Recent reviews by erekrules

TL;DR — game is fun but still has a number of glaring issues that revolve solely around lack of leadership at Arrowhead, spaghetti code from an archaic game engine, or a terminid infestation that's never been addressed. Over a year later and patches still come with the anxiety of: what are they going to break (or re-break) this time and how long will it take them to fix it again? Fortunately, the development philosophy has taken a 180 and long gone is the micromanaged spreadsheet balancing act of yesteryear. That said: I've now changed my review to RECOMMENDED. High fives all around.

::UPDATE #2::

More of the same since the previous update. I'd say it leans more towards good than bad, so the mixed bag is more M&Ms and less weirdly stale mustard covered pretzels this time around. Still...

THE GOOD :: the game loop is fun, has been since the beginning. Drop onto a planet, murder a bunch of alien lifeforms, try to survive until the end to make your mama and democracy officer proud of you. All weapons (finally) appear viable as of this writing. That doesn't mean there aren't favorites or Meta™ builds, but they all work well enough that you can have fun experimenting with loadouts while wreaking havo--I mean, spreading liberty across the galaxy.

THE GOOD, PART DEUX :: there are now three factions to fight against, which means more variety. Terminids, aka the Starship Troopers bug faction, are a bit of a swarm shooter with some interesting twists, larger mobs, etc, to help keep it from getting stale. Cybo--I mean, Automatons, the Terminator faction once thought eradicated early on, but if anyone was actually paying attention at the time they had faxed us "I'll be back." before dipping for a week. They shoot back! Which makes the playstyle more about seeking cover, the element of surprise, and the element of enough ordinance that you can see the explosions from high orbit while downing a can of Eagle Sweat™.

THE GOOD, PART TROIS :: the third faction, the Illuminate, is essentially a zombie horde shooter with minor deviations to that theme. I'm sure some people enjoy that, but I do not. They are so boring to fight, in my opinion, that I've all but avoided playing missions that involve them. Why is this included in "THE GOOD", Erek? Because it's something players might enjoy and it does introduce more variety to the game; it's like they tried to combine the terminid and automaton playstyles into one, but only in the worst possible ways, BUT HEY, maybe that's some people's jam.

THE BAD :: we are (still) fighting on the same planets with the same biomes as when the game launched. The galactic war has shifted slightly north to make room for the third faction, the Illuminate, but the vast majority of the planets Helldivers are dropping onto are the same as they were months ago. They've phoned in an urban environment of sorts since my last writing, but it really feels half-baked. Enemy mobs don't appear to understand the new structures and will ofttimes simply walk directly through debris rather than around like players are forced to do. To be fair, poor enemy pathing is something that has plagued the game since release anyway, so this is just par for the course... except the course is now covered in burnt out vehicles and dilapidated buildings.

There are still (STILL?!) unused biomes that already exist in the game—jungles, for example—but for some reason we're still (STILL!!11one) messing around on: swamp, dead swamp, red desert, and urine-caked yellow desert. A Hoth-like planet and an alpine forest biome are occasionally thrown in the mix, but they don't stay active very long and then it's back to boring landscapes with too much fog.