Arrowhead Game Studio’s Helldivers 2 is a fantastic co-op game when you’re in the action, but there’s very little to do outside of missions… unless you enjoy spamming the rock, paper, scissors emote.
While the developers are currently working on fixing bigger problems, such as the game’s massive file size on PC, fans have clamoured for a Destiny-like social space that gives players a chance to hang out with others and find new friends.
This feature has been so requested that it was the subject of speculation and leaks for almost a year. Last year, the arrival of the Democracy Space Station was assumed to be some form of social space for players to start and join clans and meet others. This wasn’t the case, but players are still asking for it.
In response to players on Discord, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani explained that this feature is planned for the studio’s next game. Unfortunately, that likely means it won’t be possible in the current version of Helldivers 2.
“I realize it’s probably never gonna be a thing in HD2, but for the next game I’d really appreciate a social hub space station (like the tower in Destiny),” one fan told the Arrowhead CEO who responded, “It’s on the feature list for the next one.”
It makes sense that a social hub is either unfeasible or impossible in the current version of Arrowhead’s multiplayer game. Created in a defunct game engine, there seems to be a lot of tech debt surrounding the title, but the studio has crafted a brilliant and bombastic experience with what they have.
Nevertheless, Helldivers 3 is a long time away from now with Arrowhead dedicated to supporting the current game for as long as possible. Earlier this year, Jorjani explained that a third game is “hopefully many years away” with the studio “focusing on the here and now”.
When the next game does release, it seems that Arrowhead may be opting to use Unreal Engine for title, although that is unconfirmed. Speaking on Twitter about the current game’s tools, Arrowhead COO Johan Pilestedt explained: “Our crazy engineers had to do everything, with no support to build the game to parity with other engines.”
Helldivers 2 has just received its Into the Unjust update, allowing players to dive inside the Terminid hives to give them a healthy dose of democracy, and there’s a lot more updates planned for the future.
