Arrowhead Recreation Studios has acknowledged Helldivers 2‘s current Escalation of Freedom replace “did not hit [its] goal” following vital criticism from the neighborhood, and it is detailed the steps its taking to deal with core areas of grievance over the subsequent 60 days.
Helldivers 2’s newest spherical of neighborhood unrest adopted the launch of final week’s main Escalation of Freedom replace, which featured headline additions together with new mission goals and enemies. Nonetheless, it is some under-the-hood steadiness tinkering that is confirmed notably controversial, with nerfs to the favored FLAM-40 flamethrower – which has considerably diminished its effectiveness in opposition to Chargers – drawing appreciable ire.
Varied senior staff members have already acknowledged participant suggestions – Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani drew parallels with a equally unpopular steadiness replace launched in April (thanks PC Gamer), confirming the studio was already discussing “what we will do to keep away from this case once more” – however now the developer is able to provide a extra formalised plan of assault.
In a submit shared on Reddit, Helldivers 2 sport director Mikael Eriksson wrote, “We have spent the final week listening to suggestions, reflecting in regards to the path forward for Helldivers 2 and the way we need to proceed creating the sport. Briefly, we didn’t hit our goal with the most recent replace.” Eriksson added the studio sees two kinds of points it needs to deal with: “some issues we simply did not get proper” and “different extra basic inconsistencies in our strategy to sport steadiness and sport path.”
“All of that’s on us and we’re going to personal that,” he continued. “As a lot of you have got identified, and we agree, what issues most now could be motion. Not discuss.”
To that finish, Eriksson shared the studio’s plan for the subsequent 60 days, which can start with an examination of its strategy to steadiness. “Our intention is that steadiness needs to be enjoyable,” he defined, “not ‘balanced’ for the sake of steadiness.” Arrowhead can even replace the flamethrower’s “hearth injury mechanic” to tweak the way it works as a close-range help weapon, however Eriksson burdened, “A fast straight revert will not work, as it will break different issues”.
Then, transferring onto different complaints stemming from final week’s Escalation of Freedom replace, Arrowhead will rework gameplay to stop extreme rag dolling, rethink its strategy to major weapons and “create a plan for making fight extra participating”, reprioritise bug fixes so these impacting gameplay are addressed first, enhance sport efficiency, and rework Chargers.
The studio can also be trying to set up an opt-in beta take a look at surroundings as a “excessive precedence” to enhance its testing processes, and it will be posting common participant surveys to assemble extra perception and suggestions. Moreover, it needs to enhance communication with gamers – offering extra context for adjustments in its patch notes, and sharing extra weblog posts and streams to increase on these subjects. “We additionally need to thanks on your persistence,” Eriksson added. “We’re grateful that so a lot of you supplied constructive suggestions and strategies on the most recent replace.
Arrowhead’s determination to rethink its strategy to balancing follows feedback made by Helldivers 2 artistic director Johan Pilestedt again in Might. “I believe we have gone too far in some areas,” he instructed gamers. “It looks like each time somebody finds one thing enjoyable, the enjoyable is eliminated.” Hopefully, the studio’s new dedication to balancing will assist it keep away from falling right into a equally unpopular entice a 3rd time round.
