Helldivers 2 whacked with review bombs again—this time over nerfs

The latest nerfs in Helldivers 2 left many players dissatisfied with how Arrowhead Game Studios approaches balancing in the game. To voice their concern, Helldivers resorted to the old-school method—review bombing.

Since the release of the Escalation of Freedom update that introduced changes to how flame works and nerfs to the SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary, Helldivers 2 received 2,138 negative reviews on Steam. These new reviews write about how the developer is ruining the game by patching what’s fun.

“The developers seem to think that nerfing everything is the way to go, despite it being a PvE co-op game, not a competitive multiplayer PvP shooter. If players are having fun, then let them,” one player wrote in their Steam review.

“The idea of seeing a chart of ‘used weapons’ and thinking why don’t I change the most used weapons in a way that makes them as bad as the other weapons is crazy. Instead they could think, why don’t I just change the less used weapons in a way that makes them more popular choices in load-outs,” another Steam user wrote in regards to the Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani’s comment on the reasoning behind the Breaker Incendiary nerfs.

The consensus here is there’s no valid reason for these nerfs. Helldivers already slammed the game for having “horrible primaries,” and once the most popular options get nerfed, there’s not much left to use in their stead.

This is also not the first time the developer nerfed something fun. Back in May, for example, Arrowhead removed the shrapnel from the R-36 Eruptor, which was its unique feature. While the developer promised to focus more on the fun factor of weapons, it seems that history keeps repeating itself with nerfs nobody wants.