Helldivers II US sales went up yet again during its 3rd week in market. An honest-to-goodness inverse decay curve so far... : games

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago

I am unplugged from a lot of advertising, but this seems very much like a game that is spreading due to word of mouth/direct exposure rather than purely marketing driven. I know that I usually wait at least a year to pick up games, especially multiplayer games since I'm almost always playing those solo. Enough people I know actually got this one and praised it, though, leading me to break my habits and pick it up.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The game itself is mechanically good, but the important thing is that socially excellent. A fantastic game to have fun with friends. That gives it an evergreen nature

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Fun with what?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

How's the general community when playing with randos? I bounced off the first one because of toxicity.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Mostly fine. Some people will kill other players to take the samples they collect (in game credits for upgrades) which is just silly because all credits are shared by all players.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Pretty good. Just used common sense. When you join a group. Talk to them on your mic. See what kind of people they are. If they don't respond. Maybe move to another group

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Fun is the only metric that matters.

It's been running pretty much perfect the last week or so.

I bought it at launch and it wouldn't work at all so I refunded it. When the first major patch came out I have it a second shot. Very happy I did.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Still has pretty bad matchmaking, lobby joining, disconnection, and crashing issues, but the in game bugs are far fewer.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Ok? I'm sure all 700,000+ people playing are all having a bad time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I doubt they’re all having a bad time, but it’s certainly not “running perfect” and is still riddled with server issues and bugs, albeit not as bad at release.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The point is that it doesn't have to be perfect to have fun. Lots and lots of games are imperfect and still fun to play.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t say it needs to be perfect to have fun. You said it was running “pretty much perfect”, which it’s not. I’m just pointing out that it still has lots of technical issues because your comment claims it doesn’t. Some people might not want to buy the game until the technical issues are worked out and I wouldn’t want them to be mislead by your comment.

The game is very fun but a hard crash two seconds before you board an extraction shuttle after an intense 40 minute mission, or being stuck running the other half of your OP by yourself and failing because your team left and matchmaking some replacements is bugged is not fun. It’s perfectly understandable to want to wait until these issues are fixed before you spend $40 on something.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For me and all my friends "pretty much perfect" is how it's been. We've had no crashes, no matchmaking issue, etc. Sucks if that's not been the case for you.

FYI: I initially refunded the game because it didn't work at all for me (couldn't launch the game without crashing immediately).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah I call bullshit on that. These issues are still pervasive and will pop up at least once in any extended play session. This is true not just for me and my extended group of friends, but for any randoms I meet as well, across both PS5 and PC. You could certainly go several days without crashes as those are becoming less frequent, however matchmaking is still very bugged. If you booted up the game right now and attempted to join lobbies without using quick play, you’ll immediately notice that you’ll fail to join most of them. If you play one mission in an operation, and your teammates leave or disconnect, there’s a 50/50 chance that the matchmaking will allow anyone to join your game unless a friend specifically joins on you. If this happens you have to abandon the operation entirely to get matchmaking to work again. This limits the amount of medals you can earn and also disrupts planet liberation and defense. SOS beacons are still entirely non-functional. People are still spawning onto other players ships and getting stuck behind the freezer pod wall.

I’m a huge fan of the game and the devs are working hard to fix things but let’s not be disingenuous here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Like I said I've not experienced any of that over the last week or so. Can you understand that not everyone is having these issues?

Back to my original statement. Fun is the only metric that matters. If you're not having fun, don't play the game.

If it's buggy and not working, you refund it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I’m positive you have experienced it, you’re just not being honest, either with me or with yourself. “Everyone” is in fact having these issues because it’s a multiplayer only game. We’re all running the same version of the game on our platforms, and connecting to the same set of servers. Maybe in the last week you’ve had a full squad of friends so you haven’t had to match make, or you’re all running the PC version with a hardware configuration that’s compensating for whatever is causing the crashes for PS5 players and other PC players, so devil’s advocate a subset of these issues maybe simply haven’t applied to you in the last week, but the idea that you and your select group of friends are being uniquely spared from this otherwise universal experience is… just not possible. Thats just not how any of this works.

And if you bought the game on PS5 and it’s buggy, you can’t refund it at all. If you bought it on Steam, you can’t refund it after 2 hours. People deserve to know what they’re getting themselves into before they drop $40 they can’t get back.

EDIT: Here is a link to a thread on Arrowhead Studios support site that is up to date as of 1 hour ago that confirms all the issues I’ve listed and more are still present in the game and have not yet been fixed. This confirms that POST patch, the crash rate after matchmaking is as high as 30%. That’s one in three games. That is a huge failure rate that is well beyond “running perfectly”, and its server side so it affects all players regardless of platform.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Dude I literally said I refunded the game because it didn't work at all until 2 patches in for me... But do go on lol.

I could literally post you a link to a thread of problems for any game or piece of software made.

