Um Imparcial View of Helldivers 2 Gameplay

has finally launched, and after a long wait there were some seriously big boots to fill. Ahead of its launch, we compiled everything we knew about the game so you could access all the information in one place.

Use the environment. You've got big guns, you've got Stratagems, you've got reinforcements from teammates, but you've also got the environment to utilize. As you roam the map, you might find items you can pick up and throw, such as explosive tanks.

Your duty as an enlisted member of the force is to capture enemy planets and defend against invasions, which will undoubtedly help protect managed democracy.

These days, it's pretty rare for new shooter games to be exclusively PvE. Helldivers 2 is, though, as there's not a single PvP mode in the game, and there aren't any plans for one in the future, either. Helldivers fight for Super Earth together, after all!

One of the most interesting aspects is that mission progress is something the entire player base works toward together. Each of these hostile planets comes with a percentage meter that ticks further toward “liberation” every time a real-life squad completes a mission there. Once the planet is liberated, everyone unlocks new areas and missions.

With the amount of different weapons, stratagems, and other hazards there are in the game, it’s fun to just go out there and do missions for the sake of democracy and freedom.

This was likely done to ensure good performance and quality visuals without having to worry about how the game would run on aging hardware.

Always keep an eye out for samples on the map. They lead to research points, which are the only way to upgrade your weapons/stratagems.

Remember that friendly fire is always on. Line up your shots so you don't accidentally shoot your friends.

And with friendly fire always on and bad guys far outnumbering my ragtag crew of four, dying at some point or another felt like a certainty. This was especially true when we attempted to complete a level on the hardest difficulty and were utterly grinded to a pulp, which was hilarious and a complete blast even in humbling defeat. I’m really looking forward to seeing if I can actually best one of these levels once my character’s been properly leveled.

Helldivers 2 is one of the most refreshing - and straightforward - multiplayer games I've played in a while. It's a third-person bug-shooting blitzkrieg, offering simple sets of objectives and a broad armament to help satisfy them. The actual action of defeating the game's foes is a lot of fun, with hordes of enemies to shoot into gibs with a four-person player squad. But does all that multiplayer chaos come with strings attached? Few games try to achieve destruction at this scale, especially factoring in the unpredictability of multiplayer gameplay, so what kind of visuals and performance should we expect in the game's console outing on PS5 and how does the quality of the PC port fare? Visually, Helldivers 2 hardly advances the state of the art, but that's not to say that its visual make-up - and its environments - aren't compelling. There's a typical mix of modern graphical staples, but they are deployed effectively. Volumetric lighting is heavily used, for instance, with shafts of light shooting through rocks and trees.

Those small details contrast against the environment especially nicely because of the game's use of relatively high-resolution shadowmaps. Other elements of the lighting perhaps don't fare as well. The worlds are generally lit convincingly enough, but when you get up close you can spot some light leak in places, and shadowed regions tend to have a bit of a flat look. I'm not sure we're looking at pre-calculated, 'baked' lighting. I think instead we're seeing the typical mix of screen-space ambient occlusion and shadowmaps to shade in some of those finer details, which works well for the big picture stuff but doesn't hold up quite as well on close examination. The same can be said for reflections, which exhibit typical screen-space reflection 'skirting'. After surveying the game's graphical tech, I wasn't quite sure what we were looking at. UE4 seemed like an obvious choice, but it didn't seem well-suited for this kind of big multiplayer game with open-world environments.

) to shoot and kill the alien threats. Players can also aim down the sights for a more accurate 1st person camera view. Combat is accompanied by frequent sprays of blood and dismemberment as players exterminate the alien Helldivers 2 Gameplay forces or players and squad mates are hit by environmental explosions or friendly fire. Enemy encampments and battlefield environments depict bloodstains and dismembered corpses.”

Sharing is caring. Helldivers 2 encourages multiplayer, and it's honestly much faster to take down objectives with a larger squad. You can have up to 3 teammates with you on each mission, and multiplayer can be with friends or through random matchmaking. When you're working as a team, you'll have to and will want to share certain things.