What Publishers Need To Learn From Helldivers 2
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มิ.ย. 2024
- Helldivers 2 was not the live service game anyone predicted blowing up in 2024.
Now that the war for Super Earth is underway, we dissect not terminid bugs, but the three massive reasons this game succeeded where much bigger IPs failed...
Helldivers 2 was released by Arrowhead Game Studios on February 8th 2024. It’s available for both PC and PS5 gamers to play together using crossplay.
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Let us know in the comments what you think of our disection - we'd love to know why you think Helldivers 2 caught fire when gamers are so keen to give Live Service games the cold shoulder!
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- Jason
- Laura Lane
- Hell Dolphin
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Helldivers 2 caught the attention and admiration of so many games for the following reason:
-Fair microtransactions.
-Fairly priced game.
-You can earn the premium currency regularly through simple gameplay without having to jump through stupid hoops or time-consuming activities.
-Solid mechanics.
-Beautiful graphics.
-Great soundscape and music (though it could be handy to have sound effects for larger enemies).
-Aggressively keeping IRL politics out of the game and maintaining the integrity of the setting's politics (though the CM seems to be doing his best to torpedo that).
-Frequent updates or unlockable content that isn't going away.
I think this can be summed up rather easily. Helldivers 2 succeeded because the developers respect their fans time and money. Thats it. Simple as that.
You asked for a war story so I shall deliver
It was 12:am March 15th at the time of deployment there was a massive thunderstorm, we where on a recon and sabotage mission on malevelon creek, I the demolition expert and squad commander lead my team behind enemy lines crawling though mud and thick foliage we used the rain and darkness of the night to mask our body temperature (them dam clankers have heat vision) and the sound of crawling on leaves and branches until all do the sudden we saw a bight turquoise blue light that was shaped in a unique pattern that to this day I can't describe it was ... So bright and so warm then as soon as it came it vanished and all the sudden we were under fire from the automations pinned behind a small cavern and some rocks we tried to fight back but one called in reinforcements and what came was 2 hulk busters a heavy devastator and 4 berserkers I only had a auto cannon which can kill them but I have to place my shots well or suffer the consequences so I aimed and I fired killing 1 berserker then I aimed at a hulk and fired twice one bounced off it's armor but the other hit it's head severely damaging it and I fired again at it's head finishing the hulk off and catching the attention of the others and I the commander leader then away so my team can flank around back and fire at the vulnerable spots my team managed to kill the other hulk and the heavy devastator as I brought out my trusty P-4 Senator and fired at the 4 berserkers killing 2 of the 4 before I had to reload it, I brought out my my punisher and finished off the other 2 after that ordeal we made it to the primary mission goal to plant a hell bomb and blow up the dropship production line after calling in the bomb and armed it we left as I heard a explosion of the ages we made it to the extraction point and called for pelican 1, then tragedy struck a rocket devastator killed E4 and by the time I reacted he was dead so I fired my auto cannon killing the rocket devistator I called in a emp orbital strike at the main entrance to the extraction point and we waited for pelican 1 to come wile my squad called in reinforcements to replace E4 and that's what I saw it a red flare and I knew right then and there we where probably gonna die as I saw a tank get dropped off, I warned my squadmates and we took cover as I called in a 500kg bomb on top of the tank but it wasn't alone there was another so I told my squadmate to call in ether a reckless rifle or a expendable anti tank as I flaked around and fired that the 2nd tank and the 15 or so automations from behind killing its then I was hit from behind by a stray energy blast damaging my left arm I stemed and ran back to my squad as pelican 1 came to pick us up we got on and right before we left I saw it again the bright turquoise blue light as the door closed I cursed it say I will come back for it as we flew away my squadmates concerned for me asked what did I see I said I didn't know but Ill be back for it.
As a diehard Destiny fan (IK we exist. We hate our existence too) destiny only had 2 games released and no remakes or rewrites. The only rewrites I really know of is splitting lightfall and final shape and maybe changing direction a small bit with forsaken. Destiny isn’t perfect but it’s still the one game that along with helldivers 2 belong at the very top. Destiny for beginning live service games and showing that even with layoffs and a community that makes jokes about the game being awful that they can be profitable with a community behind it and Helldivers for perfecting it
What Publishers Need To Learn From Helldivers 2 - you need to make fun game and not be greedy as fk, respect your players and not their wallets
I’d go further, as I have no issues paying a premium cost for a premium product, it’s why I bought the Deluxe Super Citizen pack! 💪
The issue is “AAA” are absolute Dog Water, they want to push n force Their agenda n politics into Ever modern game! They want to talk about the “Diversity” of their teams and how “Progressive” they are, Over making a beautiful entertaining game, then Will Gleefully bash, trash, and try to Cancel Anyone that didn’t like it 🤡
Sorry, not sorry, but people wanna have escapism and enjoyment, NOT pay $60-$80 to be lectured and told how intolerant, sexist, and “racist” they are lol
I bought the last warbond for 10€, I bought the Super Citizen pack, I have more than enough Super Credits saved up for the new warbond tomorrow -- but I'm still considering buying it for real money and getting some cool armors with my surplus, just to send the message that I'm willing to support a game that doesn't make me feel like a team of psychologists is sitting there analyzing how to squeeze me dry.
