I had every intention of sitting this one out.

There’s a unique phenomenon that applies to multiplayer games, wherein someone tries to convince their friends to buy a new game they’re excited about. It’s peer pressure combined with a lethal dose of FOMO. I’ve been on both sides of it, and it always plays out like a very persuasive cold call. I want to say yes, because I love gaming with friends, but I’ve also spent $60 on games we only played once.

My resistance to Helldivers 2 lasted halfway through the first weekend, until play reports filtered through group text. No details, just vibes. That’s all it took.

Helldivers 2 is an online cooperative shooter deeply reminiscent of Starship Troopers, including enormous bugs as antagonists. It plays a bit like Destiny plus Gears of War’s horde mode plus Call of Duty’s equipment progression (and related microtransactions). That sounds like a Frankensteinian horror stitched together from disparate parts, but it makes for a compelling experience. Helldivers 2 has been out on PlayStation and PC since early 2024 and, per the name, is the second game in the series. It just recently released on Xbox, and since I don’t game on those other platforms, it’s all new to me.

All games are designed around a play loop that drives the experience. The original Super Mario Bros. is all about jumping onto enemies and anti-gravity bricks, occasionally with the aid of psychedelics. Skyrim’s loop involves exploring dungeons, killing everything, picking up everything, and spending 10 minutes deciding what to drop so your character can move again. Gameplay loops are the building blocks upon which the game is constructed. All games have them. Great games find ways to mask or hide the mechanical elements.

There’s no avoiding the gameplay loop in Helldivers 2.