Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is a cooperative satirical shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) and Sony Interactive Entertainment, released on February 8, 2024. Up to four players descend from orbital ships onto hostile planets and fight the Terminids (giant bug-like biological forms), the Automatons (a cybernetic legion) and the Illuminate (a telepathic vanguard). The game is a satire of patriotic militarism in the spirit of Verhoeven's film Starship Troopers: the pathos of Super Earth is presented with irony. A buyer expecting a serious military sim risks being disappointed.

The key mechanic is calling in Stratagems: under enemy fire you enter a button combination to call an orbital strike, a vehicle drop or equipment. Friendly fire is always on: a teammate's rocket in your back is normal here and the community's main meme. The Galactic War is a living front where the outcome depends on player actions: if a Major Order fails, the planet stays under enemy control. The current Major Order is the offensive on the planet SEASSE (patch 6.1.0 "Uncover the Truth", March 2026).

Content model: a paid game ($39.99 at launch) plus Warbonds, battle passes with cosmetics and weapons at about $10 each. All combat options are available without extra payment; Warbonds add cosmetics and meta weapons without giving an advantage over the free gear. By May 2026, 23 Warbonds had been released, and the exosuit stratagem from the Exo Experts Warbond (May 7, 2026) ended up behind a paywall, which caused a wave of negative reviews on Steam.

Steam rating: "Mostly Positive" for all time (~83%), "Mostly Negative" for recent reviews (~38%, May 2026). The gap of 45 percentage points is typical of a GaaS shooter (game as a service), where the active audience reacts more sharply to balance. Online is around 67,400 on average (last week of May 2026), a healthy audience for a second-year shooter, and it grows by 200-300% during sales. In April 2026 Arrowhead committed to publishing development progress updates every two weeks.

Localization: the interface and subtitles are officially in Russian (with rare rendering bugs on some missions), and there is no official Russian voice-over: Sony has not released one since 2022. There are two community mods: TeamDiffDub (supported for patch 6.1.0, Nexus Mods) and DubDivers (in development, Nexus Mods). Crossplay between PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S has worked since August 2025; there is no cross-progression. A PSN account is not required to play: Sony dropped this requirement in May 2024.

The country is on the list of 8 blocked regions, and there is no Steam listing. Steam prohibits bypassing geo-restrictions through a VPN: a violation risks a permanent account ban, not a temporary one. Alternatives in a similar genre: Deep Rock Galactic, Earth Defense Force 6, Arc Raiders, The Finals.

Helldivers 2 is a cooperative satirical shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios (Sweden) and Sony: up to four soldiers drop onto hostile planets and repel the invasion of the Terminids, Automatons and Illuminate in a living Galactic War for Super Earth. The interface and subtitles are in Russian; there is no official Russian voice-over. Important: the game is region-locked by Sony in several countries, so a key is not recommended for those regions.