With gamers feeling underwhelmed at a number of the modifications made in its huge new Escalation of Freedom replace, Helldivers 2’s recreation director has apologized to the neighborhood and acknowledged that there are “elementary inconsistencies” in its present method to balancing the shooter. Arrowhead has additionally now laid out a 60-day plan to enhance the sport and overhaul a few of its practices.
Helldivers 2 has been on fairly the rollercoaster experience this yr. Its early months had been outlined by enormous gross sales figures and participant counts, and it appeared it couldn’t put a foot improper. Then the co-op recreation confronted its first huge bump within the street after its PSN account linking fiasco. Then it modified its method to content material output and patches, choosing bigger, less-regular updates that had been of a greater commonplace – one thing followers agreed was the correct determination.
This month’s Escalation of Freedom replace was set to be the one which turned issues round and pushed Helldivers 2 again in direction of the successes it skilled contemporary out the gate. Nonetheless, sure features of the large new replace are slightly underwhelming, and it wasn’t the reversal of fortunes I’d hoped the sport would see.
Now, recreation director Mikael Eriksson has come out to acknowledge that Escalation of Freedom missed the mark, and has outlined how Arrowhead goes to win again its gamers and repair a few of their greatest ache factors.
“We’ve spent the final week listening to suggestions, reflecting in regards to the path forward for Helldivers 2 and the way we need to proceed growing the sport,” says Eriksson in a brutally sincere message on Reddit. “Briefly, we didn’t hit our goal with the newest replace. Some issues we simply didn’t get proper – and [there are] different extra elementary inconsistencies in our method to recreation steadiness and recreation path.”
Eriksson then lays out the core gameplay modifications that Arrowhead goes to give attention to over the following 60 days:
Proceed to re-examine our method to steadiness. Our intention is that steadiness ought to be enjoyable, not “balanced” for the sake of steadiness.
Replace how the hearth injury mechanic works to tweak how the flamethrower serves as a detailed vary help weapon. (A fast straight revert received’t work, as it could break different issues)
Rework gameplay to stop extreme ragdolling
Re-think our design method to major weapons and create a plan for making fight extra partaking
Re-prioritize bug fixes in order that the extra instant gameplay-impacting bugs are prioritized.
Enhance recreation efficiency (body charge is a spotlight)
Rework Chargers
He additionally says that Arrowhead is contemplating launching an “opt-in beta-test setting” to assist spot bugs and points in updates earlier, be extra clear about why modifications had been made in patch notes, and ship out extra common surveys to gamers.
It’s been actually unhappy (and considerably complicated) to see how Arrowhead has managed to lose favor with so many gamers over the previous few months, given the sport’s early success. Helldivers 2 nonetheless boasts a powerful Steam participant rely that many dwell service video games would kill for, however there’s no escaping that it’s a great distance off the place it was once, and the preliminary spike it did see when Escalation of Freedom dropped has already nearly returned to pre-patch ranges.
Nonetheless, Eriksson’s motion plan feels like one, and Arrowhead’s honesty and acknowledgement of the scenario goes a great distance too.
When you’re a type of which have moved on or are taking a break from Helldivers 2, listed below are another wonderful area video games to strive. Alternatively, check out our upcoming PC video games listing to see what else is arriving quickly.
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