For the first time in over a year and a half, I decided to go back to defending Super Earth from the various aliens threatening its way of life. Having quit the game a long time ago on the basis of “no content,” I felt like it was stuck in stasis. But, as I would come to find out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Back when Helldivers 2 first launched, a friend of mine and I immediately hopped in. We were enthralled by the intoxicating epic-scale battles that unfolded in every match on maps big and small. Whether it was mowing down legions of tyrannical bugs or blowing communist automata to Kingdom Come, every moment of the game felt awesome, amazing, and fun.
However, after a month or so of doing every bit of content the game had to offer, participating in planetary sieges and pitching in for the ultimate effort of liberating the galaxy from anti-democratic forces, we came to feel that there isn’t much else to do anymore on account of the game’s live-service model progressing very slowly.
So we quit, came back again around May 2024, and never touched the thing again.
And we held the belief, myself especially, that Helldivers 2 spent too much time “fixing” various issues with the game, from bugs (the software kind) to performance, adding only incremental updates to expand the breadth of the core experience. I would wager that was true for a while, but it seems to have changed at some point in time, as Helldivers 2 is almost unrecognizable now compared to when I last picked it up.
A few nights ago, I decided to venture out again, inspired by the experimental (and impressive) update that reduced the game’s size by over 100GB, from 130 to 22. I tried battling against each of the current enemy factions, the Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminates, and was surprised at how different gameplay felt even against those factions that I had already played against way back when.
There are numerous new enemy types and units for each faction, with new bugs, Half-Life-like tentacle monsters, exploding suicide bomber insects, flamethrower-wielding robots, massive shield-bearing walking tanks, and deadly aerial vehicles. So much was added in, and the behavior of existing enemies changed, that it felt fresh, even if I had poured in 100 hours fighting against these same groups of enemies last year.
And the Illuminate especially impressed me, more so because of the maps they fought on than the enemies themselves. The faction appeared as a middle ground between Automatons and Terminids, soft enough and fleshy to be rent asunder by small arms but powerful enough to pose a serious threat, what with their alien aircraft that lasers you out of existence or spear-wielders that slice even the most formidable Helldiver into bits and pieces.
The maps, as mentioned, are vastly different compared to those on Automaton- and Terminid-controlled planets. They’re cities, big settlements, urban environments that inspire awe at how much Super Earth has managed to develop its colonies. The other two usually take place in deserts, vast open environments, semi-settled locales that are more industrial than residential.
But it seems the Illuminates do not care about such things, but would rather command and conquer populous worlds, where humanity tried to start anew.
Of course, there are more progression systems, gun customization, countless rewards given out to all players for past achievements, even if they didn’t participate in these events, an active, healthy community, players dedicated to the glory of Super Earth, even so much time later. Not a single thing that made Helldivers 2 great had changed, and those flaws that it did have generally have evaporated by now.
It’s an amazing game, an experience I wish I had not slept on for over a year and a half, and one that I will now certainly keep coming back to, if for no other reason than to gawk at the bravery of Helldivers who give their lives for Managed Democracy and value freedom above all else.
