Helldivers 2 Developers Broke Their Word? Escalation of Freedom Changes Led to Review Bombing
The new Helldivers 2 update has drawn crowds to the game. Only that with pitchforks and nerfed flamethrowers.
More than 24 hours have passed since the release of Escalation of Freedom. Helldivers 2 players enthusiastically dove into the fun following the release of the game's largest update in history.
After releasing version 01.001.002, the game almost managed to double the number of players from the past few weeks. Over 62,000 Steam users were simultaneously playing Helldivers at its peak.
However, we cannot talk about the complete success of Escalation of Freedom. After the update, Helldivers 2 received more than a thousand negative reviews and only 600 positive ones on Steam. After the "biggest update" in the game's history, we might actually expect the opposite trend.
Flamethrowers and a broken promise
At least one of the reasons for complaints will not surprise anyone who has been following the development of Helldivers 2: the weapons nerfs. The patch also buffed a few toys, but players primarily noticed the nerfs. Mainly because in May, Johan Pilestedt promised that the Arrowhead team would take fan criticism to heart and limit nerfs to weapons that dominate the HD 2 metagame.
Some people pointed out that the SG-225ZP shotgun (Breaker Incendiary) deserved a nerf and is still a very good choice in the fight against enemies of Democracy. However, a glance at social media posts clearly shows what most players think about the recent weapon balance changes.
Interestingly, more than the weakening of individual guns, the change related to fire was the most annoying. Well, the flames behave more realistically and "no longer pass through certain bodies and objects, such as armor and static items." In practice, this means that flamethrowers are no longer effective against Chargers.
This change is even more strange because tomorrow Helldivers 2 will receive Warbond called (Freedom's Flame), as the name suggests, focusing on flamethrowers. Players ask with anger and disbelief: who will now want to buy new weapons since Arrowhead Game Studios has effectively weakened them even before the premiere of the warbond?
Some Internet users also emphasize that if the devs have already introduced such a change, it should also apply to enemy units.
Pilestedt on vacation
The players weren't cheered up by the news that the MLS-4X Commando missiles weren't meant to be capable of destroying Automaton's buildings. The team knew that the community had clearly taken a liking to this "bug" and as a result, the devs wanted to spend more time considering how to address this "issue." However, fans are concerned that the developers may once again "ruin" the fun.
The players' reaction may be exaggerated, but it's also understandable. Another matter is that Johan Pilestedt is currently "on vacation" and thus didn't supervise the release of Escalation of Freedom (via Shams Jorjani on X service/Reddit). Not that it would be of great consolation for the players.
New toy disappointed the players
Anti-tank mines MD-17 could slightly improve the mood. The players tried to get them since April 26, but something always stood in their way. It's enough to say that Arrowhead studio ultimately somewhat forced players to collect this weapon.
Unfortunately, after such a long wait, anti-tank mines disappointed the players. Mainly because, as the author of a popular Reddit thread put it, they are "just as worthless as we all expected."
Their lack of effectiveness can be attributed to two problems: minimal damage from individual mines and chain reactions. The latter could, in theory, be an advantage... if it weren't for the fact that the explosion can be forced even by rank-and-file enemies of Super Earth. Or the player's corpse (not to mention the players themselves).
Fans point out that real anti-tank mines are designed to react only to heavier vehicles. Since the explosion can be caused even by light units of Terminids or Automatons, then - as the Internet user argues - the mines introduced by Arrowhead Game Studios cannot be called "anti-tank."
Optimization officially broken
This, however, isn't everything. Some of the negative reviews are said to be the result of players exhausting their patience when it comes to errors (via Reddit). As is often the case with modern games, the patch added a handful of new glitches, but fans are focusing on older bugs (no, not Terminids).
Internet users draw attention to various problems - from those related to network code (including cross-platform play) to optimization. This last one is also mentioned in the context of the official change list for the Escalation of Freedom. The "patch notes" for version 01.001.002 mention that on the new, extremely difficult 10th level, there may be performance issues at the mission level. Without delving into details: the players aren't thrilled about this and are questioning the purpose of introducing this new feature in this situation.
Players also recognize the positives, especially the new content (including mobs). Nevertheless, even by the standards of a loud (and usually negative) minority, criticism of HD 2 is widespread. Some fans half-jokingly, half-seriously blame the "nerfs" on Chargers. One Internet user even highlighted an issue with this Terminid in comparison to similar formidable foes from other games.
Of course, as always, players react with memes.
The CEO of Arrowhead also doesn't like nerfs
The developer paid attention to the players' complaints. Sharm Jorjani, CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios, assured on X that he is familiar with the opinions about Escalation of Freedom. Apparently he also agrees with some of the complaints. He also addressed the criticism of yesterday's premiere broadcast, confirming that only two people on the stream were AHG employees (the rest were Sony representatives; via Discord).
The team will reconsider this decision, even though the dev justified the weakening of SG-225ZP, which is probably the least controversial change. He also admitted that the team has a problem with assessing the update because apart from complaints about balance (it's not known whether they are completely justified), optimization, and flamethrowers, it is difficult for the team to find any other comments that could help fix HD 2.
Of course, as usual, players' reactions to problems can be somewhat exaggerated. However, this doesn't change the fact that Escalation of Freedom greatly disappointed fans of Helldivers 2.
