Hero image: Helldivers 2 Devoid of Liberty artwork. Image: Arrowhead Game Studios
Arrowhead Game Studios has published a look back at the Devoid of Liberty update for Helldivers 2, written by creative director Mikael Eriksson, and it is candid about what went wrong at launch.
The post, Launching Devoid of Liberty: A Look Back, went up on Steam on 25 September. It is split into what the team was going for, what it is still working on, and where it goes from here.
Eriksson describes the update as a “vertical slice” of the game Arrowhead wants to run every week. He is careful to say that this is about tone, not volume.
“Not in terms of new content (we can’t keep up with that), but in terms of fantasy cohesion. The Void’s presence transcended the game: it was felt outside of the SE Destroyer windows and the Galactic War map.”
The update grouped every Illuminate enemy into Fleets. Eriksson says the same approach is now being considered for all factions, because the studio does not want one loadout to suit every fight.
He names the SEAF squadmates as the feature he is most excited about. The post describes them as a squad that follows commands, and as a lifeline for solo players and understaffed squads.
The section on problems is the most direct part of the post.
“Launch stability was too patchy (pun intended). We had nasty crashes on fullscreen terminal interaction and issues for players using ultra-wide monitors. An update of this size needed a cleaner landing, and it took us two follow-up patches to get there.”
Eriksson also says players asked for two things above all, which were more time in the Void and a bigger say in how the campaign ended.
“Both of these are impacted by how we structured the campaigns: how many phases a Campaign runs, how long content stays live, and how much room our Game Masters have to react to the community in interesting ways. That’s the part we’re working on iterating on for the next big update.”
Quality-of-life requests remain on the list. The post says assist-reloading and clearer backpack icons were delivered, but that “there’s still a long list of smaller frictions behind them”.
For the next update, the commitment is short. Stability “will stay the priority between updates”, and the campaign structure work is “the one to watch”. No date is given for the next major update.
Helldivers 2 is A$59.95 on Steam in Australia.
Source: Arrowhead Game Studios – Launching Devoid of Liberty: A Look Back, Steam – HELLDIVERS 2