Helldivers 2has a complicated history with its own difficulty. One of the moust famous (or infamous) moments in the game’s history was a major controversy over nerfs to the players' arsenals in an attempt by Arrowhead Game Studios to introduce more difficulty. Since then, the studio has more often leaned on adjustments to NPC units and weapons, rather than taking power out ofHelldivers 2players' hands, which is way better for the game’s explosive power fantasy. Still, that fantasy relies on sufficiently daunting enemies who make the player’s power feel well-spent, so it’s good to hear thatHelldivers 2’s developers are still looking for ways to make the game harder.
It should be said thatHelldivers 2is already a versatile game in the difficulty department; it launched with nine tiers of difficulty, offering appropriate challenge levels for both the most casual and most masochistic players. Since then, it has added a tenth difficulty tier and a litany of daunting new enemies in each faction, but Arrowhead remains committed to making the game more difficult. On the one hand, this is great, since it makes every hour spent playingHelldivers 2feel more worthwhile, but on the other hand, Arrowhead should be careful to ensure this objective remains in balance with other ways to improve the game.
Difficulty is One Piece of the Helldivers Puzzle
IncreasingHelldivers 2’s difficulty(whether by updates and additions to the enemy roster, or new tiers of mission difficulty) simply makes sense for a few reasons:
However, difficulty is only one dial Arrowhead can turn to fine-tuneHelldivers 2. It shouldn’t come to rely on difficulty as the primary way to engage players. The problem with doing this is that making a game more and more difficult ultimately has diminishing returns, because there comes a point when enemy forces are so overwhelmingly oppressive that the game simply feels unfair, and therefore unfun. Higher difficulty levels are only as interesting as the ways that the player can deal with them, so it would be best ifHelldivers 2pursues them in moderation, not as a primary goal.
Helldivers 2 Has a Lot of Ways to Improve Itself
Ideally, any future addition toHelldivers 2that makes it harder will be paired with other system changes that diversify the experience. For example, applying new enemies or higher difficulty tiers becomes exponentially more interesting when paired with newHelldivers 2mission types, stratagems, or guns. Perhaps Arrowhead could even add entirely new categories of primary weapons, for example, or use its growing roster of human NPC allies to create elaborate new escort missions.Helldivers 2still has lots of room to grow. Best of all, a new faction inHelldivers 2could one day provide a whole new sense of challenge on its own.
Difficulty is inherent toHelldivers 2’s identity; every trailer from the time of the game’s reveal highlighted the overwhelming odds faced bySuper Earth’s Helldivers, and the scorched-earth tactics players will need to survive. That means it’s great to hear that Arrowhead is still exploring options to make the game harder, so long after launch. At the same time, difficulty can’t be treated as the primary way to expand the game; Arrowhead wants its players to succeed, after all. Any future increases to difficulty should be used to entice players to engage with all the other new things the game has to offer.
