The battle for Super Earth is raging on in Helldivers 2, as gamers combat to carry again the invading Illuminate fleet. A brand new controversy surrounding the invasion, although, has led to some frustration and a recent flood of unfavourable opinions.
To set the stage, the most recent replace for Helldivers 2 — Coronary heart of Democracy — introduced months and months of storyline constructing to fruition. The Meridian Singularity, a black gap shaped throughout an operation towards Terminids, had been flung in direction of Super Earth because the tip of the spear for an Illuminate invasion. The “Nice Host” fleet flooded by means of the now-wormhole and onto Super Earth, turning the planet right into a battlefield.
Within the days for the reason that replace went dwell, gamers have fought to carry the varied Mega Cities of Super Earth, which correspond to main cities in real-life. York Supreme, for instance, corresponds roughly to New York, and Remembrance to Buenos Aires. Because the invasion has continued, increasingly more cities have fallen; as of this writing, solely Equality-On-Sea (Shanghai) and Super Earth’s capital, Prosperity Metropolis (Stockholm) stay standing.
Because the invasion has approached what appears like endgame, a lot has occurred. Helldivers gamers are inclined to “get into character” and play up the Main Orders, rallying behind totally different causes and calls to attempt to beat every new problem that developer Arrowhead lobs at them. Some, for instance, stopped taking part in matches on Super Earth to contribute to a brand new effort in one other sector towards the Automaton forces, which finally introduced the DSS — an enormous navy orbital house station — back to Super Earth to help with the defensive efforts.
With the Illuminate gaining floor and taking Mega Cities, efforts rallied behind Equality-On-Sea to make a final stand. Amid all this, there was a way of comradery prolonged throughout nations; as extra gamers dropped in to lift Equality-On-Sea’s share and maintain it towards the Nice Host, memes and assist flooded in. Even because the Illuminate centered efforts on town, gamers held out and saved diving.
It is all been pretty heartwarming and thrilling stuff, the form of emergent story that Helldivers 2 is kind of able to forging in its biggest moments; the place developer storylines, participant funding, and neighborhood efforts lead to some actually sensible moments of cooperative warfare theater.
However Equality-On-Sea by no means hit 100%. From right here, the state of affairs will get slightly extra complicated, and loads rougher.
Whereas gamers made a concerted effort to carry Equality-On-Sea towards the continued onslaught, the present arc closed with the cities’ share meter at 99.9783% (hold that quantity in thoughts). Most Main Orders and operations in Helldivers are about completion, a binary success-or-failure state. As some have identified, although, there might need been confusion about what the share meter meant within the protection of Super Earth. Quite than “liberating” a metropolis and re-taking it, gamers are holding it. So it stands to purpose that Helldivers won’t have the ability to “100%” the protection, as a result of the Illuminate are persevering with to invade.
This, alongside theories that the warfare is narrowing right down to an final showdown in Super Earth’s capital of Prosperity Metropolis, appears to be the principle driver behind a brand new inflow of unfavourable opinions on Steam. As of this writing, roughly 2,312 unfavourable opinions of Helldivers have been submitted to Steam within the final 24 hours in comparison with 324 constructive.
Lots of the unfavourable opinions are in Chinese language, and whereas the machine translation would not appear correct sufficient to cite, there are some recurring factors one can simply glean: frustration over driving the narrative, the notion of a thumb on the size from Arrowhead, and repeat mentions of “99.9783%.”
Right here we go once more! pic.twitter.com/z86PuaKvKd
— Helldivers NOW (@Helldivers_NOW) May 29, 2025
Now, it is necessary to maintain this all in context. Sure, there’s a recent spherical of unfavourable opinions on the sport, and it is clearly a bigger quantity than the common trickle of opinions. It additionally nonetheless, at this second, pales compared to the more-infamous review-bombing of Helldivers 2 from Might 2024, the place 1000’s upon 1000’s of unfavourable opinions flooded in over PSN necessities.
Gamers are, broadly, understandably frustrated. This ought to be a peak in Helldivers 2 historical past, as each the end result of a long-running storyline and one of many cooler in-game moments Arrowhead has concocted. I’ve spent a while diving on Super Earth, and it is actually an unbelievable feat. Arrowhead has nailed the sensation of holding out in these Mega Cities as huge, terrifying Illuminate forces rampage by means of, inflicting wanton destruction.
And since a lot of that is all tied into nationwide identification, the earlier sense of worldwide comradery has been tainted a bit too. Whilst gamers, mods, and fan accounts have urged players to not get caught up within the controversy, it has put a tinge of a foul style on this in any other case unbelievable second.
As of this writing, Helldivers are nonetheless holding out throughout the Mega Cities of Equality-On-Sea and Prosperity Metropolis, with the previous holding the upper share. It seems to be just like the battle for Super Earth is coming into its last section, and the present order is easy: Maintain Super Earth. Hopefully gamers can nonetheless maintain out, seize victory, and rejoice the nice in all this.
Eric is a contract author for IGN.