After a prolonged period of not getting any patches or hotfixes at all, Helldivers 2‘s recent Viper Commandos update ended up being almost universally beloved by the community. A few problems remain, but it’s good stuff all around, and the whole Arrowhead Games studio is to blame for this.
The concept of “blame” is, of course, quite positive in this case, and the recently self-deposed former CEO of Arrowhead Games, Johan Pilestedt, has gone on record to make sure that Helldivers 2 players understand that the great new update was a team effort through and through. Specifically, Pilestedt says he had noticed some people giving him virtually all the credit for the Viper Commandos update, and he wanted to clear the air on this matter.
Helldivers 2 is a team effort, always
“I want to make it clear that the team are the ones that made [the Viper Commandos update] happen,” Pilestedt explained. “Without their effort, design sensibilities, diligence, and passion none of this would have been possible.” This is, of course, fairly self-explanatory when you take into account just how complex of a beast Helldivers 2 has to be in the backend: Pilestedt is simply the person in charge of the project at large.
At the same time, it’s not hard to see why the community might be attributing the recent shift in gameplay direction to Pilestedt, specifically. Helldivers 2 suffered a series of seriously problematic updates from the perspective of the players themselves, including – but not limited to – balancing concerns, oppressive enemy behavior and tankiness, and a massively slowed-down patching process.
Then, Pilestedt demoted himself down to the position of Director, and the next major update suddenly makes most weapons viable once again, kinda-sorta fixes the enemy’s patrol spawning and general behavior, and generally makes Helldivers 2 way more enjoyable once again.
While the community outlook is at a high point right now, it’ll be curious to see whether Arrowhead Games manages to keep this up in the coming weeks and months, as Helldivers 2 continues to develop. After all, the game was the ultimate industry darling for a good long while before the Sony crescendo. Following that situation, everything sort of came crashing down for a bit before Arrowhead Games managed to get things back under control.
So, good stuff for now, but only time will tell whether this sudden outburst of positivity is an outlier or a signifier of broader goodness, as it were. In the interim, the memes are plenty fun enough, and the game is in a solid state. What more could we ask for?
