Helldivers 2 Review: The Best Co-op Chaos Around, When It Doesn’t Trip Over Itself

Helldivers 2 is a co-op third-person shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios. In a squad of four you spread “managed democracy” across the galaxy, call in support from orbit and shoot bugs, robots and the Illuminate. The game came out on February 8, 2024 on PS5 and PC, and has been on Xbox Series X|S since August 26, 2025. We’ll tell you what it does well, where it stumbles and whether it’s for you.

What Helldivers 2 is about

You’re a Helldiver, an elite soldier of Super Earth. You drop from your Super Destroyer onto a planet, complete the objective and have to make it to extraction. You play solo or in a squad of up to four. Three enemy factions wait on the planets: the bug-like Terminids, the robotic Automatons and the Illuminate, who returned to the game in December 2024 with the Omens of Tyranny update.

Every mission feeds into a shared galactic war. Players around the world conquer planets and defend them against invasions. Missions earn you medals and requisition, which you spend on gear and ship upgrades.

Stratagems and friendly fire

Stratagems are the core of the game. During a mission you call in a 500kg bomb, a minefield, a shield generator, a machine gun turret or an air strike from orbit. Friendly fire is always on. A bomb thrown next to a teammate kills them just as reliably as an enemy, so the squad has to talk. That’s where most of the stories that keep people playing Helldivers 2 come from.

What has changed since launch

Arrowhead has kept expanding the game for free. Escalation of Freedom (August 2024) added difficulty 10, Into the Unjust (September 2025) brought Terminid hive worlds with caves, and Devoid of Liberty (August 2026) added a campaign into the Illuminate Void and raised the level cap to 300. In December 2025 the PC install shrank from about 154 GB to 23 GB. The latest addition is the new poisonous Noxious Terminid strain and caves on more planet types (November 3, 2026).

Premium Warbonds with gear are unlocked with Super Credits, which you can buy or find in missions. The first Warbond, Helldivers Mobilize, is free. Other Warbonds brought collaborations with Killzone, HALO: ODST and Warhammer 40,000.

What critics praise and what bothers players

On Metacritic the PS5 version has 82 from 69 reviews, PC 83 and Xbox Series X 85. IGN (90) called it the rare modern multiplayer game that does almost everything right. GameSpot (90) wrote it was the most fun it had had in a new shooter in years, and PC Gamer (86) called it a bombastic, strategically engaging and funny squad shooter. Eurogamer (80) praises the high-chaos, high-comedy firefights with friends.

The complaints are mostly technical. Reviews from February 2024 all mention server and matchmaking problems, Wccftech (60) called the game broken at launch and The Jimquisition (35) wrote about frequent crashes. In May 2024 Sony announced mandatory linking of Steam accounts to PSN. It dropped the requirement after a player backlash, but in the meantime the game was delisted on Steam in 177 countries and regions without PSN support. After Escalation of Freedom, Arrowhead also had to announce a 60-day plan and rebalance more than 70 weapons and stratagems.

Steam players rate the game 75.1% positive out of 1,172,918 reviews, which is Mostly Positive. Recent reviews are much worse: only 34% of 10,742 reviews from the last 30 days are positive (as of November 3, 2026). The same period covers the switch from GameGuard to Easy Anti-Cheat on October 20, 2026, after which Arrowhead said some mods may no longer work. Metacritic users give it 7.5.

Price, platforms and languages

Helldivers 2 costs €39.99 / $39.99 on Steam (regular price as of November 3, 2026). There’s no DLC on Steam; premium content is bought in game with Super Credits. On PS5 it’s part of the PlayStation Plus Extra catalog. It runs on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S with crossplay and needs an online connection, plus an online subscription on console. On PC you need at least a GTX 1050 Ti or RX 470 and 8 GB of RAM; an RTX 2060 or RX 6600 XT with 16 GB is recommended. Steam Deck rates it as Playable.

The game has full voice-over in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain and Latin America), Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and text in Korean, Polish, European Portuguese and Russian.

Who Helldivers 2 is for (and who it isn’t)

It’s for you if you have a group you can play with regularly. Helldivers 2 is at its best with four players on voice chat, working out who drops the bomb and who covers the extraction. You’ll enjoy it if a mission going wrong makes you laugh.

Skip it if you mainly want to play alone and for the story. The game is built around co-op and an online connection. Also expect weapon balance to shift with patches and the tech to act up now and then.

Verdict: Is Helldivers 2 worth it?

Yes, if you have people to play with. Helldivers 2 is one of the best co-op games of recent years. We’re giving it 8/10.

Critics agree that stratagems, friendly fire and the shared galactic war are an idea you won’t find anywhere else. After two and a half years Arrowhead is still expanding it for free. Points off for technical problems, balance interventions and recent player frustration on PC.

Playing Helldivers 2? More Sony games you can play on PC are in our list of PlayStation games on PC, and more reviews are in our Reviews section. You can find a squad on the GamersTogether Discord.

FAQ

This review is based on player ratings on Steam and critic scores on Metacritic, on reviews from IGN, GameSpot, PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Wccftech and The Jimquisition, and on official announcements from Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony. Information verified on November 3, 2026. More reviews are in our Reviews section.