While Arrowhead Game Studios' Xbox, PC, and PS5 PvE co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is still going strong over two years after its release in early 2024, it's experienced several pendulum swings between "it's so over" and "we're so back" throughout its life cycle — and right now, it's experiencing one of the sharpest slumps it's ever had.
Though the game's player count is holding steady, Helldivers 2's recent reviews on Steam have dropped to "Mostly Negative" at the time of writing, with only 38% of the game's 10,169 reviews that were posted in the last few weeks being positive. The flood of negative ratings reflects the community's sentiment about the shooter right now, with many fans angry and frustrated with Arrowhead's management of the experience.
"Mostly negative" on Steam now from r/Helldivers
I think this particular review sums up how players are feeling: "You had lightning in a bottle and decided to pry the lid off yourself. You consistently snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and at this point it doesn’t feel accidental anymore," writes Steam user Libby. "The balancing is incoherent. Weapons swing between feeling incredible and being completely unusable, with no consistency or clear design direction. Enemies get buffed while player tools get nerfed, and every update feels like it undoes the last instead of building on it."
Speaking as a frequently Helldivers 2 player with over 700 hours myself, I have to say that I generally agree with the points players are making, though I do think some folks are being a bit overdramatic. Still, it does feel like there's always a nerf to accompany every buff, and new or resurfacing bugs whenever fixes come for existing ones.
It's worth noting that Arrowhead responded to the continued backlash on Friday morning, promising that new rewards and deeper campaigns are coming to Helldivers 2's Galactic War community-driven metagame this summer, along with promises of technical fixes, clearer, explained patch notes without any hidden tweaks, public beta testing for new updates, and new player progression systems beyond Level 150.
"We’ve been following your feedback over the past few days and seeing the conversations across the Helldivers 2 community," wrote Arrowhead developers. "Helldivers 2 matters to all of us, and we want to be clearer about what we’re working on and what’s coming next."
All in all, these additions and improvements sound good, though Arrowhead was quite vague about them and hasn't really given the community much to look forward to in specific.
While I love Helldivers 2 and believe that it's a phenomenal game at its core, all of the above issues have soured the experience for countless players — and I'd be lying if I said I haven't really felt motivated to play it lately, either. I hope Arrowhead is able to make some large and impactful improvements in the coming months.
How do you feel about the current state of Helldivers 2? Let me know in the comments, and in our poll.
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