Helldivers 2 gets mixed reviews on Steam due to crashes, pay-to-win and anti-cheat DRM

Helldivers 2 has been receiving mixed reviews on Steam, despite sales getting off to a strong start.

Although exact sales figures aren’t yet known, the game is currently number 3 in Steam’s global top sellers list, with SteamDB reporting that its peak concurrent players has already hit over 64,000 at the time of writing (nine hours after its release).

However, the game’s reviews are currently graded as ‘Mixed’ on the site – with more than 3,200 reviews currently registered, 52% of them are positive.

The general consensus among the 48% of reviews which are negative appear to revolve around the game’s tendency to crash, with some players tying this to the game’s reported use of nProtect GameGuard anti-cheat software.

“I’m playing on a 7900XTX and I’m getting crashes to desktop when I try to play a mission,” reads one review. “I’m sure this game would be fun to play, but I’m currently unable to actually proceed with a mission without getting freezes.”

Citing GameGuard, the same reviewer claims: “For now it’s currently causing issues launching the game, as every time I’m forced out of the game, I’m hit with a message that GameGuard isn’t present or active, keeping me from playing the game.”

“I was very much excited about the idea of playing this game,” adds another review. “I adored the original. Sadly, after consistent crashes to desktop and even a few [blue screens of death] thrown in for good measure, the only thing I can recommend is stay away until you hear about patches fixing these issues.”

Some reviews complain about server issues, while others criticise the game’s Battle Passes (named Warbonds here), the paid version of which contains not just cosmetic items but actual weapons too.

Some players have been suggesting this constitutes a pay-to-win situation, even though the game has co-operative PvE multiplayer instead of competitive PvP.

“The second Warbond is not free, it costs $10 to unlock,” says one reviewer. “You then spend the same credits from completing missions on unlocking cosmetics and weapons in this Battle Pass.

“If this warbond just had cosmetic microtransactions I would be fine with this. But putting items that give other players an advantage behind a paywall is incredibly greedy and short-sighted.

“It would be one thing if this was 2010, but it’s 2024. Players’ outrage at this is well known. When a company puts making money ahead of their players happiness in this way, it’s not a company whose games I can recommend to other people.”

Further reading

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Helldivers 2 lead producer Alex Bolle has been responding to some of the negative Steam reviews, acknowledging that there are issues and saying that the team is working to fix them.

“Sorry that you’re having trouble” Bolle said under one review. “We’re doing our best to try and resolve the issues that people are having. To increase the visibility of your issue please submit a ticket at our support page and attach any crash logs you have. You can find the support page through the Arrowhead homepage.

“I hope we can win you back once we have had some time to address the issues!”

Announced during a PlayStation Showcase event last May, Helldivers 2 was initially scheduled for release in 2023 before being delayed.

The sequel to 2015 PS4, PS3 and Vita game Helldivers, it takes inspiration from military sci-fi like Starship Troopers and has a focus on co-op play.