Helldivers 2’s September 17 patch sets it up for one of gaming’s greatest comebacks

Helldivers 2 has certainly had an interesting life cycle so far. From it being an early GOTY contender to it rapidly bleeding players as the game was torn to shreds by controversy, it’s no exaggeration to say the game has had a fall from grace.

And, while it’s only natural for a game’s player base to decline over time unless it does something really big to keep players engaged, Helldivers 2’s nosedive has been difficult for developer Arrowhead Studios to stop.

From almost 500,000 players a short time after launch to just 20,000 daily, the game’s player count has been in freefall with only the most dedicated Helldivers sticking around.

But the devs haven’t abandoned the game. They instead listened to player feedback and implemented many suggested changes in the September 17 patch in a better-late-than-never effort.

Now, Helldivers 2 is finally worth diving back into.

Why did everyone abandon Helldivers 2 in the first place?

While natural player count decline and the PSN controversy are certainly factors as to why Helldivers 2’s numbers have dropped since its release, there’s a more gameplay-focused reason for HD2’s downfall: It just wasn’t fun.

To be more exact, the devs were insistent on nerfing the fun out of the game.

Nerfing strong strategies in competitive multiplayer games makes sense, but it doesn’t in a co-op game where you’re meant to be having fun with friends.

For a long time, the people behind Helldivers were insistent on maintaining their vision for the game, one where almost every enemy was a struggle to take down and the player constantly felt weak. Anything that broke them out of this power struggle got nerfed into the ground, regardless of how fun it was to use.

All the marketing and lore behind the game sells you as a determined soldier that jumps headlong into battle to fight for liberty. However, the optimal way to play the game was anything but.

Sony

For example, the Flamethrower was buffed in March and was finally a strong weapon. The specialized weapon is used for clearing out groups of bugs and dealing with Terminids with strong armor plating. It was a specialist weapon good for taking down one faction.

A short time later, it was nerfed despite being one of the most fun weapons in the game. I loved being able to torch everything in front of me as my Helldiver screamed at the top of their lungs, facing down hundreds of Terminids with only my wall of flame standing between me and certain death.

One balance change crushed that fantasy. Back to hiding behind mortar sentries with an Autocannon, I guess.

After months and months of standing by their vision for the game rather than what players wanted, it’s not much of a surprise people went elsewhere. And, now that a patch marketed entirely around making the player more powerful has rolled out, people are coming back in droves. The player count almost tripled in a matter of hours.

Helldivers 2 player count on Steam since release according to SteamDB

An immediate jump to almost 60,000 concurrent players after the patch dropped is still a fraction of the game’s peak player count, but a huge jump nonetheless. Before, it was averaging around 20,000.

So, what exactly did the devs change to bring so many people back to the game?

Giving players the power again in Helldivers 2

If you’re like me, opening Helldivers 2 prompted an alert that looks something like this:

Helldivers 2/Dexerto

The first time opening up HD2 after a while is a bit jarring. It’s hard not to be reminded of the fact that so many things have happened in the game’s living world since you last left, like literal black holes opening up as wars are fought across the galaxy.

This player-driven approach remains enticing, but the actual experience of playing the game was just frustrating at some point. Once you got up to higher difficulties, it was smooth sailing until something like a few unkillable Bile Titans came traipsing across the battlefield and killed you with seemingly no way to control your fate.

Sure, there were and still are cheese strategies you can use with certain Stratagems or weapons to fight your way through it, but that’s not fun. In trying to create their vision of a game where the galactic war feels like a very real threat, they lost the fun factor.

I, like many others, silently quit. This is what really kills games, players bowing out and moving on without caring enough to talk about it. Most games die with a whimper. Unless you’re talking about Concord, but that’s a special case to say the least.

Now, the devs have brought that fun back with a vengeance, and players are ecstatic. Helldivers 2 is basically a new game with how much its arsenal has expanded in just one patch.

For instance, before the September 17 update, the Laser Cannon looked really cool and did almost nothing. Running the weapon was borderline trolling. Now, it not only has a use case, it’ll be fighting for a slot in your loadout.

