One of Helldivers 2's game directors has acknowledged fans' criticism of the game's latest update.
The Escalation of Freedom update was released on August 6, but numerous players complained about it on social media and forums.
The most notable issue that players have reported is that a large number of weapons in the game have allegedly been “toned down” and thus become less effective.
In a message posted on the game's Reddit page, game director Mikael Eriksson has now acknowledged the complaints and taken responsibility for them, saying the studio did not achieve what it wanted with the update.
“We've spent the last week listening to feedback, thinking about the path forward for Helldivers 2 and how we want to evolve the game,” Eriksson wrote.
“In short, we fell short of our goal with the latest update. There are some things we just didn't get right – and other more fundamental inconsistencies in our approach to game balance and game direction.
“All of this is up to us and we will own it. As many of you have stressed and we agree, what matters now is actions. Not words.”
Eriksson said the studio will release more updates over the next 60 days with the following goals:
- “Continue to review our approach to balance”
- Update the way the fire damage mechanic works “to optimize how the flamethrower serves as melee support.”
- Optimize gameplay “to prevent excessive ragdolling”
- “Rethink our primary weapon design approach” to make combat more exciting
- “Reprioritizing bug fixes” so that the most urgent bugs that most impact gameplay are fixed first
- Improve gaming performance, especially frame rate
- “Revise chargers”
The studio is also exploring creating an opt-in beta environment where players can test changes before they roll out to everyone, and also promises to make future patch notes clearer and provide more context and justification for the gameplay changes.
Sony announced in May that Helldivers 2 had become the fastest-selling game of all time on PlayStation. Sales had “far exceeded expectations” and 12 million copies were sold in the first 12 weeks on PC and PS5.
According to the platform owner, the live service game thus surpassed the 11 million copies of God of War Ragnarök sold last year, which it sold within 10 weeks.