@@charmquark7514facts!
@@matthewwolf90I can assure you it has nothing to do with your bullshit concept of political "wokeness."
It's entirely about bad game design as a a direct result of hyper aggressive monetization.
It's kind of funny how people who use the clown emote are pretty much always outing themselves as complete fools
This. Today it seems, no very clearly stated, that AAA game studios actively hate gamers and want to piss them off. Inhect politics into everything. And then call us "bigots" when they tarnish the ips we hold dear on the alter of ideology.
a shooter doesnt need pvp
This doesn't and I love pvp
@@Swaggmire215 The only way I can see it having a PvP mechanic is just ranked PvE lmao
Call it "Promotion test" or "Patriotism Examinations" hahaha
And let's not forget that this game does have pvp. It's just unintentional
@@JoshroussIt can also be intentional.
Yeah, it's a co-op game at heart and adding PVP is a way to ruin that.
Arrowhead- "A game for everyone is a game for no one."
"Our game is not for everyone!" Everyone is obsessed with the game. 😂
@@MikeBenko genuinely, I’ve had friends and friend groups that haven't played together in half a decade group up to spread managed democracy. Most nights we'd end up playing League of Legends as like the smallest common denominator, and now we have like two full squadrons of super destroyers fighting bugs and clankers.
Hell yeah bro, its cause they had a vision for the game and stuck to it, they didnt try to appease anyone but their vision. @MikeBenko
Helldivers 2 is what's getting me through depression.
That's how good spreading managed democracy is!
Relax and have some liber-TEA!
Sometimes you just gotta spill some oil with your bros to cheer you up!😂
Just like the TV broadcasts of Free Propaganda says, there's no place for feeling bad when Liberty and Super Democracy is in the air!
Honestly, it feels kinda nice and always gives me a smile when somebody wants to give you hug after a good game. ❤
@@ollihilden1864or during chaotic moments!!! 😂 🫂
I think you missed a 4th, it's releasing content in a trickle rather than widely distanced content dumps, the trickle of content means that they can balance on a per item basis and the meta chasers can always be evaluating the newest equipment rather than ignoring 3/4ths of each of those content dumps, which then leads to studios giving up and focusing on skins since nothing they release gets played with.
They also work their content drops into the meta of the story and lore in the game. It makes it feel more organic rather than the manufactured patches that come out for other live service games. They put new content behind walls inside the game that we as a community have to overcome to unlock. I think it's really awesome
They kinda cracked the code for what modern gamer want...
@@davecam4863agreed I also think it’s awesome making these updates tied too the missions we do. Like yesterday’s introduction to the new actual defensive missions. I enjoy these so much couldn’t stop playing the mode all night.
@@davecam4863 yeah but that can be rolled into his earlier point.
also helps that everything that gets released has some niche role it can play, where it is the strongest option, as opposed to one loadout being so overpowering broken that everyone uses that. except the sickle. dear gods are energy weapons just universally powerful (not looking at scorcher, fuck that thing)
i think youve missed the most crucial points that set this game apart from the rest.
1. IT MAKES YOU ROLEPLAY. I believe this is the most unique and ingenious thing about this game that really makes so amazing. Look at the discussions online, people who play it remain "in charachter" outside the game. It created its own language and its all thanks to very clever use of in-game mechanics as well as very consistent marketing to go along with it. This game sets a crazy hillarious premise and makes every player fully embrace it. Its truly magical.
2.. ITS JUST A WELL CRAFTED GAME. This has nothing to do with "luck". Good games that are done well with the enjoyment of players as a priority will do well. This game is doing what its aiming to do masterfully - the music, the combat, the weapons, the visuals, it's all very well made and feels great to play.
3. ITS APPROACHABLE BUT NOT SIMPLISTIC - this game can truly be enjoyed by a wide variety of people, even those who don't usually play online shooters (such as myself). The core gameplay loop is simple enough. it can be challenging in higher diffficulties, but its never unfair and dying isnt punished too hard, which makes it less stressful and encourages experimentation. It's just more fun.
4. ITS PVE - pvp shooters can get very toxic very fast, as competiotion tends to bring the worst sides in people. PvE does the opposite, iti creates a natural sense of community and encourages working together. One of the best aspects of this game is its community and its very much thanks to how this game is designed.
i had not thought about the roleplaying aspect of it, and after i thought about, you are so right, i have bought a Malevelon creek Veteran cap on etsy, and when it comes, im gonna wear it proudly 😀
The Ministry of Truth approves this message
It really fits with the whole theme to just fit yourself into the game.
