Helldivers 2 Review Bombs Are Becoming Part Of The Game
There's no doubt that the best part of "Helldivers 2" is the combat, but the devs' sense of humor is a close second. Arrowhead Game Studios has turned its goofy interactions with fans into part of the game, which means we get to be a real part of the story. When players spotted blue lasers flying across battlefields, the game's director lied to downplay the growing rumors of an Illuminate invasion. When Helldivers refused to let Malevelon Creek fall, Arrowhead added a divisive cape to the game in order to memorialize fallen heroes.
The latest big turn in the "Helldivers 2" meta-narrative is the community's big win against the game's publisher. Sony wanted to require PC players to link their Steam account with a PlayStation Network account, and fans revolted. People started refunding the game in droves, and the game's reviews on Steam completely tanked. Sony later apologized and reversed course, but unfortunately, as of this writing, the game is still delisted on Steam in over 170 countries.
Sony and Valve are hopefully working toward getting "Helldivers 2" back in stores across the world. Meanwhile, Arrowhead is already putting together an in-game memorial for this controversy. When all the chaos was still unfolding, CEO Johan Pilestedt joked that a graph showing the in=progress review-bombing would make for a good cape design — but now we know that he wasn't joking at all.
New cape when?
When Sony first announced its intention to make PSN account-linking mandatory, "Helldivers 2" was review bombed into oblivion. The beloved game's scores on Steam plunged into negative territory, but it seems the folks at Arrowhead didn't take it personally. In just five days, the team managed to transform Pilestedt's joke about a cape into a real in-game item.
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 11, 2024
If you hadn't been keeping up with the news, then this post from Pilestedt probably seemed a little cryptic. With the full context in mind, the cape he's showing off here is obviously sporting the downward trending lines from the Steam reviews graph. We don't know when the cape will actually show up in the game, but it probably won't be long. Scroll into the replies on that post, and you'll find a piece of news that's even more exciting than the new cape: A fan suggested that Arrowhead should host a competition to let players create a cape of their own, and it seems like Pilestedt is really intrigued by the idea.
Oh yes! That's a great idea!
Some legal hurdles to go through, but we should really do it.
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 11, 2024
The account-linking debacle is the biggest blow that "Helldivers 2" has faced so far, but it looks like Arrowhead is taking it all in stride while the game is getting back on its feet.