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Starship Troopers, er.. I mean Helldivers was once a PlayStation 4 and PS Vita exclusive, one that I really didn’t get a chance to play. Thankfully that all changed now that Sony’s PlayStation Mobile Inc has brought the title over to Steam and the PC platform. And while my joking start of the review mentions Star Ship Troopers, a no doubt classic and favorite film on most sci-fi and geek film watchers, that’s exactly what this game feels like when you play it. A top-down, dual stick shooter that makes you feel like you’re part of the Starship Trooper flicks. Sounds good to me.

Game Name: Helldivers

Platform(s): PlayStation 4,

Publisher(s): PlayStation Mobile Inc

Developer(s): Arrowhead Games Studios

Release Date: December 7 2015

Price: $19.99

Multiplayer: 4 player co-op local & on-line

Sign me up sir!

Join the ranks of the military as you take on other planets in an attempt to liberate them and show everyone once and for all that Super Earth is top dog. Who doesn’t want to kick some alien ass, and get home just in time for tea or whatever you do for relaxation?


While I enjoyed the hell out of Helldivers, the game is really straight forward and simple, which is the charm of the game. Select your weapon layout, select a mission, select your drop zone and then lay hell to any and everything in your path, if it moves then you make it stop moving. Of course, it’s not always that easy you see, as every mission has some sort of objective to capture points, finding stuff or just wiping out the planet’s populous and then attempting to survive once your extraction ride gets there…. and they tend to take their time. so much that you can be overrun before they get there. So much for getting to the choppa!

Freedom!

Do you like gun-play? Well, Helldivers is likely right up your alley. With plenty of weapons to pick from, there’s something for everyone; pistols, machine guns, rocket launchers, shotguns, mini-gun placements and more. Since I played Helldivers with the Xbox 360 controller, I was able to take advantage of the dual analog stick for movement and aiming. Aiming your weapons is easy as well, you aim with the right analog stick, which is accompanied by a red laser point to highlight your vector, firing duties is handled via the right trigger. In addition to your primary weapon, which can be changed prior to starting a mission, you also have access to a side aim and grenades. Firing rounds sound and feels really good. I often find myself randomly firing my primary and sidearm at nothing, just to hear the sounds they make. I also like the fact that once you run out of rounds, you have to reload or die as the enemies end up bearing down on you. There’s no auto reload here and it gives the game that realistic feeling, so get used to reloading and a lot.


But that’s not all, as you can also order drops during missions that include ammo drops, weapon turrets, air strikes and a few others, I won’t spoil it all for you.

Taste my freedom!

Have a nice cup of FREEDOM!

There’s a huge variety of mission available in both the single-player and multiplayer to take part and each mission has a difficulty assigned to it, so you know exactly what you’re getting into before you decide to all rogue. However, the missions are just the tip of the iceberg since you gain experience from every mission you partake and more if you complete them. Those points are then used to level up your character, automatically mind you, as well as new items that range from appearances, new weapons, upgrades and even additional stratagems, which are those things that you can call down from the heavens during your gameplay and much more. And while I haven’t unlocked it yet, I did manage to play with several people online who had unlocked an exo-suit and even a jump-pack which made me a bit jealous.

I do think that Arrowheads was having a bit of fun however with implementing the stratagems, especially since in order to use them you have to do a sequence of direction pad inputs while firing and dodging enemies at times. Sure you can drop them prior to combat, but what do you do when you run out of ammo in the middle of a firefight? Evil Arrowhead Studios, pure evil and I love it.

And while the game won’t win any awards for best-looking graphics, they do convey the sights of a down and dirty, balls to the wall battle zone. The areas are plentiful and detailed, background objects such as trees and shrubbery move and sway in the wind, the damn near all the planets environment elements look fantastic. And many of them aren’t simply for show, such as the mini-volcano (don’t go near them when they erupt). The character and creature models look extremely detailed, the weapons exhibit some impressive smoke trails, firing effects and even dispensed ammo being ejected onto the ground is animated with such grace that you could find yourself steering at it every so often.


I have to be really honest here, this game drags a bit when you play single player. Sure it’s fun, but it doesn’t compare to the sheer madness of playing either locally with 3 other players or online. With more players comes more fun as you’re now fighting for kills with multiple players which can lead to hilarious results. See, there’s this thing called friendly fire and sometimes in the heat of battle, you or your other partners can accidentally or purposely mow you down when you wander into their sights or even if you’re on the other side of the screen. And while it seems like it may be something childish, it’s a typical occurrence and sometimes it’s fun to just take out someone, you know if they were stealing your kills or if you just want to rack up some kills while they lie on the ground, bleeding out.

However their’s more than friendly fire to playing in co-op mode. In fact, there’s nothing more satisfying than having a horde of creatures ascending down on you and your squad and you pull out all of your gun turrets and have your carry weapons at the ready. Work together and everything goes along smoothly and out of the 30 missions I played online, that is normally what happens unless you get someone who doesn’t want to pull their own weight, then you just take said person out. I’ve enjoyed the co-op way more than single player, with one minor exception. When you do play co-op, everyone’s laser sights are the same color, red. Meaning that in the heat of the moment, you tend to lose track of your aim and I would have preferred if Arrowhead Studios had made it that each player’s laser was instead a different color.

Since this is a PC port, I’m happy to report that doing my gaming sessions that I never experienced any slowdown, no crashes or any other issues that would hinder the gameplay. This is definitely a fantastic port of the PS4/PS Vita title. The PC requirements to play the game are quite low and I was able to run it on both my main gaming PC and my work laptop which consists of an AMD A6-7310 process and an integrated GPU, with no issues. So what I’m getting at is just about everyone can play this on their PC, laptop and yes friends even a windows based tablet if you met the system requirements.


MINIMUM: OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7

Windows Vista / Windows 7

Processor: 2.4GHz Dual Core

2.4GHz Dual Core

Memory: 4 GB RAM

4 GB RAM

Graphics: 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 / ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 / ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

DirectX: Version 10

Version 10

Storage: 7 GB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7

Windows Vista / Windows 7

Processor: 2.4GHz Dual Core

2.4GHz Dual Core

Memory: 4 GB RAM

4 GB RAM

Graphics: 1 GB NVIDIA 460 / AMD Radeon 5870

1 GB NVIDIA 460 / AMD Radeon 5870

DirectX: Version 10

Version 10

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 7 GB available space * Review copy provided by the publisher.