It's not always easy to maintain the excitement around a multiplayer game. Massive updates and other patches are there to enrich it and offer its community a constantly renewed and enjoyable experience. But sometimes these new additions cause the opposite effect. And this title massively played on Steam is unfortunately too often criticized for its frustrating modifications.
players tired of helldivers 2
Victim of its success. This is the recipe that can be applied to Helldivers 2, the multiplayer from Arrowhead Game Studios released at the beginning of the year. In February, the TPS very inspired by Starship Trooperswas a hit on all platforms. In three months, the game has accumulated more than 12 million sales, making it the best launch of a Playstation game. Helldivers 2 even reached a peak of 458,709 simultaneous players on Steam. That's how popular it was, helped— it must be said— by streamers, who have boosted the numbers.
But since then, the numbers have continued to fall. In May, according to those on SteamDB identified by the site Eurogamer, Helldivers 2 registered only 166,305 concurrent players, a 64% drop. Worse, in July, fewer than 50,000 fighters were registered, a 90% drop.
Behind such a drop in speed, bad decisions made by the studio, such as updates to disappointing days and the obligation of PC players to have a PSN account. His boss Johan Pilestedt had to to make a mea culpa, recognizing that the team had perhaps abused their position. modifications to the game, and then promising updates; less frequent day.
New controversy over multiplayer
However, Arrowhead Game Studios has not yet found the ideal formula, since the new update just released has once again provoked the anger of some players. Among the new features of the patch “Escalation of Freedom”, new enemies, like the Impaler, new enemy commanders, expanded enemy outposts, a new dark swamp biome, new weather conditions, like acid storms. There are also new difficulty modes, new mission objectives, fixes for some notorious bugs, and nerfs to weapons, like the flamethrower. On the update, Arrowhead notes that “Flame effects are adjusted to work more realistically. They no longer clip through bodies/objects, such as armor and items.”
A nerf that has not gone down well with the community, with some arguing that the weapon is no longer effective against overpowered magazines, enemies that easily deflect bullets. “It(the flamethrower)no longer clips through their greaves. It is unusable, with a strangely high recoil”,notes one user. “I love it when they take my favorite weapon and make it useless,” quips another on Reddit. Proof of the Chargers' new approach is in the video below.
PSA: How to kill Chargers with a flamethrower after the patch
by u/Ocanom in Helldivers
The balance is certainly not always easy to gauge, but bringing a regular and attractive batch of new features without touching some of the game's much-loved elements are necessary to ensure the longevity of a multiplayer of this caliber. In the case of Helldivers 2, the studio has every interest in listening to its community more in the hope of boosting its servers again.