Hell Divers 2 It’s a fantastic game that I’ve been playing pretty consistently since its release in February 2024. Whenever an update has buffed or nerfed a weapon, I’ve never taken it too seriously because the core gameplay is solid and enjoyable. However, in the weeks since the Escalation of Freedom update released, a glaring issue with the game has surfaced, and it comes from developer Arrowhead Game Studios.
When the Escalation of Freedom update first released, it was met with a lot of negative feedback from players who were furious about the weapon nerfs it brought. In fact, it caused so much commotion that Arrowhead Game Studios quickly responded with a 60-day plan to update the title and change its balance to be more in line with what players wanted.
You would think that this would be the end. The developer came out with his hands up, admitting that the biggest update Hell Divers 2 clearly missed the mark, and they’re working to fix that. After all, the game’s community is generally pretty positive, aside from the review bombing that happened when Sony tried to make PSN accounts mandatory for all players.
But no, instead players who were pissed off with the update, and what I imagine are more than a few bad actors, took it upon themselves to blatantly hack items during the last Major Order. To the point that Arrowhead Game Studios had to kill Major Order before it was finished.
Burglary Hell Divers 2 is nothing novel. It has been around since the game was released, with hackers generating samples and playing around with weapons so they can unlock everything as quickly and efficiently as possible. I don’t think it’s fun, but it’s obvious to them. Up until the recent Major Order, hacking wasn’t that common in the overall story Hell Divers 2.
Following this disaster, Arrowhead Game Studios released an in-game message that contextualized the hackers’ actions. It stated that the hacked samples were fakes and played down what was clearly an electrifying acceleration of the massive Terminid threat, a massive cloud of space spores called Gloom, without any real justification. It felt low-cost, and while I know we’re not being punished for the actions of others, the game’s story certainly is.
The problem goes deeper than that. Another message tried to downplay the hackers’ actions, telling us they were sent to labor camps to produce gas, and players were given a free gas-based Stratagem to assist fight the Automatons, pretending that The Gloom, an intergalactic cloud that spreads colossal alien insects, posed no threat.
But the flavor text promises to change the way the game will be balanced, and mocking hackers doesn’t address the real issue here. Arrowhead Game Studios now has a earnest problem with Hell Divers 2 which is growing every day. Sure, hacking could definitely be stopped, but I’m talking about something that can’t be fixed by anti-cheat systems. Even if the ones in place didn’t stop the hackers this time.
At the time of writing this text on the website Hell Divers 2 subreddit, you can’t scroll more than three posts without coming across one about griefers. The reaction to the escalation of freedom has spawned real splinter groups in Helldivers Super Earth, and they’re causing all sorts of problems.
We have Chaosdivers who actively defy every major order given to players, Nerfdivers who talk nonstop about the latest weapon nerfs, Crydivers who just complain about everything, and Griefdivers who kill their teammates in every mission.
As a user Independent_Ocelot82 puts this in the post embedded above, “Remember when we all agreed we had the best gaming community?” Now, Hell Divers 2 has a virus, and these factions are symptoms of that virus. Arrowhead Game Studios may have implemented a novel system for team kicking, but team killing is a much bigger problem that simply has no solution at this time.
Complaints, conversations criticizing the game, and bad player experiences caused by players killing you just to ruin the mission will ruin the game from the ground up. Unfortunately, this is not a direct result of anything Arrowhead Game Studios did on purpose. They balanced the weapons in a way that was believed to be beneficial to players, and some of them had a problem with it.
This is nothing novel in the world of MMO games, but Hell Divers 2 is different. We created our own meme about dodging anti-tank mines and ended up with the best time-saving fictional children of a race of evil, bright machines. We all also saddened ourselves by the air those children now failed to clear while we were too indolent to follow another Master Order and dodge anti-tank mines one last time.
This is a legend Hell Divers 2. Players are accidentally creating phenomenal moments together. There is no place for earnest griefing and evident hacking in the community I know and love. But as long as Arrowhead Game Studios pretends everything is fine and uses taste and nothing else to turn the tables, the problem at the heart of the game will only get worse.
