Helldivers 2 Will Face Major Changes in the Next 60 Days. Devs Want to Improve Contact With Players
The developers of Helldivers 2 addressed the recent controversy and outlined an action plan for the next 60 days.
Helldivers 2 hasn't been having a good run lately - after releasing a large update Escalation of Freedom, the developers received backlash from the community, which once again started to give the game negative reviews on Steam. As a result, the CEO of Arrowhead studio spoke out on the matter, and now the game's director, Mikael Eriksson, has also spoken out.
Helldivers 2 in the next 60 days
He admitted in an announcement that the developers failed to meet the expectations of fans. The strong criticism gave them a lot to think about in terms of further development, which in turn led to specific details that Eriksson shared with us.
We've learned the objectives that Arrowhead Game Studios aims to accomplish within the next 60 days. Some can be found below, and the rest are in a message directly from the director.
- More changes are expected for the game balance. The developers' intention is for it to be "cool," not "balanced" just for the sake of balance.
- The mechanics of dealing fire damage will receive an update. The flamethrower is to serve as close-range support.
- The game's performance will be improved (especially the number of frames per second).
Furthermore, Eriksson listed several things the studio wants to implement to improve the connection with fans and fix bugs before the next major updates.
- Consideration is being given to creating a beta testing space with the option to sign up for it, enabling developers to enhance the process of checking changes and innovations. This element has a high priority for them.
- Surveys will be regularly published for players to gather more information and opinions from them.
- We can expect a larger number of blog posts and streams, in which all ambiguities are to be explained.
It's worth noting that the idea of creating test servers was previously mentioned by Shams Jorjani, head of Arrowhead Game Studios. We also received a form in which we could express our opinion about the recent changes.
Patch 01.001.003
Even before the publication of the discussed announcement, a small patch 01.001.003 to Helldivers 2 was released. It fixed several errors, including a crash that prevents smooth weapon selection on the ship and one that makes flamethrowers ineffective against energy shields. Moreover, the devs have reported known issues that they will try to resolve in the upcoming updates.