Helldivers combines the best parts of the shoot-'em-up and strategy genre and delivers it with excellent co-op minded gameplay. However, this is it's downfall as critics note how it is not as satisfying to play without friends.
Helldivers
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Helldivers Review Summary
Critic Reviews for Helldivers
The star of the show isn't your foes, though, and it certainly isn't the fascist 'goodies' you're cast as in this knockabout imperialist satire. The star of the show is the panic that's generated as you head into adventure, knowing that you're this close to screwing everything up for your team in a darkly hilarious manner.
'Helldivers' is an isometric co-op shooter that favors challenge and strategy over all else, and despite a lack of variety is extremely satisfying when played with friends.
Brutal, focused, and mechanically rich, Helldivers is one of the best co-op action experiences you can have.
With a wide range of difficulty levels and endless planets to conquer, Helldivers doles out as much co-op fun as you can handle
Helldivers is a persistent online universe rich in combat but low on story.
A well designed, challenging and entertaining shooter that's best appreciated as a multiplayer game. More variety in mission types would help it feel less of a grind, however.
Unrelenting and brutal, Helldivers delivers fast-paced combat, epic standoffs and a comical approach to death. Its enemies are varied, powerful and a constant threat to the players. While the full impact of the larger multiplayer experience remains to be seen, it still adds a nice little scratch to the progress itch. The strategem system provides great flexibility in squad building with many ways to build out team roles to maximize defensive and offensive capabilities. With procedural map generation and just enough mission and enemy variety to prevent a sense of repetition, the twelve levels of difficulty ought to keep players challenged for a good long time.
With seamless online matchmaking and drop-in local multiplayer, Helldivers is the complete coop game. After being left disappointed many a time by previous local multiplayer games the PlayStation 4 has had to offer, Helldivers is a breath of fresh air providing short bursts of explosive action that's both strategic and enjoyable.