Sly Reflex Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Helldivers 2. I've put a bit of time into it now. Here's what I think. It's almost all good. Movement and shooting feel great. Shooting has a mechanic I've never seen before where you have a reticule that is fixed where you aim, and one that moves around it depending on how much you are being rocked. If you are springing about the actual aim goes all over the shop, but if you take a knee and control your bursts it stays accurate. It feels really good for the most and makes you really think about your positioning and shooting, especially when the terrain dictates how you must commit or respond to a conflict. The fights are mostly regimented even with randoms, with people cycling in and out as fights bubble over the map and keeping some sort of structure. When it gets really mad and people start scattering it becomes a bit of a mess, but that's part of the charm in that sometimes you're going to be pressed. I've had games where I have seen people be bait for the entire run, and then I've had dives where it was me that was basically being the lightning conductor that everyone thanks for keeping the attention of the more dangerous mobs that require flanking and precise fire to kill. Only 2 factions in this game at launch. Robot and bugs. The way you fight either faction is very different, I feel like the bugs are more a case of zerging the best they can and just absorbing lots of gunfire, whereas the robots it becomes a bit more tactical. Not that they take over or anything like that, it's more a case of them shooting back and having more offence compared to the bugs defence. They have defence as well, but generally it's just a well placed shot that takes them down. The map from the previous game makes a return, but I think it's altered somewhat to before. For the uninitiated, it's a big circle broken up into tetrominoes. Super earth is in the middle and the factions are on the outside, you fight them towards the outside of the circle, conquer their world and that takes them out of the game until the war is over. If any faction makes it to the middle of the circle, it's a collective game over for everyone. I think they have altered how this works in some manner, because previously although it was tetrominoes you had a linear progression between the middle point and the far edge. Now it looks like any adjacent tile can be invaded so theoretically even though you only have 2 enemies, they can approach Super Earth from any angle. I might be wrong there, but this is how I am reading it. The only other explanation I have is that Arrowhead plan to put 2 more factions in the game so you are fighting on 4 fronts. That's just speculation on my behalf. Other changes you might want to know about. A lot of the strategems are now infinite and just have timers on them. If you played the previous game you would know that if you called a heavy weapon down and you lost it, that was it. Now it's very much a case of just wait for your timer to run down and call another in. In fact sometimes this is preferable if you are running low on ammo. Some strategems have had a rework. The ammo one now has a global cool down and has 4 ammo slots in it. For me this is a mixed bag. Some people are awful at just calling them in the wildest of places. And then you are fucked because your ammo is miles away because the one person that refused to come with the group has all the ammo and you have to wait it out. Or you have people chucking them into areas that are too hot to get ammo. It's just the usual 3head and selfish plays you can come to expect. Same with people walking under air strikes, or throwing air strikes on places you need to traverse though. It's not always like that, everyone is different. Some teams are well oiled and consistent, some are dog shit and couldn't give a fuck if you kill all 3 team mates as long as it means they have full ammo and kill that one bug. Reinforcement has also taken an overhaul. Gone are the infinite call ins, now you have 10 drops for one player with an extra 5 added on for each extra player. You can bolster this with some loadout stuff, but once those lives are out, that's it. Unlike Helldivers 1, if all players die, it will drop all players back into the field if you have the lives to do so. Unlocks are done via a few methods. Gone are the unlocks for beating certain missions, now everything relies on samples, credits, medals and the games premium currency super credits. There's a season pass that's not really a season pass, but it is a season pass that has loads of different weapons and stuff you can unlock, as well as armours and other gubbins. This uses medals which are earned through play. The paid season pass I think can be bought for super credits you find or unlock through the normal battlepass and has all the things you would expect in it, flashier customisation and some weapons that are similar to the free ones you unlock, but not really? For instance I got an explosive assault rifle from a dead body and although the bullets exploded, it was way slower on the fire rate. I sort of preferred the vanilla one if I am being honest. Speaking of weapons and different stats, you can hold reload and alter the fire rate and magnification. If you do intent to play this, or already have it, you can also look down your gun in first person if you aim and then press middle mouse button. I assume that will be a stick click on controller. Helps for those extra long distance firefights. The other currencies can be found all over. There's credits that can be gotten that allow you to buy more strategems. The other thing you can collect are samples with allow you to make the ship that is dropping said drops more efficient. Mostly the perks are just stuff like they have a smaller call down time, or a quicker cool down. Some are more specialised like making the centre of explosions larger for more destructive possibilities. I feel like the asking price for these is a bit of a piss take actually, and also I have a sneaking suspension that the difficulty wall I mentioned at the start has migrated here, as there's different rarities of sample and I am suspecting it may be a case of the rarer ones showing in harder missions. Bad points then. The servers are pretty fucked at the time of writing this. I just played an hour before writing this and had a few disconnected games. Once I got in it was all fine, but those frustrating moments looking for a match only for it to lag out. The only other really bad thing I can point out is it makes my PC sweat like crazy. Even RDR2 on ultra isn't putting my hardware under this much pressure. Some optimisation would be nice. It is a very pretty game and there's quite a bit of destruction going on in it, nothing that will blow you away, but yeah, it all has to be accounted for performance wise. It does look very pretty though, I'll give it that. Will Helldivers 2 have the legs to carry on being the game that I hope it will be? I'm not sure right now. I think it has more mass market appeal than a lot of other 4 player co-op shooters, but I think that it depends on Arrowhead being compliant with listening to what works and what doesn't in regards of the game and adjusting accordingly. We're still heavily in the honeymoon period right now, and I am thinking that it could be a long running thing, but the ball really is in their court and they could smash it or they could fumble it really hard depending on what happens. