Arrowhead, the development studio behind the hit third-person shooter Helldivers 2, is in hot water with the community over a myriad of issues, including bugs, difficulty earning Super Credits (the in-game currency) on harder missions, balancing issues, and end-game progression. Fans have expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the game through reviews on Steam, which has currently plummeted to “mostly negative” as a result.
In an attempt to address complaints, Arrowhead published transmission on the Helldivers 2 Steam page, responding to the “Dedicated Citizens of Super Earth” and their worries about the game. “Helldivers 2 matters to all of us, and we want to be clearer about what we’re working on and what’s coming next. Alongside new content, we’re focused on improving the core of the game – stability, progression, and the Galactic War”. Arrowhead discussed future changes it intends to implement, including modifying major orders to last longer, extending over multiple weeks and that have “branching outcomes” which make the game feel more in tune with player choices.
Another topic that came up were the alleged hidden changes to weapons, which Arrowhead responded to by saying they had not properly communicated previous fixes, and intend to improve how they communicate balances in the future. One Steam user named “Libby” left critical review, in which they mention the weapon changes, “The balancing is incoherent. Weapons swing between feeling incredible and being completely unusable, with no consistency or clear design direction”.
One particular issue that has been aggravating fans is the controversy surrounding the Exo Experts premium warbond, which featured two new mechs for players to use. Fans were upset over these new mechs being locked behind a paywall when previous vehicles were added for free, and alongside this, existing mechs were considered weak. Although Arrowhead had buffed their health, they also buffed the Terminid bugs by improving their armor-piercing abilities, ultimately counteracting the buff.
Helldivers 2 began with an extremely strong start, making it all the more shocking that the fanbase has now changed their tune when it comes to how they feel about the game. Hopefully Arrowhead can deliver in the eyes of their fans and make the citizens of Super Earth proud.