Here’s the thing; Helldivers 2 always had a ton of weapon variety on paper. Between its ever-growing armory with weapons earned from Warbonds to dozens of Stratagems, there were a lot of options when it comes to liberating the galaxy. But this was merely the illusion of choice.

The reality of this game before the September 17 update was that most options were either completely non-viable, or they were just much worse than other options available to you. And, instead of making the non-viable options useful, Arrowhead just nerfed weapons players loved instead.

This is an issue the devs tackled head-on, acknowledging player sentiment immediately in the patch.

“Many players have expressed feeling constrained in how they approach challenges, often relying on a limited set of tools while other options seem less effective. This has impacted your ability to play the game in a way that suits your preferences,” the notes said.

From drastically nerfing armor across the board to make options outside of anti-tank weapons viable to reducing Automaton rocket spam, the devs put a ton of work into righting the wrongs of their balance philosophy.

Helldivers 2 has a ton of personality, all its weapons look great and feel fun to use, enemies look and sound like the sort of space-age terrors you’d expect from a universe like this, and its galactic war is still engaging as ever.

The only real issue was how it all came together, with invisible numbers under the hood holding the game back from greatness.

With the devs now working to break down that wall, there’s potential for Helldivers 2 to win back the player base it bled out. Considering how many people bought the game when it came out, all they’ll need to do is give them enough reasons to re-install.

As a studio, Arrowhead have taken a humbling approach to winning people over: Eating crow. Not only have they made the changes players wanted, they’ve admitted they were wrong.

Can Helldivers 2 make one of gaming’s greatest comebacks?

Listening to players doesn’t always work. In fact, a lot of the time it’d end in disaster when it comes to certain live service games out there in terms of balancing. It’s not like video games pop out of thin air and gain a balance team, the same talented developers who crafted the game you bought and enjoyed on launch are often the ones who are maintaining it.

The majority of HD2’s problems were not a result of the dev team not having a clue what they were doing. There were some buggy patch rollouts, but a lot of that can be chalked up to the game being built on Autodesk Stingray, an engine that hasn’t had real support in years. Everyone working on this game is fighting a constant, uphill battle against the very foundation it’s built upon.

Rather, a lot of development time was wasted as a result of a divide between what the vast majority of players wanted out of the experience and the developers’ vision for it. But, with the game on the decline in the time since launch, its developers have looked inward and decided to change.

And, instead of lashing out at players making snide remarks in regards to how long it has taken to update the game in a way that’s more enjoyable, the devs are simply accepting it and showing they have it in them to do better.

Director Johan Pilestedt has been transparent with players from the very start, almost to a fault, and the same remains true to this day. It’s no coincidence that Pilestedt stepping down from as CEO and into a role that’s more active in development has brought about large-scale change.

Both on X and in the official Discord, devs have been active about responding to players. There are those that feel as if this update has made the game too easy, for instance, and the devs have acknowledged that as a possible issue. They’re already looking into adding higher difficulties for the remaining players who liked the challenge that warded so many others off.

In reply to a player who said it’s too late for Helldivers 2 to come back, Pilestedt had this to say: “I agree in one way, but at the same time, it’s never too late.”

With an approach like that, it’s hard not to want to hop back into Helldivers 2 and see if your passion for the game gets rekindled. This patch is almost best experienced without reading the notes. Just pick a weapon and give it a test drive, see what happens.

But, if I had to give you a hint, I’d just tell you that Thermites are a little busted.

I hope Pilestedt is right, that Helldivers 2 can have a resurgence. It’s got something special going for it, the kind of soul that makes a game stick with you and make it a great break from other competitive titles if you’re looking to have a good time with friends.

Considering how community-driven this game is, it’s fitting that listening to the players may be what brings this game salvation in the end.

It’s not likely that Helldivers 2 will ever have the level of cultural relevance it had at launch, but these confident strides in the right direction from Arrowhead make it hard not to root for a comeback.