Helldivers

HellDivers is one of the best multiplayer games of the year. We’ve anxiously awaited the Steam version, and it delivers every bit of the experience that we’ve jealously spied over the shoulders of Playstation players for months now. Factoring in the excellent and unique gameplay, the beautiful and variable graphics and environments, the variety of enemy types, the hilarious satire, and the perfect sound, we happily recommend you pick this one up.

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 o...

Right in the sweet spot between being fun and challenging, Helldivers is a superb cooperative experience that keeps you coming back for more.

It isn’t the prettiest game you can play on PS4, PS3 or Vita, but Helldivers is one of the most exhilarating, and you’ll get all three versions for the price of one. It pits you against seemingly impossible odds, arms you with a powerful, diverse toolset, and empowers you and a group of people to put the pieces together - and they all fit together beautifully. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Vincent Ingenito is IGN's foremost fighting game nerd. Follow him on Twitter and argue with everything he says about them.

Adam: I want to call a mech, have the drop pod land on my head, and then watch as my partner jumps into the mech and tries to avenge my death. The death that was essentially suicide-by-mech. Accidental suicide-by-mech. How many games can that happen in? Not enough.

Helldivers is another successful cooperative experience from Arrowhead Game Studios. They’ve taken a very simple concept and found a way to introduce challenge and strategy in a way few games have before. Sure, it’s occasionally overwhelming, but that’s what makes Helldivers so much fun. Getting together with a few friends and trying to manage hordes of enemies requires more than just an itchy trigger finger, and there’s no better feeling than escaping in the nick of time. The mechanics do have a few quirks, like the inability to shoot while prone, but the majority of them fit the approach bri...

Helldivers is hands down one of my favorite multiplayer experiences of this year.

Most twin-stick shooters serve up ammo and enemies in equally infinite proportions, embracing the shoot-everything-that-moves formula that has come to define the genre. Helldivers is different. While the hordes of enemies are just as endless, limited ammo and the ever-threatening presence of friendly fire create a more challenging and calculated shooter.

Super Earth is expanding, and it's your job to do the dirty work. The Helldivers are called in to slaughter alien life forms so that mankind can extend its reach across the galaxy, and that means you're going to need a lot of big guns, air support, and explosives. A co-op shooter for up to four players, both locally and online, Helldivers is an absolute blast with the right allies.

Following their success with the Gauntlet reboot last year, Arrowhead has delivered another great 4-player co-op game in Helldivers, . While much of the core gameplay shares similar mechanics they’ve done a great job at using existing tech to make something different. Guns, aliens, and air support all change the actual play tremendously. Top this off with two of my favorite things, a magazine-based ammo system and friendly fire, and now you’re cooking with gas. Cooking bugs, that is.

PC version reviewed. Copy provided by developer.

Ultimately, Helldivers is a fun, extremely well-polished game which is going to appeal to a fairly specific subset of gamers. This isn’t a title which is going to convince you of the entertainment benefits of accidentally getting gibbed by your poor-aiming, highly-strung friend. It’s also likely not going to sell you on the high-pressure cooperative shooter genre, which tends to offer a very specific kind of adrenaline rush gaming experience. But if you find yourself playing games like Magicka and craving more of the same in a new, flashy setting - then Helldivers is certainly for you.