Helldivers 2 has been, over the course of its turbulent lifespan, criticised for a few issues—firstly, its closely armoured enemies take just a little too lengthy to homicide, and are downright not possible to kill with out particular tools. Secondly, at any time when anybody’s having a bit an excessive amount of enjoyable, the weapon in query appears to get nerfed.
Arrowhead Video games’ CCO—previously CEO—Johan Pilestedt took to Discord to speak just a little in regards to the design philosophies fuelling an upcoming patch, which is coming to the horde shooter September 17.
Stated replace guarantees to handle a number of main bugbears, akin to restoring the flamethrower to its former glory.Furthermore, it’s going to be aiming to make Helldivers 2 extra ‘hoo’-rah, much less ‘getting ragdolled by a dozen chargers since you had the gall to die proper after calling down the weapon you wanted to kill them with’-rah. Which is nice, as a result of that latter possibility’s a mouthful.
“The replace that we’re launching now could be a a lot bigger holistic take to realign the gameplay,” Pilestedt writes. “The rationale why so a lot of you discovered pleasure in some instruments such because the flamethrower, railgun, [and] Eruptor, [we] realised, is as a result of they may take care of closely armored enemies rather more successfully than they have been presupposed to … the modifications we would have liked to make have been a bit bigger than simply getting the flamethrower again to the place it was; But additionally getting different weapons as much as the extent that the place you (and I) really feel all of them ought to’ve been from the beginning.”
Primarily, the best way Pilestedt lays it out, Helldivers 2 has a difficulty the place specialised instruments aren’t simply good at what they do, however obligatory to do it within the first place—with each different weapon being pea-shooters by comparability. As an alternative, Arrowhead needs to make weapons broadly simpler whereas additionally making specialised anti-tank weapons just like the Spear stronger towards their supposed foes.
A great instance of this dropped immediately on the game’s Twitter, truly—the railgun goes to get a beefy improve, quadrupling its general “sturdy” harm, in addition to giving it a 150% harm increase at a full cost (up from a mere 50%).
The Railgun’s harm will get a lift too! Sturdy harm will likely be elevated from 60 to 225 and absolutely overcharging harm will likely be elevated from 150% to 250%. #BuffDivers pic.twitter.com/i3OjNREro3September 11, 2024
“There may be nonetheless a possible to excel through the use of the correct instruments, like Spear and RL towards [Bile Titans]—however you would, in idea, defeat [Bile Titans] with a 4 stack of flamethrower mad-men,” Pilested writes in a reply to 1 participant.
As if there was ever any doubt, when a participant asks how the extra specialised weapons just like the Recoilless Rifle will likely be dealt with in a brand new, extra versatile world, the CCO responds they’re going to be “mainly, [a] ‘delete’ key.” I just like the sound of that.
All in all, if this patch delivers on its guarantees, it looks like Arrowhead may have handled most of its participant base’s continued frustrations with its stability updates—a shift away from conservative number-fiddling and as a substitute permitting its enjoyable choices to be, nicely, enjoyable and efficient at shelling out liberty.
