Helldivers 2 Director Apologizes To Fans With Huge New Plans

"Helldivers 2" rolled out its latest and greatest update in July. "Escalation of Freedom" added a ton of new enemies to the game, but unfortunately for Arrowhead Game Studios, it also introduced a slew of new problems. The player community has had some big reactions to the latest balance changes, leading Game Director Mikael Eriksson to lay out the developer's plan to address fan concerns in a lengthy Reddit post.

The post began with an admission that "Helldivers 2" isn't currently working the way that fans (or the developers themselves) would have hoped. "In short, we didn't hit our target with the latest update," Eriksson wrote. "Some things we just didn't get right – and other more fundamental inconsistencies in our approach to game balance and game direction. All of that is on us and we are going to own that."

Eriksson went on to say that "What matters most now is action. Not talk." He then laid out some sweeping changes that Arrowhead plans to make to "Helldivers 2" over the next 60 days. Those changes include reworking Chargers, fire damage, and ragdolling, as well as a full re-thinking of how the developers have been approaching the overall balance of the game. Eriksson said that Arrowhead is prioritizing bug fixes and frame rate problems, as well as eyeballing a way to create an opt-in beta for future changes. These are definitely welcome adjustments, but it seems the community won't be satisfied until Arrowhead puts these promises to work.

All of these changes are arriving at something of a rough time for "Helldivers 2." The game previously lost 90% of its playerbase on PC, a significant drop from its all-time peak of 458,000 concurrent players. Some of that loss is to be expected for a live service title that's lost its new-game shine, but Arrowhead still wants to get as many lapsed players as possible to come back. The "Escalation of Freedom" update was meant to do just that. However, the ensuing balance issues — particularly in the case of the overpowered and highly volatile flamethrower –  proves that there's obviously plenty more work to do. Luckily, Arrowhead Games has also made internal changes that should make meeting fan expectations a little easier.

At the end of May, Shams Jorjani took over as Arrowhead Games CEO, with former CEO Johan Pilestedt transitioning to chief creative officer. Jorjani explained this decision in his own lengthy Reddit post. At the time, he highlighted stronger communication and regular updates as two big goals for everyone at Arrowhead. "Our singular focus as a studio is to set things up in a sustainable way so that in the long term we can make more and better stuff," he wrote. "Escalation of Freedom" was in the works at that point, so this most recent pivot might be our first real example of how Arrowhead's approach is changing.

The reaction to "Escalation of Freedom" might not have been what Arrowhead hoped for, but the reception of Mikael Eriksson's Reddit post has been much more positive. The comments quickly filled up with people offering their two cents about balancing and requesting the changes they'd most like to see implemented, which is to be expected. Many of the commenters also said they were excited to see Arrowhead take action on the issues that Eriksson highlighted, but that enthusiasm came with one common caveat.

"I appreciate that there is more communication with the community, but one thing that strikes me as odd is that the recent issue, as a previous post mentioned, is like a time loop," wrote one commenter. Over and over again, people argued that players have been down this road before. The devs have issued apologies for balance changes in the past, only for similar issues to pop up in the following updates. "Helldivers 2" is still a fun game, but its most hardcore fans are really hoping that Arrowhead is being serious about listening to the players when it comes to these balance issues. Right now, not everyone is ready to trust the devs. As one commenter wrote, "I'll believe it when I see it."