"Don't think. Just shout 'for democracy!' and run headfirst into your problems."
Iced planet, dont remember the name, something IV. My squad surrounded. A lake behind us lock any possibility of running away. We open a breach in the enemies lines and one escape to call reiforcements later. Other 2 fellows have fallen and i was alone. It was a matter of time to me die, but i decide to figth back and take them with me. I fought for about 10 min behind a rock, moving around, calling air strikes, supplies, my team completed the objectives while i drawn the enemy's attention. And then i found a breach to run away. I survived. And with all the samples with me. It was a battle to remember.
The planet you were on was Vandalon IV
@@alicorn3924 Yes! That one! Thank you
Hell yea
D E M O C R A C Y prevails.
I was there. The second battle of Malevelon Creek. The bodies we already stacked an the blood ran deep. We held the line but we’re forced to fall back. When the opportunity arose we stuck back twice as hard. The the order came “Take Malevelon”. We didn’t need to be told twice. A fleet of super earths finest amassed above the jungled world. Like droplets from the sky we rained down. For hours we pushed, for hours the Automatons kept coming. At the cost of 24 million helldivers; Malevelon Creek was liberated. But we did not cease our assault, we kept with the momentum and attacked, like a swift eagle strike we eradicated the automaton threat from the whole sector. Victory at last. Though the battle is over, the memory of our dear fallen will never be forgotten. This is Helldiver War_Artist commander of the SES Arbiter of Judgement standing proud. In super earths name we will take back freedom!
Rule no 1 and only rule thats is the utmost important, do not fuck with the people who buy your games, the consumers.
Other aspects:
- Brilliant graphics, including color palettes for storms, daylight, evening, dessert, ice and jungle. The explosions are epic, and you can almost feel the heat from a 500kg going off danger-close.
- Spot on feel for weapons: firing, aiming, sound, kick, and wide dynamics between shotgun, ballistic rifles and pistols, lasers, and special secondaries. It's rumored that the devs in charge of weapons are retired military with heavy weapons experience. If so, it shows. That feel is everything.
- Non-stop action, and the ability to scale the amount of difficulty with 9 different levels. Heart-beating, white knuckle, adrenaline drenched FUCK YEAH action.
Those are very difficult elements to bottle up in a video game. But it's not just luck to do so.
On your second point, its not really a rumor, the devs said it themselves on one of their videos that all of them served in the Swedish Armed Forces at one point or another, either for their formerly mandatory training service, or as active duty officers. They really do know their stuff.
and recently they started hiring concept artists for weapon design work that requires them to have ample experience with real firearms as a prerequisite.
I think my best moment in Helldivers 2 was when my brother ( lvl 12 ) and I ( lvl 4 ) were playing with his friends ( lvl ?? ) and forgot to tell me what difficulty we were going into ( lvl 7 difficulty), and somehow we all survived and only after we were in the pelican and watching the score screen did I realize what we had just done and freaked!
Bro was shellshocked irl
I had this happen to me when i joined my brother in this game, was level 1 and my brother was level 16, and we joined his friends who where level 36 and level 50 respectively, and then went straight into helldive difficulty on Malevelon Creek of all places. I was utterly shellshocked and had ptsd irl from that and had nightmares about the red eyes of the creek for days, and it only stopped after i started winning in the creek and became a true creek crawler.
And yes, we lost so many times during those first few helldives, why do you think i was so badly shaken by the experience? 😂
Live service isn’t inherently bad, but it’s easy to get greedy and I’ve noticed a lot of games with the model either can’t keep consistent content coming, content being low quality, or both.
I have a couple of war stories in Helldivers 2, but I think i'll settle with this one:
I was playing with randoms on Menketh with Impossible difficulty and the operation went smoothly. We just finished an ICBM mission and were waiting for extraction, we stealthed over to it so no bots were coming. So we were just messing around until Pelican-1 landed, and when it did. We formed a line and dive jumped into the ship one by one. Absolutely hilarious i was losing my mind laughing for the next 10-15 minutes or so.
There's virtually no chance whatsoever that major publishers learn the right lessons from Helldivers
That's more than likely a sad truth. All Helldivers will do is entrench their feeling there's gold in these mountains
Helldivers 2 worked because they made a damn fun game and its made by developers with passion.
Got lots of war stories.
Though most recent... Had a bro getting chased by three flame hulks. Stunned grenaded them, dropped a autocannon beacon on one, then ran to the one in front and shot it point point blank with a recoiless I picked up from a dead team mate.
AC comes down, smashing the second. Drop the recoiless, pick up AC, toss one more stun nade, and double tap the last hulk. Happened all in a few seconds and was hella smooth.
my favorite helldiver's story is when i had my anti-material rifle and saved my squad from a swarm of brood warriors that they were not equipped for. I had one of those moments of hyper clarity and headshot the enemies from almost 200m away. My teamates saw the heads popping off, and two of them gave me a salute in the distance.
