Helldivers 2 is a incredible recreation that I’ve been taking part in fairly constantly since its launch in February 2024. Each time an replace buffed or nerfed a weapon, I by no means took it too significantly as a result of the core gameplay is stable and satisfying. Nonetheless, the weeks following the Escalation of Freedom replace‘s launch have revealed a obvious concern with the sport, and it stems from developer Arrowhead Recreation Studios.

When the Escalation of Freedom replace was initially launched, it was met with a number of backlash from gamers who had been offended in regards to the weapon nerfs it introduced. In actual fact, it induced such an uproar that Arrowhead Recreation Studios shortly responded with a 60-day plan to replace the title and alter its balancing to deliver it extra consistent with what gamers are after.

You’d assume that will have been the tip of it. The developer got here out with its palms up, owned the truth that the largest replace to Helldivers 2 clearly didn’t hit the mark, and is working to repair that. In spite of everything, the sport’s neighborhood is mostly fairly optimistic exterior of the review-bombing that occurred when Sony tried to make PSN accounts important for all gamers.

However no, as a substitute, these gamers who had been miffed in regards to the replace, and what I think about is various unhealthy actors, took it upon themselves to blatantly hack in objects throughout a current Main Order. A lot in order that Arrowhead Recreation Studios needed to kill the Main Order earlier than it was accomplished.

Hacking in Helldivers 2 is nothing new. It’s been round for the reason that recreation was launched, with hackers producing Samples and messing with weapons to allow them to unlock every thing as shortly and effectively as potential. I don’t assume that’s enjoyable, but it surely’s clearly satisfying to them. Till this current Main Order, hacking hadn’t been that prevalent within the overarching story of Helldivers 2.

Following this debacle, Arrowhead Recreation Studios launched an in-game dispatch contextualizing the hacker exercise. It states that the hacked Samples had been counterfeit and proceeds to decrease what was clearly an thrilling acceleration of a large Terminid risk, an enormous house spore cloud known as the Gloom, with no concrete reasoning. It felt low cost, and whereas I do know we’re not being punished for the actions of others, the sport’s lore actually has been.

The issue goes deeper, although. An additional dispatch tried to make gentle of what the hackers had finished. It informed us that they’d been despatched to labor camps to work in gasoline manufacturing, and gamers had been awarded a gas-based Stratagem without spending a dime to assist battle the Automatons whereas pretending The Gloom, an intergalactic cloud that spreads colossal alien bugs, isn’t a risk.

However taste textual content guarantees to vary the way in which the sport might be balanced, and making enjoyable of hackers doesn’t remedy the core concern right here. Arrowhead Recreation Studios now has a major problem on its palms with Helldivers 2 that’s rising every single day. Certain, the hacking may positively do with being stopped, however I’m speaking about one thing that may’t be mounted with anti-cheat techniques. Regardless that those in place didn’t cease the hackers this time round.

On the time of writing, over on the Helldivers 2 subreddit, you possibly can’t scroll for greater than three posts with out coming throughout one about griefers. The Escalation of Freedom backlash has given rise to precise splinter teams inside Tremendous Earth’s Helldivers, and so they’re inflicting all types of points.

You have got Chaosdivers who’re actively working in opposition to each Main Order gamers are given, Nerfdivers who consistently discuss in regards to the current weapon nerfs, Crydivers who simply complain about every thing and Griefdivers who kill their very own teammates in each mission.

As consumer Independent_Ocelot82 places it within the put up embedded above, “Keep in mind after we all agreed we had the perfect participant neighborhood?” Proper now, Helldivers 2 has a virus, and these splinter teams are the signs of that virus. Arrowhead Recreation Studios may need carried out a brand new system to group kicking, however group killing is a a lot larger downside there’s simply no answer for proper now.

Complaints, conversations that discuss down in regards to the recreation, and an disagreeable participant expertise attributable to gamers killing you simply to spoil a mission will destroy the sport from the bottom up. The unlucky actuality is that this actually isn’t a direct results of something Arrowhead Recreation Studios did deliberately. It balanced weapons in a approach that was believed to be helpful to gamers, and a portion of these gamers took concern with that.

It’s nothing new to the world of MMOs, however Helldivers 2 is completely different. We created our personal meme of avoiding Anti-Tank mines and ended up having the perfect time-saving fictional youngsters from a race of evil sentient machines. we additionally all grieved the air these youngsters now received’t have purified after we had been too lazy to finish one other Main Order and dodge the Anti-Tank Mines one ultimate time.

That is the lore of Helldivers 2. Gamers by chance create phenomenal moments collectively. There’s no place for critical griefing and outstanding hacking locally I do know and love. However so long as Arrowhead Recreation Studios pretends every thing is ok and makes use of taste and nothing extra to show the tables, the issue on the recreation’s coronary heart is barely going to fester.