Helldivers 2 has already had its share of community-wide controversies less than a year after its release, with the latest being a potential turning point for the franchise. While Helldivers 2 had a hugely successful launch that exceeded the expectations of fans and the Arrowhead games themselves, has always struggled to maintain a good relationship with the player base. While Illuminate's recent update is a fantastic reason for players to give the action-packed co-op shooter another try, its recent collaboration has overshadowed some of its best features.
Although the community criticized Helldivers 2 Due to its lack of updates and a long list of weapon nerfs, the biggest issue has been raised about Sony adding unnecessary login steps to the game. Although only when Helldivers 2 was reeling from the impactful reviews resulting from Sony's PSN account requirement and the backlash that followed, Helldivers 2 caused even more outrage among fans for an entirely different reason. The recent surprise launch of a crossover between Helldivers 2 and Death Zone 2 It looks like a match made in heaven at first glancebut the execution missed the mark in winning the goodwill of fans of both franchises.
Killzone 2 gear is some of the coolest yet
Taking Helldivers 2's armor out of the water
It's no secret that Death Zone 2 it had an undeniably cool aesthetic, being an incredibly iconic Sony IP that has been relatively left behind over the years. While fans of the series are still waiting for a potential sequel, the Kill zone franchise has been getting more love recently thanks to Helldivers 2 and even the award-winning GOTY Astrobot. Not only is it Death Zone 2 The aesthetics of the armor are fantastic in their own right, but they fit perfectly into the world of Helldivers 2 both thematically and visually.
A perfect adaptation to the world Helldivers 2.
Although some of the cosmetics are simple decorations and banners, tThe armor and weapons were the stars of the show, with the incredibly iconic red-eyed gas mask offering a stunning appearance on the battlefield.. The weapons themselves were the StA-52 assault rifle and WASP launcher ripped straight from the Death Zone 2with the latter only available as a temporary quest inclusion for now, though it's incredibly satisfying to use whenever the opportunity arises.
While this collaboration is set to be a smashing success for Arrowhead Games with its high level of quality and partnership with a beloved IP, there is one major aspect that has left a poor impression on the community.
Fans are not happy with the price of the Helldivers 2 collaboration
A new sales model that doesn't align with previous content
The biggest problem with the store's initial offering is that the items themselves had a large markup over the previous content, being approximately twice the size of a normal DLC pass, offering less than a third of the content. Unlike previous passes where a single purchase would net players a plethora of content to unlock along with bonus super credits as a nice bonus, each Death Zone 2 the item had to be purchased individually. When counted together, each Death Zone 2 the item would cost players around $20, which is especially hard to justify when compared to the more recent $10 pass that provided new vehicle skins, exclusive weapons, multiple strategies, and a $3 return in super credits.
No matter how good the collaboration content is, the delivery method is equally important when it comes to generating positive reception from fans. Despite the backlash, it is an industry standard to increase prices for collaborative content as more companies need a larger share of the profits, but Helldivers 2 failed to provide content worth the additional price.
Although many players in the community still praised the skins for their authenticity and thematic consistency for Helldivers 2It simply wasn't enough to justify the price increase for less content.
Developers are open to fan feedback on content updates
A back-and-forth relationship with the community
Another significant issue with the Kill zone 2 equipment is that he has a deadline of 5 days to purchase itprobably to encourage players to buy without thinking so they don't feel bad about losing in the future. Given that this wasn't the first time Arrowhead had to do major damage control after an update, they were more than prepared to react immediately to appease fans.
As posted on the official Helldivers 2 account X, they released the entire second wave of Death Zone 2 free gear, which previously would have been released separately following the success of the Illuminate campaign.
Although this is yet another controversy to add to the long list of Helldivers 2the less than stellar record, giving all players more than $20 in free cosmetics is an incredibly generous way to assuage any complaints. While this is a great way to show empathy towards the community, the plethora of bad decisions followed by backtracking after fan complaints started to become all too familiar.
Even with these issues happening regularly, Arrowhead's willingness to listen to the community and provide reasonable changes, like adding a patch to improve weapons that were previously nerfed, is something more companies in the industry should strive for.
The Future of Helldivers 2 Updates Depends on the Success of the Killzone Collab
Providing more incentives to support Helldivers 2 collaboration content
Fortunately for Helldivers 2 fans, All future collaborations with the game will remain in keeping with the themes and visual settings of the Alien Slaying franchise. While this may seem like a standard to be expected from a gritty game like Helldivers 2More and more AAA releases have started to take inspiration from the ever-popular Fortnite to add colorful, immersion-breaking cosmetics. Even with this good news, the poor reception of the Death Zone 2 crossover could spell doom for future partnerships with other franchises.
As reported by Helldivers Alert In X, community managers spoke with developers to say that this is still a learning experience for them, planning to apply the feedback given in future releases. In the same message, The community manager also noted that the success of DLC Connect like this has a direct correlation to the free content updates Illuminate players can expect.further complicating questions about the DLC boycott.
There is still hope that Arrowhead developers will build on the lessons learned from their Death Zone 2 collaboration and apply them to future crossovers, eliminating the need to react to fans once again while keeping what has worked best in the past. With Arrowhead choosing to forgo the profits they could have made from the second Death Zone 2 wave of items releasing them immediately and for free. It's safe to say that there isn't much chance of a repeat problem happening any time soon for Helldivers 2​​​​​​.
Source: Helldivers 2/X, Helldivers/X Alert
Helldivers II