Character development
Something you didn’t mention that actually makes me like Helldivers 2 is that the “Battle Passes”, or Warbonds in the game, have no item limit, can be accessed at any time, can be purchased with currency found in game, and everything made available in it can only be acquired with another currency only available in game that can be found in missions or by completing orders.
What publishers and developers need to learn from helldivers 2 is finish the game before releasing it and have live service content in development and close to completion before launch
So you can actually provide a live service from the beginning rather than trying to play catch up with trying to finish the game and make it work.
Their marketing style is quite unique. Hinting at changes like flying bugs, bot gunships in game generates social media buzz without having to spend money on advertising. The use of major orders to advance the story gets people working together and creates a sense of natural FOMO as well
I think the main reason that HD2 is doing so well is because it filled a hole in the market. For years people have been begging for a large scale, online, co-op, PVE game, and all the main live service titles were making VERY similar PVP "Fortnite clones." Because arrowhead actually made something different that matched the production quality that fans wanted, and they made their monetization incredibly reasonable, people latched on because it was easy to do so, and it filled a desire they had in the first place! I think if studios want to see similar success, they need to find a demand in the gaming market that ISN'T being met, then supply that product! Whether it's Live service or not, it has to stand out if they want to pull people away from the other titans in the industry, and if they do make it live service, it needs to be reasonable and possibly better than that of the biggest live service games!
On the luck: there’s a quote I like to think of when someone says something just got lucky
Most opportunities are created by luck. It takes skill (in this case a good game) to take that and turn it into success.
imagine if we had a warhammer 40k game similar to this one, the amount of units, races, lore , omg that would have sold over 10 mil copies in the first week if it was also priced 40 $!!
yes, yes it would. omg i would have played as black templars, love them 😀 hard to play, but fun hehe
I meannn thereee issss Darktide
@@admiralgalactica and its so good, but helldivers are better in my eyes :-D
The Warhammer was already released a multiplay-shooter, but their guns are just so messy for me. Everyone wants to shoot smoothly, not just a few shots then reload or have to do melee, we wants the thrilling of shooting, not choiring.
Once I called a supply drop near my position. Then an explosion knocked me off my feet and ragdolled me for a moment. Next thing I knew, I was crushed by my own supply drop. Direct hit. I said out loud, "That. Was. AMAZING!"
Once I threw a marker for an Eagle Airstrike, only to have a dead bug fly across my FOV and reflect my marker right back onto me.
It's the small whacky moments that make this game for me lol
favourite moment for me was aiming a cluster bomb, but then getting knocked by an explosion and dropping the stratagem marker right at my feet. the instant of "oh shit" followed by my helldiver being erased from reality was hilarious. love this game.
This is just a good example of how overpaid CEO's do not know their own product or audience. .
I think one study showed that the more the CEO was paid the less he contributed to the company.
@@HasekuraIsuna I once met one from HP who asked me how to work a HP printer...
I was there during the liberation of Hellmire, spreading high velocity democracy with my fellow Divers. Though facist fire tornados tried to stop us and many brave paragon of liberty was lightly charred by this hostile planet and the evil Terminids shredded us with tooth in claw in defiance of sense, truth, liberty, and their proper place as E-710 for the SEAF, we fought on.
In the last hours of the liberation my fireteam dropped into what was supposed to be a quiet LZ in order to launch a nuke that had tratoirously been left undentonated and it's thermonuclear moral superiorty would not be contained by the oppressive forces of idleness supported by its vile termind allies. We were going to set it free for democracy. Our Hellpods slammed down on target and and instead of a quiet LZ we instead were faced with a pair of chargers, my own pod opened eye to eye with one, and a stalker nest. This rapidly escalated into a handle ful of breach holes and at least 3 Bile Titans and a horde of smaller creatures intent on stealing the liberty of human kind. In a mighty display of fortitutude and the strength of managaed democracy in the form of massive applications of ordinance and completely heroic and stoic standing of our ground. (any accounts of diving, screaming, and panic are patently false and will be reported to the closest democracy officer) We secured the warmer than expected LZ, gained control of the situation, and Got back on mission after only a 5 minute firefight in which only a handful of helldivers were rendered democratically ineffective.
The mission proceeded fairly cleanly from there as always happens and is to be expected from the heros of Super Earth but the openning minutes of that drop was so intense and heart thumpingly viloent it gives one an urge to do no more than stand and salute how completely justified this war is.
God bless you son.
Hellmire... We lost more divers to fire than the bugs.
@@9mm_Retirement While I woudl like to sympathise with you I have been firmly informed by my democracy officer that it is treasonous to suggest that Helldivers are not properly prepared for being set on fire and that in any case the charring is in fact good for the skin and has health effects that will last the rest of your life.
