Helldivers 2 is a game that I care a lot about, and no matter how many breaks I take from playing, I always end up hopping back in every couple of weeks since it launched. The game certainly has some bugs and some minor issues that, if I did wave a magic wand, I would want resolved, but I still enjoy my time with it.
In the last few months, however, there has been a surge of negative reviews on Steam, which has led to the reviews dropping to “mostly negative” in recent reviews. Many of these reviews are from people who have been playing since launch or have 100s of hours played. So, what exactly is happening with Helldivers 2, and is the criticism warranted?
Some of the biggest complaints we have heard from people are that there are bugs that have been there forever and have not been resolved, and that the developers focus more on launching new content to their game rather than on optimizing the current version. These are both valid criticisms, and I don’t want to act like they are not things that I notice too. The issue I draw is not with the individual criticism, but with the act of “review bombing” in general.
Oftentimes, many of these people play the game for hours every week, are very active in the community, and spend a lot of time and money on these games. It’s understandable when you make a significant investment, both financially and with your time, to be upset when something sticks out to you. What is really annoying, however, is when people who clearly love the game and spend most of their free time engaging with a game do nothing but criticize it or blame developers for problems. This is not to say the bugs are not there or that I don’t wish they were focusing on optimizing it, but at the end of the day, enjoying a game comes down to one thing. Do you actually enjoy your time with it? If you do, that’s awesome; keep playing and more power to you. If you don’t, that’s great too! Leave your criticism and move on.
The problem is that the people who are the loudest don’t listen to that advice. They would rather be miserable and complain and complain and suck the fun out of a game that so many enjoy because something is not up to their standards. It’s not unique to Helldivers. Think of the countless movies or games that have been review-bombed for silly reasons, and it all boils down to one similar reason. There are people who love to be mad and love to criticize, instead of just doing things they actually enjoy. I do feel bad for these people, because there must be something wrong to put hours and hours of your free time into something and be mad the whole time.
It’s been years since I played a Call of Duty game. I stopped because I found myself getting frustrated at being killed by players who played more than me, and that competitive edge can really tire you out of the game. So I did the same thing, which was to stop engaging with something I didn’t enjoy and bash it whenever I could with my friends. I did not feel the need to yell online until the game changed into something I wanted it to be. I recognized what the game was; it wasn’t something I wanted to play, so I stopped. It’s as simple as that.
Even if the game had minor issues with the mechanics, that is not what drove me away; it simply was not fun anymore. Lashing out about mechanics being broken can also make necessary fixes harder to actually happen. My issue was with the gameplay; I just did not like it. If I went online to complain about the mechanics, it would only serve my purposes. It would add an unnecessary voice in the massive pool of complaints and bury issues that actually need hotfixes rather than something I did not enjoy.
Not every person leaving negative reviews on Helldivers is going to this level when complaining about bugs and optimization, so I get their frustration. I think it’s just a wider trend that I’ve noticed with entertainment over the last 5-10 years that I think the gaming community needs to weed out.
There are unrealistic standards people set on videogames, movies and television that, when they don’t live up to them, they instead turn to endless whining and complaining. At the end of the day, if you don’t enjoy something, there are literally endless options of other choices you can spend your time on. I’ll enjoy Helldivers no matter how many glitches or issues there are, and you can read why in my 10/10 review I wrote on it.
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