Helldivers

[VictorViper]

Helldivers is a bland sounding name for a bland looking game that is so full of awesome I can't stand knowing folks here are missing out. This is a Playstation exclusive and is cross-buy and cross-play, and supports cross-platform play across PS3/4 and Vita. The Vita version handles the game really well and manages to pull off functional and reasonably natural rear touch controls for reloading and grenades.

Sony certainly must have gone out of their way to secure platform exclusivity, which should say something, but the fact is this game shows horribly. It looks like a generic twin-stick shooter, and it looks like it plays like a generic twin-stick shooter, but this is a hardcore, white-knuckle cooperative experience with more than a little bit of Left 4 Dead's sensibilities.

I'll keep from going on too much, but I wanted to put this game out there since it's not on the radars of a lot of people I think would enjoy it. Some facts you can't really glean from gameplay vids:

- Friendly fire is always on. This is hilarious and awesome, and is really the crux of the fun, along with the fact that...
- Absolutely everything can kill you.
- The game has a basic progress tree enabling perks and weapon/support unlocks that will allow varied loadouts for a given mission.
- As you unlock and upgrade your arsenal, you'll gradually be able to challenge higher difficulty levels, yielding greater rewards, and so on.
- The supports you call in are varied and awesome. And can kill you.
- You get no points for kills. Enemies are endless and ammo isn't, so you need to focus on completing objectives.
- Calling in your supports and completing objectives is achieved by simple directional inputs, which adds a surprising amount of tension when under pressure. These aren't useless QTEs.
- Once all mission objectives are met, you must activate a beacon to call in your evac. This becomes a 90 second free-for-all to hold off the hordes until the carrier can sweep you away to victory and it's as fun and intense as it sounds. Also the carrier can kill you.

The game doesn't have much in terms of story progression, but instead offers a dynamic galactic tug-of-war, where beating missions contributes to humanity's influence in a given zone. When enough influence is earned, the zone is captured and we get one step closer to the enemy homeworld. This goes both ways. It's all supposed to culminate in special limited-time attack or defend missions where you either attempt a last ditch effort to save earth or (hopefully) take the attack to the alien homeworld and win the whole thing. I haven't experienced that yet, but if it works well, it'll be a compelling enough reason to keep playing once all the unlocks stop.

This game has really struck a chord with me. Where Destiny and Evolve left me cold, this game has come in out of nowhere and provided some of the best multiplayer action I've had in a few years. Really great stuff, and I hope some of you end up checking it out.

[Kong Wen]

Another expansion is coming.

[VictorViper]

Man, looks like a juicy one too (both the free and the paid). The devsecond have really babied this gem.

[Drauks]

I was looking at re-downloading this, and decided to take a look at the DLC tab. Holy nickel and dime, Batman! Is the base game all I'll need to play again, or do I absolutely most positively need to get some of these dankly swank accessories?

[VictorViper]

The core DLC has all been free, but there have been paid options that unlock new divers/stratagems/weapons/vehicles. Totally optional and fully compatible with all players whether you buy it or not.

[Kong Wen]

Helldivers is one of the PS+ freebies for February, which means you guys are going to have at least one new TONe buddy to play the game with.

[VictorViper]

Victor is particularly happy about this. I haven't played regularly in some time, so we should be going into this on a reasonably level playing field.

LONG LIVE SUPER EARTH!

[VictorViper]

It's here, it's free, it's Friday.

LET'S DO THIS!

[Kong Wen]

I'm down! I'll probably spend a few minutes playing and tooling around to get used to it on my own before diving in with y'all. But I'll be happy to get into the action as soon as I get a feel for some of the tracks, maybe pick a favourite racer, and see how the controls stack up to e.g. Mario Kart.

[Drauks]

I'm down to play as well.