Helldivers 2 has received a new trailer in this year’s State of Play, but alongside that, it has also gotten delayed.
Helldivers 2 will be released on February 8, 2024, on PlayStation 5 and Steam. We had reported that earlier this year, when the game was originally revealed, Sony had promised it would be coming this year.
The original Helldivers is a top-down, twin stick shooter, whose main selling point was online co-op with PlayStation Plus. The basic scenario of an elite military unit fighting off an alien invasion gives way to Arrowhead Game Studio’s very refined online co-op gameplay.
Helldivers also has the distinction of having been playable across three generations of PlayStation. Upon its launch in 2015, it was published on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Windows via Steam. It was also designed it such a way that it could enable cross play across all these aforementioned platforms, so that your team could be playing on any of them and be playing together. In other words, the game functioned as a technical showcase for PlayStation, years before they offered PlayStation Plus on PC. It was also one of the very first games PlayStation published on Steam, although it would not quite predict the current era when we can reliably expect Sony’s biggest games to be published on PC a few months after they launch on PlayStation 5.
Helldivers 2 took the original’s premise and leaned harder on the Starship Troopers inspiration in its latest trailer. Whatever Sony has done with this game’s story, it will likely still take a backseat to Arrowhead Game Studios’ focus on pick up and play online co-op.
Helldivers did not receive a native port to PlayStation 5, but can of course be played there via backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4. Now, Helldivers 2 can only be played on Steam and PlayStation 5. Of course, it seems that Arrowhead has taken this opportunity to make a proper update of the game to be a showcase for the PlayStation 5 and its capabilities this time.
As a result, the sequel has changed genres to a third person shooter. This does feel like Arrowhead being unshackled from the technical limitations placed on the original, because it had to accommodate older platforms. But it also feels like the game is now more similar to many other games in the market, including games made by Sony themselves.
But then again, maybe this change was necessary for the Helldivers franchise to become bigger in this generation. If the delay is because of the large number of competition this year, or Arrowhead needing a little more time to refine, the game is going to have a huge chance to shine in 2024.
You can watch the Helldivers 2 trailer below.
