Helldivers 2 drops to Mixed reviews on Steam, but more people than ever are playing

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Helldivers 2 has yet to recover from its disastrous weekend, where the new server cap left lots of players waiting to dive in, and the broken matchmaking made it harder to find a squad. The result: Mixed reviews on Steam, dropping 10% from the Mostly Positive rating of 78% prior to the weekend.

While some players are calling this a review bombing campaign, that's an unfair representation of what's happening. Review bombing tends to be cynical and disingenuous, with groups of players making a concerted effort to punish a game for perceived slights or to push an agenda, while this is a reaction to genuine issues with the game itself.

Negative reviewers primarily cite server issues as the source of their dissatisfaction, specifically the game being at capacity and matchmaking not working. Even these negative reviews, however, acknowledge that Helldivers 2 is great, when it's actually playable.

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"Great game. Wish I could play it," one review reads. "Game is extremely fun when I am actually able to play it," another reads. Countless other reviews share this sentiment.

The bulk of the negative reviews appeared on February 18, the second day where matchmaking wasn't working. Prior to the weekend, it was getting around 1,000 negative reviews a day, with a peak of 2,631 on launch day. From Saturday onwards, though, it's been receiving more than 4,000 negative reviews a day, with 6,432 on Sunday.

It's worth noting that these negative reviews have also been accompanied by a spike in positive reviews. On Saturday and Sunday, positive reviews numbered at 8,122 and 7,972 respectively, emphasising the fact that it's still possible to have a great time in Helldivers 2, at least if you've got a group of pals to play with. Certainly, when I was stomping bugs and blowing up robots with my PCG crew over the weekend, I entirely forgot about all the issues.

Reviews fluctuate rapidly, so this isn't a death knell for Helldivers 2. Indeed, initial reviews gave it a Mixed rating at launch, which it quickly recovered from. And none of this has actually stopped people from trying to play. The last few days have shown the game at its worst, but yesterday also saw 411,359 people playing concurrently just on Steam—a new peak.

Today might see things start to turn around, too. "We have improvements rolling out this week focused on the most serious problems in the game: login, matchmaking, and server load," Helldivers 2 production director Alex Bolle said yesterday. "You will see one update for PC and PS5 tomorrow, though please keep in mind that no single update will solve all the issues. Rather, we will be making continuous improvements over the days and weeks to come."

In the meantime, players have been sharing friend codes on Discord and Steam, and after adding them you'll be able to see those players in missions, allowing you to join them even though matchmaking is broken. We've still got those automatons to smash, after all.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.