So happy for these guys at arrowhead they showed the gaming world how to do it. Im 400 hours in and absolutely love this game. First you build it then they come. I've hated online shooters since battlefield bad company 2.
It(suicide squad) has not fallen short of expectations. We expected it to be trash, they pulled it, we raised an eyebrow, they brought it back, we did not change our stance, it released, we were right.
The end
I heard the rumors of the flying bugs, and i genuinely thought they were just headcannons until that fateful day. When I dropped in, loaded up with the EAT and shield backpack and saw the shreikers I was so excited. What sold me even more is that they aren't just flying bugs, they'll disarm you too. I was lining up my EAT and a shreikers swooped and took it! Dropped it a little bit away. That was a cool moment.
I remember when initially hearing about it, I thought "Eh? Those can't be real, there's nothing like that in the patch notes".
Then I saw people run into them and I'm like "Wait THEY'RE REAL?!" and when I looked online, Arrowhead was gaslighting people with "That's bug propaganda, flying bugs aren't real and cannot hurt you"
It was hilarious
There's the mind-blowing ragdoll, out of nowhere content drop, planet change basically this game over delivers.
For me Getting Helldivers was also a impulse purchase and a very good friend who was obsessed with the game.... and i was sceptical at first expecting a game filled with micro Transactionsan skins... i was pleasantly surprised when i learned that you can in fact earn the premium currency in the standard game without purchasing stuff and that all weapons are not behind massiv paywalls or huge grind.... (or at least behind less grind the other games) before i knew it i saved up 1000 Supercredits and bought the "Premium" bundle fastward i was 80h into helldivers and i scrapping bots left right and centre.... i love this game...
There are plenty of other games that let you grind out premium currency, and helldivers can take a long time to do that just like they do.
The major difference for sure is there is no time limit on the war bonds.
And though some people might argue, none of the stuff in the war bonds so far has seemed to be significantly better than the basic stuff you start with.
Plus there's only one currency you have to buy which for the most part simplifies things. Some games have so many different currencies it feels like they are trying to make it confusing
@@UglySofaGaming Yeah true it massively simplifies things....
I think in part the "luck" was actually the internal narrative. The decision to frame the story both in game AND out of game as hyper patriotic satire was genius. "For Democracy" was all the advertising the game needed, because, as weird as it is to say, it's a fun thing to buy into. It makes the players feel engaged.
And because the framing of the narrative persists *outside* of the game in the social media accounts and the community at large makes the entire experience feel so, so much more ALIVE.
Also the fact that the developers are so in touch with their community.
The ceos will look at this and push for more live service games. I love this game but it is called the exception. Its success has nothing to do with it being live service.
live service is central to the design of Helldivers 2, even more than Helldivers 1
If it wasn't a Live Service game I probably would have not bought it.
The participation in a Galactic War is the most appealing to me.
It does but I agree exception other live service garbage doesn’t work because greed
Best story I've had so far was my roommate and her friend were taking on an automaton base and they called in a drop ship. I run over to help and my roommate shot down the ship and it landed on top of me AS I dove from incoming enemy fire. The dive made it so I lived from the ship crash. 😂
I'm glad that there are actual MICROtransactions (completely optional you can earn the super credits by just playing the game and finding them in missions) instead of the ever so popular MACROtransactions that cost more than the base game
my best war story so far is back during the early days of the war, my squad and i had just dropped into the bots for the second time for most of them, my like 4th or 5th, we were on a lvl 8 as well for the like second time. our job was to launch an ICBM, and move clockwise across the map sweeping as we went. within minutes of completing this task, we were in a massive fire fight, friends are freaking out calling out targets, screaming that we're being flanked, i looked at the map, two rivers and a large one that lead us to our destination of a couple factories right next to our extract.
on the fly i start calling out commands. "so so come here, lay down covering, you drop that armor as soon as it crests, the rest of us start pushing towards the river!". quickly my best friend realizes the plan and we push for a river crossing under fire, a thing hard enough without lasers whizzing by. half way across we hear "you are in range of enemy artillery" the race is on. we push across not losing anyone, get in range of the mortars and clear them out. we get a 3 minute reprieve when we realize we either gotta cross the river again or take the land bridge and hope we don't get enveloped on both sides. we ran like a bitch, we get half way across when a random drop ship lands ahead of us and a patrol walks up from behind. the freaking out begins again, i bark orders again. "shift fire to the left, up the beach! keep mobile, get to those rocks for cover, call in air once we're there, be ready to move the moment it's done!" we move, no deaths, we get to cover, no deaths, air out, punches us a hole through, team members mic dies; "now!! for the jungle let's use the gap and punch through, we'll leave them in the dust and push to the extract" he did not hear any of this as his sound is coming from the tv and the headset is just for us.
we punch through, he's laying down belts of fire. he runs out, he calls for covering, it doesn't come... he realizes only to late as he's running up the jungle, towards us where we sat on a ledge above the extract. we watched this mother fucker basically go through the platoon scene as he accidentally dives next to a hellbomb, which took a wall of gunfire from bots and sent him fucking rocketing, he had a shield on. he. fucking. survived. runs to the extract and we make it out with not a single death. it blew my fucking mind and it got us the achievement for extreme or higher without anyone dying.
