Arrowhead Game Studios has acknowledged that Helldivers 2's recent Escalation of Freedom update “didn't hit the mark [its] “target” following significant community criticism and detailed the steps it intends to take to address the top areas of complaint over the next 60 days.
The latest round of community turmoil for Helldivers 2 follows the launch of last week's major Escalation of Freedom update, which brought with it major additions including new mission objectives and enemies. However, it's a bit of under-the-radar balancing that's proven particularly controversial, with nerfs to the popular FLAM-40 flamethrower, significantly reducing its effectiveness against Chargers, drawing considerable ire.
Several senior members of the team have already taken player feedback into account: Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani drew a parallel to a similarly unpopular balance update released in April (thanks, PC Gamer), confirming that the studio was already discussing “what we can do to prevent this from happening again,” but the developer is now ready to offer a more formalized plan of attack.
In a post shared on Reddit, Helldivers 2 game director Mikael Eriksson wrote, “We've spent the last week listening to feedback, thinking about the future path for Helldivers 2 and how we want to continue developing the game. In short, we missed our mark with the latest update.” Eriksson added that the studio sees two types of issues it wants to address: “some things we just didn't understand” and “more fundamental inconsistencies in our approach to balance and direction of the game.”
“This is all on us and we will take it on,” he continued. “As many of you have pointed out, and we agree, what matters most now is action. Not talk.”
To that end, Eriksson shared the studio’s plan for the next 60 days, which will begin with an examination of its approach to balance. “Our intention is for balance to be fun,” he explained, “not ‘balanced’ for balance’s sake.” Arrowhead will also update the flamethrower’s “fire damage mechanic” to change how it functions as a close-range support weapon, but Eriksson stressed, “A quick direct return won’t work, as it will break other things.”
So, moving on to other complaints from last week's Escalation of Freedom update, Arrowhead will be reworking gameplay to avoid excessive “rag dolling,” rethinking its approach to primary weapons and “creating a plan to make combat more engaging,” reprioritizing bug fixes so that gameplay-impacting ones are addressed first, improving the game's performance, and reworking Chargers.
The studio is also looking to establish an opt-in beta testing environment as a “high priority” to improve its testing processes, and will be running regular surveys for players to gather more information and feedback. It also wants to improve communication with players, providing more context for changes in its patch notes and sharing more blog posts and streams to expand on those topics. “We also want to thank you for your patience,” Eriksson added. “We’re grateful that so many of you have provided constructive feedback and suggestions on the latest update.
Arrowhead’s decision to reconsider its approach to balance follows comments made by Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt in May. “I think we’ve gone too far in some areas,” he told players. “It feels like every time someone finds something funny, the fun is taken away.” Hopefully, the studio’s new commitment to balance will help it avoid falling into a similarly unpopular trap a third time.