Helldivers 2 Review: Democracy Done Right

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It was just the two of us, strangers on a crimson wasteland of an alien planet, surrounded by swarming giant bugs whose only purpose was to rip us to shreds. We'd cleared out the oozing nests, successfully launched the ICBM, and reached our extraction zone to get the hell out. But as we waited for our transport, the bugs overwhelmed us. The auto turret we'd put down was destroyed, I was out of clips for my heavy machine gun, no grenades. We were running around, shooting at the ocean of insects at our heels, counting down seconds when our aircraft arrived. Just as we beelined towards the rear doors, my squad mate called in an orbital strike on the area. We stood at the gates, unloaded our guns one last time on bugs right in front of us, and watched a glorious missile strike obliterate everything in sight before we flew off planet.

Helldivers 2, the cooperative online third-person shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios, is packed with moments like these, where epic things happen not by inherent design, but by player choice. My squad mate was a random player I matched with online, and we barely exchanged any words as we helldived for two hours straight, spreading democracy on untamed planets crawling with hungry bugs and killer robots. That kind of organic interaction online is increasingly rare in games today. There is an abundance of online shooters and co-op experiences out there, but very few of them unite players in a common cause quite like Helldivers 2 does. And fewer have the confidence in their gameplay systems to allow players to create their own fun, rather than constantly throwing things at them to do in case they get bored.

Its throwback, elusive purity, that harkens back to online gaming sessions of yore, has turned Helldivers 2 into a phenomenon, despite the many technical issues that have plagued the game since its February 8 release. Launched with little to no hype and barely any marketing push behind it, the co-op shooter's authentic PvE playground,