Helldivers II has not been having the best month since May started. They faced severe backlash after announcing that PC players would have to sync their PlayStation Network and Steam accounts in order to continue playing. After abysmal public response, Sony decided to rollback that decision. Now Arrowhead is responding to claims that the game is overbalanced, an argument not tied to one specific patch but merely to the number of such patches that have been rolled out for the past couple of months since the game’s release. The CEO of Arrowhead, Johan Pilestedt responded to a tweet that mentioned him in which a player said he was “sad to see balance changes come over the priority of fun.” Pilestedt seemed to agree saying that “[he thinks the team] has gone too far” and that he’d “talk to the team about the approach to balance.” He even further commented that “it feels like everytime someone finds something fun, fun is removed.”
In a purely PvE game like Helldivers II, there is a larger discussion on if balance changes are really necessary. Unlike PvP content with shifting metas, PvE content doesn’t tend to require as much balancing as players are not facing off against other players with different time investment and resources in the game. While such a debate has its space, there is something to be said about how games are balanced. Balancing by just adjusting damage numbers feels unearned and like an easy way out. Helldivers II has made changes that have reflected this concept, adjusting things like recoil, reload speed, etc.
The latest of these patches deals with the Eruptor changes, which removed the gun’s unique shrapnel effect where in the mini missiles would release a burst of shrapnel after making contact. This shrapnel had the unintended side effect of being detrimental to everyone in the vicinity, with players accidentally engaging in friendly fire. Overall the change is a net positive, but some who had understood the Eruptors’ more situational perks might be missing the shrapnel. Either way, Helldivers II asks interesting questions about game balance, and whether they remove the fun of the game entirely.