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Helldivers II (8th February 2024)


Julius

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Huh, we don't have a thread for this. Well marketing is starting to ramp up with an overview and gameplay trailer dropping today, so here it is. 

(Re-)announcement trailer:

Co-op and combat trailer:

Still no date as things stand, just arriving this year, but hope this turns out well. Been waiting patiently for a worthwhile co-op game to convince my friends to try and love then for us to never return to it :p

Edited by Julius
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Game has gone gold:

Launch trailer dropped yesterday: 

The way things are going, I could easily see the review scores being posted bringing an end to this thread :laughing:

On 1/16/2024 at 7:47 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, I feel like this is being sent out to die.

Absolutely.

Especially when you consider it's also one of few first-party games with a date, you'd think it'd be getting pushed so much harder than it has been, for example previews and hands-on time with a game like this is the clear call to make...and yet we haven't had either? And no demo? 

I'd be lying if I said deep down I didn't hope that this was because of a pivot around GaaS now that Jim Ryan is leaving, because the double blow of sending this thing out to die and Naughty Dog not going ahead with Factions would then make so much more sense. It would be a shame though, a waste of talent to sink this much time into a project and not back it as much as you can. 

Time will tell, I guess ::shrug: feels like it's set up to be Destruction AllStars 2.0 – and didn't that also release in Feb? Weird. 

Edited by Julius
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This...got a new trailer a couple of days ago, nearly a week after the game's launch trailer released? Huh? 

The irony here is that this is by far the best overview they've given of the game.

Man, they sure did drop the ball with this marketing campaign ::shrug:

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is fire!
Haven't played much but done a few missions with randos and had a blast!

Arrowhead put so much thought into all the mechanics. For example, when you use the ping system to call out something your trooper adds the cardinal direction.
A rando marked a bug and said something like "enemy, south-west". I immediately looked at the compass and found the bug in no time. So simple, so effective!

Quite a shame that matchmaking is currently fucked. A beta probably would've helped...

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Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts on this one, @drahkon. Haven't bit the bullet and picked it up myself (I think in large part because my group still has our BG3 campaign running), but it's really tempting to just pick it up and play through it a little mindlessly when our entire group isn't available but we just want to hop on and talk. 

10 hours ago, drahkon said:

A beta probably would've helped...

I've said it before but the way this game has been handled has been super weird, to me at least. No beta or open demo for people to hop in and get a taste for the game ahead of launch, really weird trailers which I think marketed the game terribly and a strange cadence of trailer releases (I mean, releasing more trailers after your launch trailer? Really?)...

...but it still seems like it's doing really well, at least based on early Steam CCU numbers? Seeing a lot of buzz for and conversation around it, the early reviews/first impressions seem positive, there's a definite Zeitgeist around this game right now, and I won't lie, having delayed multiple purchases already based on the huge influx of games we've had at the start of the year and this game being half the price of those other titles...it's mighty tempting. 

If nothing else, I am SUPER curious. It seems like a bit of mindless, over the top fun, which I don't have much of going on with the games I'm playing at the moment. I think I'll see what the impressions/early reviews are saying when I get up in the morning and figure it out from there :p think we all know where this is heading...

 

EDIT:

Quote

think we all know where this is heading...

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Edited by Julius
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8 hours ago, Julius said:

Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts on this one, @drahkon.

Probably later tonight.
Yesterday was a weird one. I thought I had time to game, but somehow I didn't :p Hopefully, I'll get to play more today.

8 hours ago, Julius said:

...but it still seems like it's doing really well

Rightly so.
It's peak horde-mode/coop shooting bliss.

Such a shame that my gaming friends aren't interested...which is weird because they usually are up for games like these ::shrug:

Edit: Oh and I read some news that claim this game is "pay to win"...
Now you can be against battlepasses, mtx, etc - fine by me. I hate 'em, too, and while I'm also not fond of their existence in Helldivers 2, they are stupidly fair.

You get one free Warbond (i.e. battlepass) to fill out and will acquire 750 Supercredits (i.e. premium currency you can buy with real money).
There's also one premium Warbond which cost 1000 SC.
I've played only 4 missions so far and found 20 SC, so given enough time and exploration I will easily able to afford the premium Warbond (which comes with another 300SC).

If the influx of free Warbonds is consistent, I don't see the need to spend any money at all.

Still: In the end, stuff like this sucks when it's a game you bought...but this seems to be done in a way that isn't too predatory.

Edited by drahkon
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The game seems to be doing well.
Deservedly so, it's a blast! :peace:

Matchmaking has improved with the latest patch but occasionally some connections issues still occur. For me it's aprox. a 90% success rate, though, so that's nice :D

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1 hour ago, Cookyman said:

Have just bought this but first impressions are very good.  

You're in for a treat!

Haven't had much time to play...only invested 7 hours since release but these have been awesome :D Might be able to get some more gaming time in later tonight.

Edited by drahkon
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50% and Requisition multiplier this weekend:

Also got the Digital Foundry review:

Played this for a couple of hours last Friday, it was good fun. Think it'll be a game I slowly chip away at in the background for a while :D

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Shame that the servers are crumbling...
I get that it's because the devs didn't expect the game to blow up this much but it's just frustrating (both for the players and the devs, of course).

Was hoping to get some bug squashing in today, but alas...guess I just play DBZ: Kakarot :p

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Got to say this game has some of the absolute best mission/objective design ever.

Absolutely brilliant enemy interactions with them using their own tricks such as transmitter blocking bases etc. I am still low down on difficulty so more stuff seems to be opening up. Love the missions the game pouts you in. Am getting multiple main objectives now.

Its refreshing to have a game like this.

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Played it for a few hours tonight. This time not with randos but with a friend and one of his colleagues.
First of all: Cross-play is great. And the Discord implementation is awesome! Easy communication between PC and PS5 players :peace:

About the gaming session: Haven't had this much fun with a co-op game in a looooong time :D Absolute chaos, madness and banter.

We had an easy time on the bug planets but got our ass handed to us during our first Automaton mission :laughing: Once we adjusted it was much easier. We did, however, only play on medium difficulty, so there's that :p

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Yeah the overall war effort stuff is huge fun. We are struggling with the automatons but I am sure more players will help out.

Just really enjoy the medium/hard missions. Lots of games actively avoid stuff this game does.

Nice win for Arrowhead, Sony/Bungie.

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  • 2 months later...

I've been away all week and was actually planning to jump in to Helldivers II this weeks thanks to the immense social pressure I've been under. Lots of friends having a good time on PS5 and PC wanting me to join them, so coming back to this news was hilarious. 

Had this gone through, I wouldn't have even been able to buy the game. 

Extremely arrogant of Sony. It just shows how utterly detached these AAA companies are from the end user and what they actually want from gaming. Sony has demolished any good will this game had earned them, and while there is certainly a much deeper discussion to be had regarding MS, Sony and PC releases, this was an extremely sceptical move, hilariously pushed under the guise of "player safety". In reality, this is just Sony trying to sweep up a few extra PSN users for their earnings calls and balance sheets. The "safety" they speak of is just more control over how people play the game and the discussions they have over voice chat. They also want more data too, which is what having everyone log in to PSN would have given them. 

Needless to say, I will not be buying this game. I see people in some regions have been given refunds despite having 100+ hours in the game already. And rightly so, IMO. 

This seems to be another example of a continuing trend where a product is sold and then the rules are arbitrarily changed a few weeks or months down the line to the detriment of the buyer. So while I'm very pleased to see Sony walking it back in the face of the outrage, I have no doubt that this is just a minor bump in the road and they will merely implement all of this stuff in a more subtle way over time. 

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