You absolutely nailed it with the price thing. I was on the fence, i saw some videos of people playing but when i found it for 30 bucks, i bought it.
game runs smooth asf, with all the chaos going on
I recall not the planet, nor the names of my comrades beyond their designations S3 and G4. What I do recall is being underprepared, under-leveled, and undermanned. Our death toll racked up early into the mission and we were quickly forced into slower and more defensive maneuvers to take on the automaton forces. We often lacked the firepower to penetrate their armor, relying solely on my orbital missiles and G4's often-empty rocket launcher to remove powerful Hulks. Eventually, the Pelican had touched down, only I was still waiting for another reinforcement to become available. As waves upon waves of bots attempted to remove S3 and G4 from their mortal bodies, I urged them to board the ship and forget about reinforcing me. I watched as S3, stating loudly how no man would be left behind, got shredded in pieces by the overwhelming force of those metal monsters. G4 saw it too a realised what had to be done. By just barely squeezing past several automaton troops, nearly getting crushed beneath a Hulk in the process, he boarded the Pelican and managed to escape that hell alive.
And heres the thing. Within a month my entire small friend group bought the deluxe adition because the game earned it. So we all payed full price for a Triple A game. And we all agree the game earned our money
One of my goofiest war stories is when my teammate got stuck during extraction and i had to hit them into the pelican and dive in after them
I was playing with my cousin. When I reinforced him he landed on an unexploded hellbomb, killing me instantly as he safely rose from his pod. 10/10 would dive again
For my war story. I was fighting on an automaton world. The rest of my squad was dead, no ammo, no stimms and no stratagem weapons. The destroyers sends its warning that it’s leaving low orbit. I have to make a mad dash across an open field while being chased by 3 walkers. I just have enough time to call in the ship, but for a minute and a half, I have to play cat and mouse with the walkers. And just my luck, a tank rolls up to the drop site, so I can’t keep darting between the rocks. I run quickly behind the tank and am able to keep the barrel pointed away from me just long enough the drop ship can pick me up. Still the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game
Recent short story:
Looking for sos i drop into a firefight with numerous devestators that keep dropping and pushing the divers back. A push pull vicious firefight with both sides getting reinforcements.
I drop eagle smoke which gives us the break in the fight to complete the objective and begin a fighting retreat.
From there i use stun nades on bot drops to help manage a few drops in ourv way to extract. In sure they were shocked to see how effective the less than lethal tools are!
Arrowhead Studios: We're releasing Helldivers 2... were not expecting much attention...
Arrowhead after Helldivers 2 Release: th-cam.com/video/5NV6Rdv1a3I/w-d-xo.html
I was in the middle of a hazard 6 destroy eggs mission & i realised “shit, I’m out of stims” & so I proceeded to take out one of the objectives & 2 or 3 bug nests on my hunt for stims
I’ve never been the best at shooters because of how competitive and toxic it gets, but this game gives me the same community and collaboration as monster hunter. You’re not killing enemies to make armor out of them, but you can earn everything in the game for free. Plus this being all PvE makes it a joy to play bc you’re not worried about being outplayed by someone shooting you from a pixel across the map.
FOR DEMOCRACY!!!!!
remember the creek
its simple really, create a good game foundation then build ontop of it. Most games that are failed is due to weak and lazy foundation.
What's interesting is how Helldiver's foundation is really simple and as someone said quite repetitive. I suppose it helps how different the game feels as you scale through the difficulties
helldivers, deep rock, bg3, last epoch ect ect showed me that gaming hasnt totally gone south
FOR DEMOCRACY, FOR KARL!
Best games I’ve bought at £35 he’ll let loose and he’ll divers 2 great value for money and hours of fun
my best story or moment from helldivers has got to be when I was doing a mission with my partner:
he was being pinned down by an annihilator tank and was about to be blown to bits, so I throw an absolute hail Mary and call in an orbital laser which proceeded to *melt* the tank where it sat
another point is, that AH(and Sony) put the marketing budget into game development and making it great, instead of ads.
Quick war story!
I was fighting bloody automatons on malevolent creek, got surrounded buy 6 or 7 god damn Hulk's called up right down down down on top of myself and I survived the explosion the robots did not.
Old thanks to the 50% chance of not dying due to my armour
P.T. By Drjones is out now! By far the best recreation demo that’s out rn!
