Arrowhead Game Studios, the developers of the newly-released “Helldivers,” are most famous for their 2011 indie game “Magicka.” A crazy multiplayer action game where players control wizards in a Medieval fantasy world, players use a complicated spell system to fight enemies in increasingly ludicrous scenarios (one of the DLC packs took the wizards to the Vietnam War). Everything about the game is hilarious, from the Swedish Chef-inspired voices, to the insane combat that often results in players killing each other on accident.
“Helldivers” (developed for PlayStation 4) is a game constructed in a similar vein, albeit one with an entirely different setting that makes the gameplay simpler but unfortunately loses a lot of the charm and hilarity that “Magicka” had.
The gameplay is where “Helldivers” really shines. Rather than a traditional linear mission structure, the game is organized around a galactic war that progresses in real time. As players complete missions in a sector, they gain points that go toward sector control. Once the sector is captured the players move on to the next one, slowly working their way toward the enemy home world. Enemies can counter attack as well, forcing the players to defend captured sectors.
There are three enemy factions to fight: the Bugs, Cyborgs and the Illuminates. Each race has its own unique units, strengths and weaknesses. In the face of these threats, the player takes the role of a Helldiver, an elite soldier tasked with defending Super Earth and spreading democracy (usually via copious amounts of explosions and bullets).
The game does a great job of making the player feel part of an ongoing war effort thanks to the appearance of other player ships in orbit around planets and a simple, but effective, galactic map.
The action is fairly simple in structure: a traditional top-down dual stick shooter with a neat twist. The player can call down stratagems via a series of directional inputs specific to each stratagem. Depending on the type of stratagems, they can provide a variety of bonuses. These can be anything from heavy weapons, to turrets, walkers or airstrikes.
The depth of the game comes from tailoring weapon, stratagem and perk loadouts for the specific mission at hand. Did the leader of your party decide to drop you right into a bug nest? Better grab an auto-shotgun and some heavy armor. Going to be fighting a bunch of armored enemies? Better drop the flamethrower and add a rocket launcher. This strategic depth is part of what makes “Helldivers” such an interesting game.
Once on the planet the players (there can be up to four in a party) are tasked with accomplishing a series of objectives. These objectives can be pretty varied in name, but almost always force the players to defend an area while a device sets up, destroy an enemy installation or find an object and bring it to a location. Once the objectives are complete, the Helldivers must hold off the enemy while they wait for a shuttle to come rescue them.
As a result, the game can become quite difficult very quickly and the higher levels will require coordination and preparation to complete successfully. The actual mechanics of playing Helldivers are clunky but adequate, and combat is fun.
Like its unofficial predecessor “Magicka,” “Helldivers” tries its hand in hilarity. The game takes liberal and unapologetic inspiration from the film “Starship Troopers.” The game itself is a similar tongue-in-cheek satire of a jingoistic government that tries to paint itself as the offended party when it begins an aggressive war and executes political dissenters. “Helldivers” doesn’t really explore these themes too deeply or take itself seriously, the over-the-top nature of the game and propaganda making it fairly silly.
While this joke is all well and good, it’s pretty much the only joke that “Helldivers” has. The laugh-out-loud hilarity of “Magicka” isn’t anywhere to be found. The game is more satire than out-right comedy. It would have been nice to see Arrowhead explore some other science fiction sources for their comedy and also to include more jokes, especially since their main joke is basically one that a well-known movie made 17 years ago.
Overall, “Helldivers” is an interesting game. The persistent nature of the war and challenge of the missions are excellent and entertaining. Playing the game is fun too; conquering planets with friends, or even perfect strangers, is a great experience.
A concern, however, is what the game will be like in the future. Since so much of the game is community-based, a lack of players will severely impact the experience. In addition, it’s unfortunate that the game’s humor is lacking and that the world established is not nearly as entertaining as “Magicka.”
Despite the potential multiplayer misgiving and disappointing comedy, the gameplay is solid and will more than make up for these faults.
