Touches like this make a full party of four feel like a cohesive fighting unit where every member is more powerful than they would be alone. Have a buddy carry the supply pack though, and they can walk up to you and toss in another shell in the blink of an eye. You could carry it yourself, but the reload time between shots will make it pretty impractical to use. The recoilless rifle, for instance, comes with a separate supply pack with extra ammo. Many of these delightful bits of kit are designed to facilitate cooperative play. Whether you’re squeezing the last few rounds out of a heavy machine gun, or obliterating a screen full of enemies with a thundering artillery strike, everything sounds powerful and threatening. No matter what you bring to the fight though, Helldivers’ meaty sound effects convey the action convincingly, despite its so-so visuals. You can only bring so much though, and adapting your loadout based on what your objectives are and what your teammates are bringing is where Helldivers exhibits much of its depth. Capture or defend objectives call for sentry turrets, where snow-covered maps might tempt you to bring an exo-suit or a jump-pack to make traversal easier. After over 25 hours, I still haven’t gotten everything, and from disposable anti-tank weapons, to gun-covered troop-carriers, every piece of gear feels meaningful, since each ends up being particularly useful for certain objectives or against particular foes. The real magic though, happens when you start unlocking more of Helldivers’ large arsenal of perks, weapons, upgrades, and equipment calldowns called stratagems. It's a smart system that gives each mission a greater sense of purpose, not to mention an urgency to log on every day to do your part. Either situation leads to a timed special event where all players are called on to make one final push, or a desperate last stand. As you and your fellow heroes retake planets by waging successful missions, the war will eventually spill over to the alien homeworld, or to your own if not enough people are fighting the good fight. On the other end of the spectrum, failing to pack some extra ammo for your shotgun against the bugs is usually a fatal mistake, since they love to get up close and personal.Įvery online match of Helldivers feeds into this three-pronged war, with each front’s greatest contributors being cleverly immortalized with an ever-present leaderboard. Don't forget to bring something to punch through armor too, or you'll spend the better part of your mission running from mixed groups of tanks and hulking mechanized super-soldiers. Cyborgs tote a lot of small caliber firearms, making heavy body armor a great choice to shrug off volleys that might have otherwise put you on the ground. Each faction brings a diverse set of units to bear, requiring you to either adapt your tactics, or die a horrible death. This questionable galactic war is fought on three fronts against the tech-heavy Illuminate, the gun-toting Cyborgs, and the Tyranid-esque bugs known simply as…bugs. It’s mostly superficial in that the themes of radical Nationalism are never really explored, but the jingoistic one-liners your space marine spouts out are chuckle-worthy all the same, effectively drawing me into Helldivers’ persistent online war despite knowing my people probably started it for all the wrong reasons. The tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top way in which it sets up the ongoing war between the aliens and our homeworld, Super Earth, is a clear nod to director Paul Verhoeven’s film, and it lends the action a delicious sense of both humor and danger. From the opening cinematic, Helldivers wears its Starship Troopers influences on its sleeve.
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