Helldivers 2 (Xbox) Review: Liber-Tea and Justice For All

A decade ago, if you told me that PlayStation games would be coming to Xbox, I’d have called you crazy. I never took to the frontlines of the so-called console wars that used to (or maybe still do?) dominate gaming forums, but it was a way of life I was all too familiar with, even if I was watching from the sidelines. Aside from seeing others trade blows in a futile attempt to assert that their console of choice was technically superior (which is hilarious in hindsight, since a vast majority of gamers have little to no understanding of the underlying hardware that they champion), it was not uncommon to see folks declare that their platform of choice had the better catalog of exclusive titles.

But these days, those distinctions are becoming harder to clearly define. Microsoft and Sony’s gaming hardware are, for all intents and purposes, very similar in architecture and design, and with each publisher needing to squeeze out every potential revenue source, it’s not unheard of to see flagship titles released on other platforms a year or so after their original release. In the past month alone, we’ve seen two standout Xbox franchises (Gears of War and Hellblade) make the leap to PlayStation, and now, Sony is returning the favor with Helldivers 2.

Ironically, we never got around to reviewing Helldivers 2 when it launched back in early 2024, but seeing as how half the planet seems to have taken up the call to spread democracy across the galaxy, we won’t spend too much time drilling into the minutiae. For the unrecruited gamers out there, here’s a brief rundown:

Helldivers 2 is a co-operative shooter that sees you playing as a member of the (you guessed it) Helldivers, a military squadron of shock troops that travel from planet to planet, eliminating anything that threatens humanity while spreading a very… uniquely patriotic brand of “managed democracy.” Like a lot of other popular live-service shooters out there, Helldivers 2 doesn’t take itself all too seriously, but, unlike some of its contemporaries, Helldivers 2 tosses the monetization playbook right out the door — and it’s all the better for it. Instead of letting you in the door for free in an effort to drown you in a sea of microtransactions, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has gone a different route. Instead, the base version of the game is priced at $40, and while you can acquire new cosmetics by purchasing them outright, pricing is quite fair, with most individual items costing a dollar or two, rather than double-digit prices. Better yet, “Warbonds” (Helldivers 2’s take on Battle Passes) provide a lot of in-game currency by completing them, and better yet, they never expire. FOMO be gone!

With no anxiety that comes with having to grind to unlock content before it vanishes forever, Helldivers 2 lets you enjoy it at your own pace, and as a relative newcomer to the franchise, this was a breath of fresh air. To be fair, there is a lot to learn — the game’s procedurally generated missions can range in difficulty from “Trivial” to the absolutely chaotic “Super Helldive”, but it doesn’t take long to master the basics, and a steady drip feed of new armor, weapons, and strategems (powerful support items that you call down from your ship mid-mission) provide plenty of reason to keep playing.

With veteran port studio Nixxes handling Helldivers 2’s Xbox Series X version, it should come as no surprise that the core experience is virtually identical to what’s available on PlayStation 5. That does come with some downsides, however. For starters, the framerate is rather shaky when using the game’s performance mode, hovering between 40 and 60 fps at any given moment. With most other titles, this sort of thing could be ironed out down the line, but seeing as how both the base PS5 and PS5 Pro also suffer from uneven performance, it’s likely that this issue stems from Helldivers 2 being CPU-bound, as opposed to each console having maxed out its GPU or memory resources.

There are also a few other oddities that popped up during play. As I discovered while playing Helldivers 2 with another reviewer, the game’s tutorial and in-game pop-ups are a bit out of date, and it took a few veteran Helldivers to teach me some of the finer points, like switching firing modes and enabling/disabling my soldier’s flashlight. The biggest letdown, however, is the complete lack of cross-progression. While I strongly suspect this comes down to the whims and will of a platform holder, rather than any technical hurdles, it’s a bit disheartening that longtime players will need to start from square one again should they make the jump to Xbox.

Helldivers 2 (Xbox Series X) Review: Final Verdict

Still, for the few areas where Helldivers 2 falters, it largely sticks the landing when making the jump to Microsoft’s consoles, though that should come as no surprise. Barring huge technical missteps or compromised ports, a great game is a great game, regardless of what platform it’s being played on, and that’s certainly the case with Helldivers 2.

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