Helldivers 2 has been encountering a little bit of turbulence since its absurdly common launch—group dramas, overview bombs, its CEO stepping right down to CCO to higher reply to participant suggestions, in-game protests, and, lastly, a promise of a 60-day replace plan to assist haul it out of the hearth.
Complaints have been quite a few and passionately argued, however to summarise, Helldivers 2 has a few points with its balancing philosophy. Time-to-kill remains to be fairly excessive regardless of Johan Pilestedt highlighting it as an issue and but, regardless of that, some common weapons have been nerfed. The flamethrower, for example, had nerfs that capped each its precise usability and, for causes past my ken, a big downgrade in its visible results.
Pyromaniacs can rejoice, nevertheless, because the studio has elected to roll out its promised buffs piecemeal, beginning with a plan to reinstate the flamethrower to its former workplace of glory.
“A buff a day retains the bugs away … We have heard you loud and clear and Flamethrower injury [will be] elevated by 33%,” writes the studio on Twitter, sharing a video (seen beneath) of CCO Johan Pilestedt and design director Niklas Malmborg going over the modifications in short.
We have heard you loud and clear and Flamethrower injury is elevated by 33%🔥Flamer mechanics might be reverted to the state earlier than the Escalation of Freedom replace and flamebased weapons can now injury heavier enemies like Chargers, Bile Titans, Impalers and Hulks. #BuffDivers pic.twitter.com/O9oipGJsfdSeptember 10, 2024
“We have finished some main changes to all the flame weapons,” Pilestedt notes, as Malmborg clarifies: “Yeah, we simply went again … there was some stuff to undergo, nevertheless it was the appropriate factor to do.” Along with that 33% injury increase, Pilestedt provides that the flamethrower has additionally had a “armour penetration enhance”, permitting gamers to lastly scream ‘get some’ whereas hosing down a charger with fiery liberty, as democracy herself supposed.
These informational movies for the eventual huge replace might be trickling in every day, which implies a continuing drip-feed of steadiness guarantees that—to date—appear to be delivering on gamers’ needs. We all know that Armour Penetration is getting an enormous ol’ overhaul, for example, and that Arrowhead is conducting closed beta assessments to ensure its tweaks aren’t pitchfork-grabbingly unpopular earlier than they go stay.
All of it feels like a march in the appropriate course for a sport that has—each pretty and unfairly—taken a little bit of a beating since its launch. I do broadly agree {that a} horde shooter should not have heaps of enemies which are strolling fortresses, and that sure selections like making the Charger’s huge, glowy bum not a weak spot are baffling. It is a videogame. You are meant to shoot the shiny purple factor. That is simply science.
Whether or not it is all sufficient to return to these Halcyon days of the Helldivers 2 launch is one other query completely. Whereas I’ve banged the drum earlier than {that a} very talked-about sport going from 400,000+ gold rush to a secure 50,000 concurrents is not an indication of failure, taking a peek on the SteamDB numbers does, alas, present a downward slope to a extra humble 16,000 24-hour peak over the previous handful of months.
That’s, for emphasis, nonetheless not a useless sport—individuals transfer on, and that is solely regular and proper. Nevertheless it’s clear that updates like The Escalation of Freedom have not been the second wind Arrowhead Video games was clearly hoping for. Fairly frankly, I am ready for the Illuminate to spice issues up myself, however given how a lot intergalactic democratising I acquired finished on launch, I am rooting for Helldivers 2. Let’s have a look at if they have been cooking in that kitchen: The rebalancing replace is deliberate to launch September 17.