Buff-heavy Helldivers 2 patch launches to positive reviews—and players are returning in droves

Hungry Helldivers 2 players—who have been drip-fed a series of buffs by Arrowhead developers over the past two weeks—have hit the servers hard following the major update’s arrival today, setting a three-month concurrent record and pushing the game’s review score back up.

After nearly a month of heavily negative reviews on Steam off the back of the Sony PlayStation Network incident and a round of controversial nerfs that nobody asked for, the recent review score for Helldivers 2 on Steam is finally back to “Mixed,” but a further look reveals nearly 3,000 positive reviews were recorded over just the past two days. Even more impressively, not a single negative review was submitted yesterday; a first for the title since mid-June.

“The devs have finally started giving us what we wanted. It’s worth it to come back,” one player said, while others mentioned they were reversing their negative reviews from the Sony saga and were dropping in to take on Terminids and Automatons once again. “For the first time in months, the game feels as fun as it did at launch.”

The Sept. 17 Helldivers 2 update included buffs and changes to over two dozen weapons and Strategems, most of which are reversing an assortment of nerfs issued by Arrowhead over the past few months—nerfs the community believed were unnecessary and unfun for the title. Now, with the power level of their equipment boosted, players are in a happier mood and are starting to reverse the game’s review score around.

The patch is all part of Arrowhead’s 60-day plan to revitalize the shooter. From buffing basic weapons to larger updates and continued work on quashing the bugs (no, not the Terminids), Arrowhead pledged its commitment to seeing Helldivers 2 back into the hearts and minds of a player base it felt it had lost since launch.

So far, at least according to the fans, the studio looks to be on the right track. “The thing that I would like to see most is my IRL friends playing it again after all of them stopped because of all the nerfs,” one said, hoping word spreads to the rest of Super Earth’s disinterested group to get them back in the fight. Others are a little more skeptical and hope Arrowhead can keep the content coming as the audience hungers for more. “A bump was expected. [It] remains to be seen whether it’s sustained long-term.”

Over 68,000 players flocked to Helldivers 2 after Sept. 17’s update, according to stats site SteamDB, tripling from its mid-20,000 average we’ve come to see over the past few months, and that’s just those playing on PC. The game’s active count is recording figures closer to six-digits, with more expected to jump back in during uptime and as the weekend approaches.

On the docket next as part of the 60-day pledge is an optimization update to improve performance and fix those pesky glitches impacting Helldivers 2 players. It remains to be seen whether Arrowhead will remain on track with the updates but after such a positive “re-launch” thanks to the Sept. 17 patch, hopes are certainly higher than they’ve ever been.