Arrowhead’s mostly beloved, sometimes infuriating multiplayer co-op game Helldivers 2 has been hit by review bombs yet again.
Following the game’s 7.2 Devoid of Liberty update, which added a new warbond to the game alongside balance changes and bug fixes. The biggest addition to the game, though, was the change in anti cheat which has broken some of the co-op game’s most ambitious mods.
Since launch, Helldivers 2 has used GameGuard as its anti-cheat solution. While cheaters were present in HD2, they usually just spawned in premium currency, although recent hacks involved aimbots, wallhacks, and other cheats. While present, the co-op game hasn’t really suffered from a slew of cheaters in the same vein as other games.
Nevertheless, with the arrival of Helldivers 2’s 7.2 update, Arrowhead replaced the game’s anti-cheat solution with Easy Anti Cheat, a kernel level anti-cheat solution that has proven controversial in other games. At the time of writing, a slew of negative reviews are hitting the PvE game in response.
In a blog post announcing the change in anti-cheat, Arrowhead confirmed that non-scripted cosmetic mods should work fine. In game, this has proven to be correct, with mods such as the ever-popular Cat Ear Compendium, working completely fine within the co-op game.
However, other mods are not supported including any mods that change the UI, such as the mod which allows you to click on a menu list instead of scrolling down an ever-increasing menu, or anything that requires scripting.
If Helldivers 2 detects any mod that adds or changes scripts within the game, the game will no longer boot. This means that mods such as Custom Galactic War, which allowed players to play with long-requested features such as multi-faction battles, custom maps, and other additions, are now unplayable.
In a statement to fans on Discord, the mod team confirmed that the mod “is down for the foreseeable future” with a statement on social media saying “EAC has effectively put a stop on CGW for the time being”. While mod makers are still “looking into alternative options”, such as staying only available for previous builds of the game or building an EAC bypass every time the game updates.
In the day since Arrowhead introduced the change in anti-cheat, Helldivers 2 has been met with negative reviews. The game is currently sitting at a “mixed” reception on Steam with recent reviews trending towards the negative.
“They have taken away what was fun for me,” one player said. “Broke most of my fave mods,” another with 700 hours said.
“A good game, with solid foundation and fun mechanics,” added a player with 300 hours of gameplay. “But as much as I love this game AH seem to not listen at all the community, and don’t seem to want to change things for the community, but for their weird vision of the game. The amount of well know bugs that still exist after 2 years, that they don’t even make a move to fix them. Tiny bugs and inconveniences that adds up into a mayor [sic] inconvenience. On top of that, now the anti-cheat makes it harder to mod the issues they don’t want to fix.”
Alongside the anti-cheat issue, players have also complained about the latest warbond was also falsely advertised. While a smaller issue, the trailer shows that the new R-40 Sightline can take down an Automaton Hulk with a single-shot in the eye, which cannot happen in-game.
The review bombing is just another in a long line of review bombs for Helldivers 2. Earlier this year, the game saw a major strike of review bombs over the game’s grindy nature as the continued development of Warbonds seemingly overtook major new features and improvements. The game quickly sunk to “mostly negative” on Steam which pushed Arrowhead to incorporate major changes.
More than most games these days, Arrowhead’s multiplayer PvE game seemingly bounces from controversy to controversy, review bomb to review bomb. As it stands, the game still has long-standing issues and poor progression which still haven’t been improved, and fans are still annoyed.
