Helldivers 2

I'm kinda wondering if bigger parties could be a thing. (Imagine the chaos though)

For the first time since the console released I'm considering picking up a PS 5 for this game.

It helps that Earth Defense Force is one of my favorite games and Starship Troopers is my favorite movie.

(My PC sucks for anyone asking.)

Edited by ShirowShirow on Feb 19th 2024 at 4:06:05 PM

I suspect I know what your answer is going to be, but may I suggest simply foregoing the PS 5 in exchange for an (admittedly costlier) upgrade to a new PC?

In addition to Play Station and Xbox gradually adding parts of their library to the PC, you also get to enjoy the wonderful world of game mods… and ahem, “free sailing,” if you catch my drift.

With how the missions and combat feel really epic in scale and big, it be crazy if they manage to create missions that involve more players.

Like massive raid missions with 10 players and so it becomes this absolutely massive warzone of bullets and explosions.

Certainly would be a good excuse to get vehicles involved. And it's not like the gameplay would suffer much, the game engine's clearly capable of handling massive battles and multiple enemies at once, larger type of battlefield could work.

The problem, though, comes from the rule of fours: basically, the golden spot for maximizing synergy and personal attentiveness in a team is usually 4, maybe 5 people, tops. Any more, and folks tend to forget certain team members exist or immediately relegate them to a certain role and otherwise disregard their input and other possible values. There's a reason so many games keep their multiplayer team experiences at four.

If you've ever run an online PVP match where you're the new guy on a 6-man team or raid who was invited due to knowing what to do, but having zero synergy or past friendships with the rest of the squad, you'll know what I'm talking about.

@Shirow Shirow: If you get a PS 5, you'll be able to get Stellar Blade later, too.

If this patch doesn't end up addressing the random session drops or instances where I don't receive the rewards given after the end of a match, I think I'm gonna take a break from Helldivers for a bit.

Edited by SgtRicko on Feb 21st 2024 at 1:57:41 AM

Ah, I see you've got a new obsession.

Actually that's one thing I'm sad Helldivers doesn't have: Melee. No, it probably makes no sense for the game's pace but the idea of running headfirst into an alien swarm with nothing but a hatchet and a mouth full of foul language is usually my jam.

If my PC could run the game, I'd want a build where I could just use my fists ala Krato's Barehanded attacks from Norse God of War.

That makes a lot of sense.

Maybe if they try a multi-squad thing. Like a mission with say 12 players but slotted in 3 squads each, so every squad has different missions assigned and you largely focus on the players within your own team.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 20th 2024 at 8:10:35 AM

I watched a little bit of footage, so it's like Earth Defense Force meets Deep Rock Galactic?

With a bit of Mercenaries in there too due to all of the airstrikes, orbital bombardments and destruction.

God I miss Mercenaries.

Best PS 2 game ever.

So, the Air Raider from EDF.

Luckily you don't have to worry about only having Air Raids in this, thus forcing you to pick off that last useless swarm enemy with an ICBM or calling an artillery bombardment onto your own position because you are trapped in a red ant's Jaws.

I mean I can still see a helldiver picking off one swarm enemy with an ICBM or calling an artillery bombardment on their own position in this but it's a matter of principle this time.

Anybody know how to activate the SEAF SAM Sites found in the Automaton maps? Both times I ran into one I couldn’t figure out how to remove the “obstruction” preventing it from activating and had to leave without completing that side objective. Can’t seem to find anyone online who’s solved it either.

Automatons Extraction Missions will usually start like: We gotta get the fukken civilians. And usually end like: -1000 requisition.

All the press Helldivers 2 is getting made me want to check it out a bit, though I started with the setting of Helldivers 1. Humanity, centered on Super Earth is spreading across the galaxy and has run into three other groups, Cyborgs, who were human but don't like the way things are run now, Bugs, who are ripped straight from Starship Troopers, and the Illuminate, who are technologically advanced aliens. There's not much more to the story as far as I can tell, you just fight these three groups over and over. Helldivers 2 is apparently set 100 years later, though from what I gather there are only two enemy factions now. The bugs are back, alongside a group of robots, who apparently were built by the cyborgs, though I'm unclear why it would take them 100 years to make their move. It feels disappointing to have fewer enemy factions in a sequel, but I get the impression more content will be added as time goes by.

I just came across a video summarizing all the lore of the Helldivers universe, if anyone here wants to brush up or piece together what's going on storyline-wise.

"Managed Democracy" is so hilarious as a concept. You just fill out a form regarding what kind of leader you want and a computer tells you who you voted for.

Amazing. I'm not sure if it's funnier if it's as obvious a sham as it seems or you have presidential candidates legitimately trying as hard as they can to "Please the algorithm" as it where.

Eagle pilots board the cockpit naked.

I doubt if it's actually true in lore, but... if so, the Eagle pilot's about to get a LOT of fanservice and Rule 34 art.

I've seen a lot of people with...questionable political motivations getting annoyed at all the people saying that the game is an Evil vs. Evil conflict and that people should just focus on shooting the enemy. While I want to assume that these people are arguing from the good-faith standpoint of "yeah, we get it, Super Earth are also the bad guys, you don't need to yell that at us every twenty seconds for us to understand", much like Starship Troopers there clearly are people who just buy into the whole "FOR DEMOCRACY" thing unironically. I had a friend who even claimed that the game was doing the "satirical hyper-militaristic Human empire" thing, but unironically, when it's very clearly not. What's the best way to deal with this topic in a mature way?

Either ignore it or approach in a non demeaning exploratory way that gets people to think. Don’t call someone a bigot and leave out all talk about factions being evil.

Talk about how their in-universe system is flawed and has issues but leave it self contained to the game world. NEVER and I mean NEVER try to find any real world counterpart or applicability, it’s only going to start a good old fashioned forum flame war.

In short be better than the expected level of discourse of present day politics.

It’s better to just ignore it though. Go deeply enough into the universe and you’ll probably find it just doesn’t make sense in any logical sense. Like finding out two things operate a certain way together but logically they would never. That kind of contradiction. Staying out of it is better use of brain cells.

Isn't the whole motivation of the Automatons to save their masters from slavery? I wouldn't call that evil, at the very most, it would be morally grey depending on their actions.

Edited by Kaiseror on Feb 28th 2024 at 10:46:09 AM

The Terminids where being genocide-farmed as a power source.

I don't think Evil vs. Evil is the right term here. There's one blatantly antagonistic faction in this setting, and it ain't the bugs or the robots.