Can you comprehend my experience is different than yours? I've played the game with 0 issue over the last week or so for about 3 hours each day. I haven't crashed, not been able to join a friend or some random, or anything like that. That's been MY experience. Maybe I'm lucky and should buy some lottery tickets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Can I comprehend that you are somehow not subject to server issues when connecting to servers that have issues? Issues confirmed by all the players playing on those servers, as well as the company running them? No, that is the definition of incomprehensible. If I asked you to “comprehend” that birds are fake and the earth was flat, would you be able to “comprehend” that?

You could post a link to a developer thread of acknowledged problems for a different game with problems, but if you tried to claim that game was also running perfectly with no problems, you would be wrong in that case as well. Maybe you should reach out to Arrowhead studios and let them know the problems they’ve acknowledged and have a plan for fixing in fact don’t exist, and they can just take the rest of the year off.

Are you just lucky? Well if you and your friends all got early access to a different build of the game than every other player, and were given access to a secret set of servers without issues then I’d say you’re pretty lucky. If that isn’t the case though, I’d say this is less like you winning the lottery, more like you trying to redeem a lottery ticket with different numbers than the winning numbers, but just continuously insisting that they are the winning numbers. You can insist until you’re blue in the face, but that doesn’t change the set of numbers on your ticket.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So all 300,000 people playing the game on Steam (and however many on PS5) aren't actually playing the game right now? TF you on about?

I'm not sure if you're having a hard time parsing information or are just being obtuse on purpose. Either way this is gonna be my last response to you since you're trying my patience as you're extrapolating things I've said to try and paint a picture I've never tried to paint or attempting to broadly state something as fact that isn't.

That thread you linked to was created on Feb 12. Back then servers were indeed having severe problems. Most of those problems have been solved? Yes. Are people still having issues? Also yes. Have I had any issues playing the last week or so. No. Anytime I've wanted to play I boot up the game and play with friends (mostly) and occasionally I use the quick play function without issue. I just tried it right now and it worked.

I would say the majority of people (>70%) are in the same boat. That still leaves a healthy chunk of people who are having problems. Sucks for them/you I guess.

You know how else I know the game is functioning well for most people? The 82% score on Steam that was closer to 60% when shit was really hitting the fan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

So all 300,000 people playing the game on Steam aren't actually playing the game right now?

Who said no one’s playing the game? I sure didn’t.

That thread you linked to was created on Feb 12. Back then servers were indeed having severe problems. Most of those problems have been solved?

Incorrect. You’ve misinterpreted that as an old forum post, which it is not. That is an as of today up to date page in their Zendesk detailing currently known issues they’re working on fixing. If they were solved, you wouldn’t be seeing them on that page. Every problem you see on that page still exists and affects all players equally, except as noted with platform specific patches.

I would say the majority of people (>70%) are in the same boat. That still leaves a healthy chunk of people who are having problems. Sucks for them/you I guess.

Not how it works. Half the issues listed are server side. There is no way for some players to have issues and others not, because there’s no distinction between my game and your game to their matchmaking.

You know how else I know the game is functioning well for most people? The 82% score on Steam that was closer to 60% when shit was really hitting the fan.

That doesn’t tell you that at all. At best that just goes to show that the game is functioning better now than it was at launch, which it is. It’s at least playable now. But playable =! “Running perfectly”

It would definitely be for the best if you stopped replying. Because I don’t really give a shit that you don’t know what you don’t know. All that matters is that prospective buyers aren’t mislead by your objectively and provably false claims.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I bought it after waiting for the server issues to resolve.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Too bad about the invasive anti-cheat. Sounds like a fun game otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

If you play on linux then you don't have to deal with kernel anticheat. But it might also not work in the future, but right now it's gold on protondb.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I personally know nothing about it, I just see more and more people on my friends list playing it. What kind of game is it, is actually that good, how much is it?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's a third person 4 person squad based shooter wherein you're dropped onto randomly generated maps and must complete a main objective, with random secondaries and extra collectibles placed around.

You can bring a limited load out of "stratagems" that you can call down during the mission, which can be anything from dropping explosive ordinance to dropping secondary weapons or defensive turrets.

You complete the missions to gain experience and different currencies used to unlock more stratagems and equipment, with more options unlocking as you hit certain level thresholds.

The shooting model is interesting in which projectiles are aimed based off where the actual gun of your character model is pointing, so where the game is fun and chaotic at easier difficulty levels, precision, strategy, and loadout choice become increasingly important as you go higher in difficulty levels, giving it a range from "blow a bunch of shit up with your buddies" to "complete objectives and extract by the skin of your teeth through extremely tight and considered tactical play".

Friendly fire is a huge deal in this game, you can crush yourself or friends with drops, easily accidentally kill each other with your guns or with turrets trying to shoot past you at enemies, it can be hilarious, but also puts major importance on lines of sight and caution.

You can unlock certain loadout options through a sort of battle pass in which you spend points acquired in gameplay to unlock equipment in tiers, with the next tier becoming available after spending a certain amount in the overall pass. $40 USD for base game, another $20 for a second battle pass track that has alternate loadout options. Most of the really good unlocks are in the free pass, though, and after about 45 hours I've earned enough currency through gameplay to unlock the premium pass without paying real money.