Give gamers the ability to defend humanity in an ott side-eye dystopian setting. Pitch them collaboratively against overwhelming odds. Make in game collectibles shared. Give them emotes that promote positive interaction. That's it: we'll work and fight together as one because otherwise we die and we lose. And we don't like losing.
Spill oil.
It worked for 2 reasons. Arrowhead doesn't compromise the premise of the game. Arrowhead wants its dedicated fans to have fun, if it's not they hope you find a game that is fun, but back to reason 1, they won't compromise their game to try and make it fun for everyone.
Here is a cool story.
OF how me and my friend found out arc thrower can STAGGER Hulks AND KILL THEM.
friend brought arc thrower to clanker front thinking lets get some group kills and IN COMES a hulk and he shot it with the arc thrower and he found out ARC thrower can now stagger hulks and kill them after enough shots.
I’ll say if there was more enemy variety in Darktide I’d still be playing that but when Helldivers came out I haven’t felt like going back yet
Me and a buddy were fighting for the creek on a level 7 kill-all mission. It was just the two of us and we had quickly burned through our redeploy's. I was alone, dodging and weaving through the battlefield, taking pot shots at smaller enemies and throwing down sentries or bombs when possible. Eventually, 2 randoms joined in and instantly died as well. Some how, some way, I was able to rack enough kills to complete the mission and with having 0 stims and red health, dodge and weave my way across the map to evac. Was the coolest fuckin' moment ever. God I love democracy.
This is one of the funnest and most addicting games I’ve ever played.
you forgot that that you can earn the premium currency in the game itself without having to spend a single dime. I bought the Steeled Veteran pack just by unlocking the premium currency in the first warbond and earning the rest through finding it in "loot containers and doors" through the map and missions
not only that but the premium currency is well priced compared to nearly ANY OTHER game
Something I'd like to point out is that even the CEO seems like a chill guy
I don't remember the exact quote but he told someone on social media "what do you think will do best for my employees? That I breath down their necks or let them do their hard work on solving this situation?"
Honestly, it it very repetative. But it is just too much fun to resist playing.
all games are very repetative. i like how they give you new missions without telling you "there is a dlc coming" like yesterday with the new dfense mission or a few weeks ago with the bug mission for the bug spray towers
I’ve heard that Helldivers II has nine difficulty levels. People are going to tread out if it ever gets turned up to 11
Something happened today that in ANY other game context would have been infuriating, but for HD2 it was perfect. We were playing one of the new missions where you have to defend a base while nuclear missiles are being launched from said base. While defending the base, my character is hit by a tank and goes flying in the air like 300 yards. Miraculously, my character is somehow alive, but because he’s out of the mission zone, i hear over the radio that I am a “traitor to democracy” and start receiving artillery strikes and dies.
In any other game, I may have rage quit. But we were laughing so hard that in reality, it encapsulated everything I love about this game. 10/10 would fly 300 yards again
The Simple answer is the creators of hell divers 2 actually really enjoy their game and community and are having fun with it. AAA studios will never be able to have this same energy with their development models
I love twin-stick shooters and thought the original Helldivers was pretty special in a way that no other game was.
The success of the sequel is not luck IMO
Crazy when you make a game first and not a slop-checklist 2nd job.
“So far no content that’s included in the base game is out of reach, just playing the game and unlocking it naturally…” 🤔 Well said!
- sincerely, a helldiver still wondering if we will be able to unlock Stratagem Hero at some point.
I like to call it giving a sh#t. You can tell the difference when someone really cares in your food, your relationships, your govt, your video games, etc, etc.
Gotta put that love in.
I've not played the game yet but it's literally all I hear anyone ever talk about, so it must be good XD
Helldiver, the war needs YOU! Report to your hellpod asap when you get home! Do your duty for Super Earth!
It's fun. Plus, it's as challenging as you want to make it. Want to solo lower difficulty to kill some time? Go for it. Want to drop into a real helldive with a bunch of randoms and see if you can pull through? Have fun! As long as you're out there spreading Managed Democracy there's no "Right" way to play the game.
@@gregsteele806💪🦅
The low price of the cosmetic is also very good. How many time have I seen game with cosmetic being 5, 10 or 20$. Helldivers 2 have them for 1 to 4$. They also stick to some color palette, making a lot of things fit with other pieces that are not from the same set.
Couple other overlooked key points that I think makes this game successful. It’s not overly complicated, it’s a bit humorous and it’s obvious the developers actually care about the game and its community.
IGN France gave an indirect marketing boost. It has been a marketing success for both IGN and Arrowhead. You see a similar marketing boost with Stellar Blade. I predict that even more future games will try to generate outrage against them to market them.
For starters, Helldivers is actually live service with GMs and emergent storytelling, not just seasonal events and battle passes.
