HELLDIVERS 2's Battle for Super Earth Has Reminded Me of the Issues I Have with the Game

Recently, I’ve found myself slowly getting back into HELLDIVERS 2 and the fight for Super Earth. Now, I want to be clear that I’ve been having a lot of fun in the game, which is surprising, as I had got pretty bored with it. The move to fighting Voteless, or zombies, in giant cities will never not be fun, plus it does a great job of making you feel like you’re in a warzone. However, I don’t usually write about things I enjoy, but instead about what’s annoying me about Arrowhead Game Studios’ title at the moment.

Firstly, the Illuminate have to be one of the most boring enemy factions in the game to fight against. Here’s the thing: both of the other alien factions slowly developed new units with variations over time, which helped to make each planet and each fight unique. The Illuminate, however, has had none of this. 

For instance, if you go to fight the bots at level 10, you’ll see Tanks, Striders, Berserkers, and more. It makes each fight feel more epic, and also means you must start thinking strategically, at least until you drop the 500 kg bomb. However, if you do level 10 vs the Illuminate on Super Earth, then you mostly end up fighting waves of Overseers, Harvesters, Fleshmobs, and Stingrays. I know this seems like a lot as a list, but trust me, most of them act in the same way, so it gets dull really quickly. 

On that note, I don’t know who decided to have the Stingray do bombing runs, but they need to take a holiday. Look, flying enemies in HELLDIVERS 2 have always sucked, they’re an annoying pain to take down. But here’s the thing: THEY STICK AROUND! The Stingray, however, flies off after its attack, meaning you have to wait for it to line up another bombing run before you can shoot at it. This would be fine if it weren’t for the chaotic nature of the game, which means you sometimes just don’t have the time to shoot it and then BLAM… dead. 

I have a similar issue with the Leviathan, which is the giant bug-looking ship that floats around the map, taking pot shots at you. Now, that one rarely kills you in one, but honestly, it’s more annoying when you suddenly lose a chunk of health because it sniped you across the map. 

Speaking of airborne attacks: I don’t know what it is about the city maps, but they make half the stratagems completely useless. I have seen my orbital laser vanish more often than I can count, and it’s got to the point where I don’t really use more than just the turrets. This odd design also extends to some of the mission types as well.

If you’ve never actually played HELLDIVERS 2, let me quickly explain how it works. When you start the game, you have to select a trio of missions, each of which can range from 12 to 40 minutes. The aim here is to finish each main objective in the trio, which will then benefit the overall goal for the planet (be it taking it over or defending it). 

One of these missions is Evacuate High Value Assets, which was introduced a few months ago and is arguably one of my favourite missions to play. However, when it comes to the defence mission on Super Earth, it has to be one of the dullest. The issue with the mission is twofold: firstly, there is only one gate on the map that the enemies must move through, which they struggle to do as the Illuminate lack any large attacking units. They have Harvesters, but you can take those down with a basic turret and their AI struggles to navigate through the main gate if there are any Voteless. 

As I said, the game is still a lot of fun, and I’m dreading the end of Super Earth, which could mean the end of fighting in cities. However, I think we’re getting to the point where they either need to end this campaign or have one of the other factions join the fight.