As a live-service game, let alone a sequel, Helldivers 2 has a shelf life. It’s unclear whether that shelf life will be extensive and fulfilling, but there may always be discourse regarding when or if a threequel could follow it. Five months away from its second anniversary, and despite numerous issues still plaguing it for countless players, it’s arguable that Helldivers 2 is in a great position to hopefully quell some of these problems as it continues to churn out fantastic content via updates and Warbonds.
Addressing speculation, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani recently put to bed any rumors of there being a Helldivers 3 in development already, and players presently enjoying their democratic onslaught against Terminids, Automatons, and the Illuminate thankfully won’t have to worry about packing their bags to move onto a new entry anytime soon. Meanwhile, this is fortunate in general, as Arrowhead could easily make Helldivers 2 a “forever game” and has work yet to accomplish in order to slay nasty ‘bugs’ of its own.
Helldivers 2 Hasn’t Yet Hit Its Apex, and It Shouldn’t Be Rushed
Helldivers 2’s incessant crashing and freezing, among several other framerate or memory/shader complications, have long blemished it. Therefore, talk of a possible Helldivers 3 is laughably undeserved, as Arrowhead would hopefully at least wait to abandon Helldivers 2 until it’s left it in a better condition than it is in at the moment. However, even though it’d be impossible to deny or overlook due to how vocal the game’s community has been, Arrowhead is perfectly conscious of all that tarnishes Helldivers 2 and is acting on it via an update that is scheduled to launch sometime in the latter half of October and begin “chipping away” at the following, as per a social media post:
- Some key crash fixes
- Fixed the primary weapon/Side-arm audio that stops during a mission
- Minor performance improvements
- Long overdue bug fixes, like Charger footstep sounds (pretty useful) or weapon audio stopping mid mission
- No more landing on caves
- A Balance Pass (we’re unleashing Niklas & Lennart)
This is fantastic news—“no more landing on caves” being particularly relieving—especially as the post goes on to address that there are larger problems it would like to resolve that will take a much greater amount of time to do so, but that Arrowhead wishes to continue being wholly transparent and “double down on fixes, polish, and better communication.” If nothing else, key crash fixes in the short term should be enough to lift a ton of players’ poorer receptions to the game out of the mud.
Indeed, if any multiplayer shooter has ridden a careening roller coaster on Steam that has threatened to derail at any moment, it is Helldivers 2. Right now, though, Helldivers 2’s player count is hovering around 153,415 players in-game via crossplay, with 65,891 players on Steam alone. Furthermore, Steam reviews have landed it a Mixed rating out of 14,495 reviews in the last 30 days at the time of this writing, with 66% being positive.
Helldivers 2’s Xbox launch was terrific for the game, and the game’s high player counts today are surely indebted to those who’ve stuck with it beyond the honeymoon period of a Helldivers 2 x Halo: ODST Legendary Warbond, as well as the climactic introduction of Dragonroaches and the reprisal of Helldivers’ Hive Lords.
Helldivers 2 Leaks Suggest There is No Shortage of Content to Look Forward to
One could debate that Helldivers 2 may have already hit a ceiling in terms of its enemy content because it has reached three factions, just like its predecessor. That said, according to rampant Helldivers 2 leaks, chiefly provided by IronS1ghts on social media, that would be nowhere near the case:
- New and reprised Illuminate units, such as Cultists and Council Members.
- New Cyberstan, the Automaton homeworld, or a return to the Cyborgs’ Cyberstan, which is established yet inaccessible on Helldivers 2’s Galactic War table map.
- Ship customization.
- Factory worlds, as well as a “planet-sized superweapon” that is allegedly in the same vein as Star Wars’ Death Star.
If every Helldivers 2 leak turned out to be legitimate, there’s still no telling what the developer has planned for years from now. It seems as if Arrowhead’s priority is finally on wringing out the game’s performance and technical issues, though, which is where its attention is direly needed, and players are probably completely content to wait for future enemy faction content as Arrowhead begins to “solder.”
A Helldivers 3 Would Need to Be a Justifiable Overhaul
Helldivers 2 made the leap from the first game’s isometric gameplay genre to its own third-person orientation, rationalizing why a sequel was warranted. Ideally, Arrowhead wouldn’t choose to uproot the series again, unless it was to incite an equally dramatic and game-defining transition.
A Helldivers movie being in development that will undoubtedly feature the same aesthetic and tone of Helldivers 2 is practically a confirmation that a lot has been and is being invested in the game, to the point where several or more years of post-launch content and development would be appropriately sufficient for player retention and establishing that brand with PC, PlayStation, and Xbox players all together now. It has become increasingly clear what improvements players want to see from the game’s performance, but there are also a ton of requests floating about concerning content that has yet to come to Helldivers 2:
- Melee buffs, if not an overhaul to how melee functions.
- Customization across the board, such as a highly unlikely armor transmog option, or customizations made for secondary weapons and the Destroyer, which has apparently leaked.
- Crossovers with other IPs like Helldivers 2’s Halo: ODST and Killzone collaborations.
- A SEAF-themed Warbond to commemorate players’ adoration for Super Earth’s lesser soldiers.
- More content from the first game reprised or repurposed for the sequel.
It’ll be fascinating to see what the state of Helldivers 2 is this time next year. If players are lucky, they’ll hopefully be able to enjoy new post-launch content in Helldivers 2 for the foreseeable future.