Arrowhead Game Studios has acknowledged Helldivers 2‘s recent Escalation of Freedom update “didn’t hit [its] target” following significant criticism from the community, and it’s detailed the steps its taking to address core areas of complaint over the next 60 days.
Helldivers 2’s latest round of community unrest followed the launch of last week’s major Escalation of Freedom update, which featured headline additions including new mission objectives and enemies. However, it’s some under-the-hood balance tinkering that’s proven particularly controversial, with nerfs to the popular FLAM-40 flamethrower – which has significantly reduced its effectiveness against Chargers – drawing considerable ire.
Various senior team members have already acknowledged player feedback – Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani drew parallels with a similarly unpopular balance update released in April (thanks PC Gamer), confirming the studio was already discussing “what we can do to avoid this situation again” – but now the developer is ready to offer a more formalised plan of attack.