That being said, that only unlocks the pass, unlocking the equipment within it requires in-game currency, so I wouldn't say it's pay to win since you still have to put in the legwork yourself, and getting the pass without paying extra is more than doable, compared to the first game which had a ton of DLC that could only be bought and instantly unlocked.

Personally, I really enjoy it, the game looks great, plays great, it can be as infuriatingly difficult as you make it through difficulty choice, but it's a great time with some friends, or even with randoms.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

The super credits used to unlock the second battle pass can also be found in game in a relatively healthy amount (including in the first battle pass), making unlocking that second battle pass very possible without spending real currency.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sounds similar to Warframe, thoughts?

Also, is there any singleplayer ability?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

It's not nearly as fast-paced or mobile as Warframe, and Helldivers is much more about the chaos you cause with your buddies than grinding for gear and materials. You don't have to worry about mods or damage types (dealing with armored enemies and fortifications is the most you'll have to worry about), just shoot bugs/Terminators and call in an airstrike or orbital bombardment on anything guns won't kill. I'd say it's closer to Left4Dead than anything else.

You can drop by yourself if you want, but it is an always-online, live-service game, and the focus is on co-op.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Ah, alright, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (3 children)

You deploy in a team up to four people, kill some bugs/robots, complete some objectives, and then exfil.

It's third person, but clicking right joystick gives you ADS and the game never mentions it.

Bought it on a whim and played a couple games. Not too hard to figure out, there's just zero instructions on how to complete objectives.

What makes it different is everyone plays the same objectives like "defend this planet" and people have to participate or the planet is lost.

Not the best game ever, but for $30 it's cool enough.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, my friend group found the kb/m control was RMB and MMB together for ADS.

Interestingly the controls and control type (Tap/Hold/Press/Release) are very customizable which is another awesome thing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

You can change a setting so that tapping RMB is ADS and holding RMB is the standard aiming.

You can even have it remember the type of RMB you want to use per weapon .

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

It does have really excellent rebinding options. It even has a setting to remember whether you were in first or third person last on a per weapon basis

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Hate to nitpick, but isn’t it 40 bucks?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Sales come and go.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

It took me forever to finally salute the flag in training. Not sure why that was so hard to trigger. The instructions were told once his to do it and I accidentally clicked though it so fast I missed it. Took me 10 minutes of walking around trying to salute.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's fun, but extremely raw right now. Lots of balance issues, random disconnection issues, game stability issues, occasional game breaking bugs. More fun with friends than solo or randoms. Wait for a sale, though if $40 is nothing to you, then I guess go for it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

What balance issues are there? I want to play with some friends but they have a habit of metagaming and killing the joy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Man, I love the singleminded drones downvoting me just because I didn't say this game is perfect. I still like this game a lot, I'm just saying it's got flaws right now.

-There are a lot of fun primary, secondary and support (big guns) weapons to use. The gun play is very fun. Cool weapon models, cool weapon SFX, cool VFX. Unfortunately, only the automatic shotgun and arguably the incendiary shotgun or SMG are viable at any difficulty past the beginner stuff since the ones I mentioned are the only ones with enough DPS and/or ammo reserves to be useful at that level.

-Support weapons are the big guns. All of them very cool. Unfortunately, at difficulty 5 and higher, your team encounters multiple enemies during each swarm wave with heavy armor - heavy armor that is untouchable except to a scant few weapons that can pierce that armor. GG no re if your team doesn't have a competent person bringing one of these. At the moment, the meta is just use a railgun for everything, not because it is overpowered, but because it is the only weapon that isn't severely undertuned.

-General difficulty balance: OK, so the game sells you this idea of being a badass space soldier who gets to slaughter hordes of bugs or robots, right? But at higher difficulties, the meta shifts from being DOOM guy lite into being scared little babies who need to stealth past all the enemies on each map in order to succeed.

There's more I could nitpick but those are the big balance issues imo. Like I said, very fun, but expect to be frustrated by bugs and balance issues the more you play.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

DoctorButt, you are saying an excellent game isn’t worth $40. If Helldivers 2 to is not worth $40 I don’t know what games are worth that. Despite some bugs this game still provide excellent entertainment and lots of fun with friends. And that’s what you are paying for. And you don’t need railguns.

However the game is needlessly difficult right now because all the enemies have 100 percent armour penetration and they are basically useless. This will probably be fixed in the next patch. It doesn’t mean it’s not worth the price.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Railgun is the best support weapon by a wide margin and many orbital strikes are just bait. Many of the primary weapons are mediocre and the secondary weapons there's basically only 1 good one.

That's said I played a lot of Helldivers 1 and trust that balance and new progression will come.

... I've already hit level cap in-game and am almost fully capped on all the samples.

Playing with friends is great imo. If they meta game I suggest just really leaning into a chaotic roleplay.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If you don’t use the Breaker shotgun and the Railgun support weapon, you’re effectively handicapping yourself. Thats the main issue.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

The unlockable SMG works just as good as the Breaker IMHO. Railgun is a must-have though. Enemy armor needs a total rework.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

I'm doing my part! I'm not normally into this type of game but I'm here for the propaganda!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Well deserved. Awesome game.

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