What put the hell divers over the top for me is having a live game master
It's funny that you mention the cheaper price as a major factor, since the other major game released this year was Palworld, also with a $30 price point. It's also worth noting that those games are also cheap to develop. Since games are always going to be hit or miss, it's important to keep development costs contained. The only studio I know of that can afford to spend infinite money on a game is RockStar, because they have infinite money from GTA online services. Practically everyone else has to manage costs to avoid risks. It's an idea that few studios seem to understand. Manage your costs, and keep your scale small enough that even a game that "doesn't meet expectations" will be enough to keep your doors open, rather than losing $50 million like WB Games just did.
As successful as Baldur’s Gate was, it could have easily completely destroyed their studio. Larian Studios massively scaled up their studio, so anything short of a runaway success would have meant closing their doors. That's not a sustainable business model for the industry, especially because chasing trends and trying to constantly create bigger and bigger successes has destroyed the studio culture of companies like Arkane Studios, which lost 80% of their original workforce while trying to make the disaster that was Redfall. They were forced by investors to chase trends rather than developing more immersive sims, which was the niche they were known for. Now, their studio is effectively dead in all but name, because none of the former employees wanted to work on Redfall, so they left. It happened with a dozen other studios before, with many examples being studios that were gobbled up by EA. Bioware is the most recent casualty that I personally cared about, but there are too many of these disasters to list.
Most of these problems are just bad leadership, because studio owners get too greedy. Bethesda, EA, WB Games, Ubisoft, and others are all run by money grubbing corporate types who only care about how to extract the maximum value from players, and we can tell. We've wised up to Tod's lies. Most of their releases in the last decade have been mediocre or downright failures. It's telling that Palworld and Helldivers 2 both have effective CEOs who told people to not buy their game due to known issues. I can't imagine any of the CEOs from other major gaming companies telling gamers to avoid buying their game if they don't want to deal with server issues or early access bugs. I'm reminded of how Dark Souls creator Miyazaki said "Our main idea is just to trust players". Games are a creative medium, and gamers can tell when something is a corporate cash grab, or when something is a work of passion. I think the next decade of gaming is going to be replacing the big corporate names with new studios run by effective leadership who care about actually making games, not stuffy corporate suits who want to charge you to reload your weapon. Players want to play interesting and fun games made by people who trust their players, not thinly disguised scams trying to milk them for all that they're worth.
A really important element missing from your break down is that *the game is actually fun* . They delivered a good game. If you don't do that, if you don't *focus* on that first, then nothing else will save you.
It's Warhammer except with the potential of being both universally liked and casually played.
Can you please make a video on drjones p.t. Demo? It’s the best remake on dreams to date
Very good breakdown, Arrowhead and Larian are giving good examples on how to make games that make us players fell we're getting the best out of our money's worth. It's better when the game gives you so much joy you actually WANT to spend more money on it instead of the grindy-pawally meta.
no flying bugs
release the shrieker
got rumored about gunship
flying bots next week
failed major order with bots
AT-AT walkers roam around difficulty 9
that is so true but if i should be completely honest ... the gigantic AT AT was a good thing XD
I´ve already met those AT-AT walkers on dif 7.
Which one is 7 again? We just tried extreme last night haven't met them myself yet
@@PsyTramper i did too it was my first time seeing them in action.. those walker are terrifying
This game reminds me a little bit of the Division actually.
Another foothold in the long climb to liberty!
When it comes to live-service, if the game cant be beaten 100% without real money I'll drop it as soon as I see that. Helldivers 2 lets you get everything. There's a grind involved, but at ~ 60 hours I was max level (50 at the time), and had about 80% of the ship upgraded. I was also able to farm up enough Super Credits to buy both premium warbonds, and have over 1000 left over for tomorrow (apr 11th).
A fun game that respects my time at reasonable price with a solid progression system and micro transactions that don’t feel predatory didn’t hurt.
Other game:
"HUGE UPDATE! WILL ADD XYZ ENEMIES WITH BLAH BLAH BLAH!"
Helldivers 2:
"Congratulation Helldiver! You wiped out the Automatons! Now they can't hurt democracy anymore!"
"Oh no! They are back!"
What they will actually learn: 4 people cooperative live-service games sell well
The key to game design, live service or otherwise, is to make it as fun as possible. AAA studios and publishers have mostly lost the plot on this very simple point. They mostly prioritize greed and political messaging over fun, and gamers are checking out more and more with each out of touch title they release.
Cheap, good graphics, FUN moments happening, GOOFY af, and it’s about the boys
The lesson: make a good earnest game and let developers make decisions that are best for the health of the game for the best chance of a successful game with a long tail
The lesson publishers will learn: we need to buy out arrowhead
Honestly I can generally say this is the best multiplayer online game I've ever bought especially at 30.00
The virtue of Democracy needs no explanation.
Who could've guessed that good games become successful games.
May liberty speed your step, Helldiver 💪🦅
Helldivers 2 makes me feel like i'm playing Team Fortress 2's Mann Vs Machine and i love it!