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 For me, the current barrier is the servers being buggered. Once they get them sorted out, it’ll be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 I’ve played a few sessions with this last night. Bloody hell, this is fun. Highlights thus far have included: -Immediately getting killed by friendly fire in my first game. Start as you mean to go on. -Do a bug/alien mission which gave proper experience of what being in Starship Troopers would be like. Only without the shower scene. -The announcer bloke sounding pretty much like Zapp Brannigan from Futurama. Works for me. -The always typical “Dickhead who leaves his mic on all the match, listening to shite music while his kids scream in the background”. Thank fuck for the mute button. -Learning the hard way that if the escape shuttle lands on you, that’s you killed. Whoopsadaisy. -Total carnage filled fire fights, working together with randoms, trying to pull a win out against impossible odds. -Leaving my only squad mate behind in the escape shuttle, because he decided to charge into battle just as the shuttle landed. In my defence, I’ll use an old Homer Simpson quote, “It’s funny, cos I don’t know him”. Made for an awkward results screen. But hey ho. So yeah. This is really, really fun so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 I'm sort of surprised there's not been more people biting for this. It's been nothing short of excellent all the times I've played outside of that first day. It can get a bit difficult though. I am hoping some of the later weapon unlocks make some of the bigger paints in the arse a bit easier to deal with, especially when you can have 4 or 5 of them running around and being menaces to the overall spread of managed democracy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 The explosions look incredible! Lots of good hype and Starship Troopers is one of my favourite films of all time. But im just not a MP gamer at all anymore so would be wasted on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 1 hour ago, mfnick said: But im just not a MP gamer at all anymore so would be wasted on me. That's pretty much why I haven't bitten... it almost comes across as a GaaS style game and I don't have the time for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Sort of pinching from a headline I saw somewhere, but GaaS game is not inherently bad. It’s just really hard to make and support so most of them fall in to treadmill grinds and Skinner box stuff. I actually don’t know about this game or how it works, but all I see is positivity despite it being GaaS. It’s already cheap on PC. Unless something else happens this will be my next game after Persona EDIT: I think it looks super cool @Sly Reflex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 There’s apparently a double XP weekend going on, to make up for the launch being a bit unstable. Shall definitely be getting some games in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 They keep adding servers but it's never enough. When America gets online the game shits the bed. It's never enough. Tends to be about 1am my time before you notice stuff not sticking, but yeah. Less than stellar for the brothers and sisters across the sea in the land of private healthcare and school shootings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 I spent 20 minutes at lunch time trying to get into a game, it was literally impossible. Doh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 1 hour ago, AndyKurosaki said: I spent 20 minutes at lunch time trying to get into a game, it was literally impossible. Doh. If you can see people on your friends list playing, join them through the dashboard. You might get hung on a black screen for a bit, but eventually it takes you into the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Yeah i don’t have anyone on my friend list playing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Wanted to play this tonight. Can’t get past the title screen at all, as “servers are full”. As fun as this game is, and it undoubtedly is, it sucks balls they don’t have the servers to manage it. Even more so, when this weekend is supposedly double XP. Come on Arrowhead. Get buying more servers lads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 You wouldn't get these issues with Microsoft...🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 I’ve seen people saying “Get it on Xbox”. To that I say “Fuck off, wait your turn. We can’t even bloody play it yet” 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Anybody used this site before? CDkeys gone up to £30 now 😞 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 This is still utterly unplayable, due to the servers being full. And it’s extremely frustrating, because it’s legitimately brilliant. They’re apparently working on a fix to kick people off the servers that aren’t actually playing it, they’re staying logged in permanently. Hopefully, they do. Fuck off, you selfish bastards. We all want to play this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 It's skewed a lot to steam players as well. I've stopped trying, each time I get a posse to go on there's no space to get on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I’ve tried Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday, at various times in the day. I don’t even get past the title screen. It’s “servers are at full capacity, try again later”. It’s such bollocks. I won’t be trying again, until they get their shit together. I’ve seen people on Twitter suggesting the game be taken off sale, digitally. And I think they have a point. Because all these YouTube videos of the frankly awesome gameplay, is making more people buy the game, which is fucking the servers even more. This has to be the worst launch I’ve seen in years. Diablo 4 was bad for queue times. But this is bloody ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Endwalker had this problem. The issue being that they couldn't just buy more servers and load balance that way cause it was judged to be a spike of activity that wouldn't last more than a few weeks. Also doesn't this have crossplay, wouldn't make a difference what platform you play it on then edit nope it only has crossplay between PS and PC.. which surely makes the MS one a worse choice then cause its pop will dwindle later on edit 2 wait no it's not even on xbox, am confused Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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