you kill everything between you and your objective before it kills you. Friendly fire exists (for both players and NPCs) and you have levels which can unlock better gear.

The mission can be quick and easy or long and challenging. Missions have a time limit, but what that limit means is that after it expires you lose some bonuses and the amount and strength of enemies increases.

I haven't played a lot of these, but this one is really fun because of a few factors.

1. The graphics are beautiful. Even though it's not the most powerful stratagem, I love calling down napalm because it's such an orgy of explosions for the eyes.

2. There is an ongoing story with people managing it. You never know when a world will see a pushback on its liberation and there can be bonuses for helping with certain gamewide objecives.

2a. While the individual mission objectives are somewhat static, placement of stashes and objectives are procedurally generated so no two maps are exactly the same. Also, each player's choices in gear, experience and modules can change the dynamic of team play. Combine this with point 2 and it's a very fluid game.

3. Missions are quick and easy to get into (now that they've tamed the queue beast) and you can set your difficulty from Trivial to Helldiver. With that, you can see other active missions on the planet you are orbiting and join them or go off on a mission on your own (which others may join).

4. The over-the-top pushes on the themes of democracy, liberty and prosperity keep the game far more light-hearted than something like CoD (which is PVP, but you get the idea on differences in themes). That along with it being a co-op PVE helps keep the toxicity low (at least thus far) and that's a biiiiig plus for me.