As the first big Helldivers 2 patch of Arrowhead's 60-day plan wins back divers, the shooter's creative director agrees that "nerfing is an unimaginative way of tweaking a game"
Sep. 18, 2024Buffs for all
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Helldivers 2’s firstgrand onslaught of buffsto make the game fun again is here, forming just part of developer Arrowhead’s60-day planto return to the third-person shooter to surer footing. Now that the dust on the warmly receivedHelldivers 2 patchis settling, creative director Johan Pilestedt agrees that, when it comes to damage, “nerfing is an unimaginative way of tweaking a game.”
Following the patch’s launch, Pilestedt has taken to Twitter to see what fans are making of the new state of the game. One fan says this should have come four months ago, to which Pilestedt agrees. That prompted another to humbly request that Arrowhead doesn’t nerf the goodness they’ve just returned to the game.
“Agree,” hereplies. “Especially when it comes to damage; nerfing is an unimaginative way of tweaking a game.”
While most people are delighted about the game’s current state, some are seeking a greater challenge than their array of buffed weapons and weaker enemies. Arrowhead has mentioned a new difficulty a few times but has reiterated that it’s on the way for those who feel this way.
“It’s because it just didn’t feel enjoyable or believable to hit a Charger with an RR and it brushing it off,” Pilestedtsays. “We are going to look at the challenge of the game for those high-tier players, it’s in the pipe.”
So far, so good for Helldivers 2’s recovery efforts. Divers have been given anew major orderto let those new weapons rip in while Arrowhead cooks up what’s next, which isn’t far away. In the patch notes revealed the other day, the developer revealed that we’re getting another balance patch as part of the studio’s 60-day plan. It would appear, then, that this is only the start.
By the way,the early hero of Helldivers 2’s big September 17 update is the Thermite Grenade, which Arrowhead buffed from 100 to 2,000 democracy-delivering explosion damage.
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Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.
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