The life of a live service game is punctuated by damage control – and Helldivers 2 has been no stranger to controversy since it exploded in 2024.
The co-op shooter famously came under fire when Sony attempted to force PSN connectivity on the PC release, but there’s been no shortage of balance related mishaps along the way.
Now dev Arrowhead finds itself fighting fires yet again, as the game’s community has turned on the title, renaming it ‘Nerfdivers’.
On PC storefront Steam, just 37% of the game’s user reviews submitted over the past 30 days have been positive, giving it a ‘Mostly Negative’ standing right now.
The criticisms are many, but we’ll attempt to summarise as succinctly as possible below:
- Game balance has become a big concern for many players, with some arguing enemies have been needlessly buffed and weapons not effectively tuned.
- There have been calls for players to boycott the latest War Bond, Exo Experts, because it locks a new vehicle stratagem behind a paywall.
- Communication from the Swedish studio has been strongly criticised, with a recent Reddit AMA fronted by Johan Pilestedt proving a particular turning point for the community, as it failed to effectively address players’ concerns.
Arrowhead, no longer a live service newbie, has released an apologetic blog post on Steam in response, which attempts to address many of the concerns.
In it, it promises to be more communicative moving forward and improve its transparency when it comes to balance updates.
It also says it’s working to improve the game’s Galactic War meta-game, increase public beta testing opportunities, and provide more exosuit stratagems outside of War Bonds.
It says:
“Helldivers 2 matters to all of us, and we want to be clearer about what we’re working on and what’s coming next. Alongside new content, we’re focused on improving the core of the game – stability, progression, and the Galactic War.”
But despite the blog post, not everyone’s impressed.
“Stop ruining the game,” one fan says. “Stop with the balancing updates. It’s a co-op game in a PvE environment. Why do things need to be nerfed/buffed like it’s some sort of a PvP game where balance actually matters there?”
Another adds: “Your game hits Mostly Negative recent reviews and you decide to drop this as some sort of damage control. It’s clearly not working. Shame what’s happened to this game.”
It seems like it’s going to take a lot of work to turn this ship around, but we wouldn’t rule out a big change in perception if the game’s planned summer updates deliver.
