Arrowhead has been walking a tightrope with Helldivers 2, torn between pursuing the idea of a chaotic, challenging game that makes players feel like they can triumph against all odds and a game that makes them feel like the very angels of death of the emperor of humanity. This has created a divide among the player base, especially during the release of the last patch called “Escalation of Freedom” in which, among other things, the penetration and utility of one of the favorite weapons to combat the terminids, the flamethrower, was reduced. Reddit raised an uproar and began to rebel against Arrowhead himself who had previously promised to be more careful with nerfs and not reduce the power of the players’ arsenal.
The developers themselves admitted to being frustrated that there was a perception that the additional content added in Escalation of Freedom had been ignored and overshadowed by a change to the flamethrower's power. But it's not like the additional content was particularly well-received either - new enemies like the Impaler were particularly frustrating to fight as they knocked you to the ground over and over again while a bug with this enemy sent players flying through the air as tentacles sprouted from the ground directly beneath them.
In short, the previous patch was a disaster for the company and the game's creative director and former CEO Pilestedt himself, came back to assure us that all this would change with the September 17 patch where they would take stock of the weapons, stratagems and general state of the game.
The players were hesitant, you know what they say, fool me once, it's your fault, fool me twice, it's my fault.
They were cooking, and the reward for our patience is a game that addresses the biggest balance issues, the interaction of armor and weapons that deal with it. The main culprits, Chargers and Bile Titans, have been balanced so that more weapons are reasonably effective at dealing with them, and dedicated anti-armor weapons are especially useful.
Honestly, the change I liked the most was the increase in damage on the flamethrower and the return to its pre-escalation of freedom glory form.
Of course, it's not just the flamethrower that has received changes, the apple of discord, the Railgun, which started the whole battle between developers and players, has also made a strong comeback. The Liberator, the Liberator Carbine, the Tenderizer, the Braker, the Spray and Pray, the Scythe, the Eruptor, the Diligence, the Counter Sniper, in short, almost all weapons have been revised to give them more utility and power to match the other options.
Not only that, the new Warbond “Chemical Agents” has also just been released and it is a hit, the combination of flamethrowers with gas grenades makes me simply happy.
And there's more to come! This rebalance patch is followed by a similar one to address the weapons that weren't touched in this one. In keeping with Arrowhead's sixty-day pledge, we shouldn't have to wait too long to get our hands on some recalibrated weaponry.
All of this comes just in time, and with this new Warbond, the game has rebounded to sixty-eight thousand players on Steam, proving that Helldivers around the globe have not abandoned the super-earth, but were waiting for new content to jump back in.
This is a joint work with Codec; News, Research and Video Games
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