Arrowhead Game Studios’ acclaimed PvE co-op shooter Helldivers 2 has had no shortage of content to enjoy since its launch in February 2024, with the developer frequently updating it with new Warbonds full of gear to unlock, new enemy sub-factions that spice up gameplay with unique unit types, major narrative events like the Battle for Super Earth, and more.
Throughout all of it, though, the fundamental core of the game — dropping into a map, routing your way through it and completing objectives while fighting off waves of enemy forces, and extracting — has never changed.
Now, that’s not a bad thing, as Helldivers 2’s highly dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay and its diverse array of weapons to use, stratagems to call in, and democracy-hating alien menaces to fight make it one of the most replayable co-op shooters in the genre.
Still, it would be interesting to see what an experience that shakes up the structure and format of the game would look like. And according to Arrowhead founder, chief creative officer, and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt, the studio is apparently working on a prototyped roguelike/roguelite mode that does exactly that.
“Hey! We have a prototype of a rogue-lite mode,” he wrote in reply to a fan suggesting a roguelite/endless survival experience on a single map with constant and/or repeatable objectives. “It changes the game fundamentally!”
Knowing that Arrowhead has something like this in the works naturally has me dying to see it in action, though given that this roguelite mode is still in the prototyping phase, it’ll likely be quite a long wait until it’s shown off or comes to Helldivers 2 — if it even does.
Still, it’s exciting to learn that the developer is thinking outside the box and playing around with ways to take its beloved bombastic co-op shooter in creative new directions. It also gets my imagination churning with the possibilities, especially considering how wide Helldivers 2’s sandbox is.
I can see Arrowhead experimenting with a ton of different things, such as randomized upgrades or sets of them to choose from, multiple limited-time objectives that force you to make some tough decisions about where you go next à la Elden Ring Nightreign, a classic Halo Firefight-style experience with never-ending waves of foes and opportunities to rearm and gear up between them, and more.
Ultimately, the sky is the limit here, and it’s reassuring to hear from Pilestedt that this prototyped mode “changes the game fundamentally.” That signals to me that it’s not just some minor spin on the existing Helldivers 2 formula, and would truly be something completely fresh and different if it ever saw the light of day.
It’s worth noting that while Helldivers 2 has an MSRP of $39.99 across PC, PS5, and now Xbox — it launched on the platform in August alongside the Into the Unjust update, spiking player counts so high it crashed servers and becoming a massive success — it’s currently on sale for some steep discounts on all three platforms.
Specifically, it’s going for just $29.49 at Loaded on PC, and the PS5 version is selling for $29.99 at Best Buy. Sadly, there aren’t any deals for the Standard Edition on Xbox, but you can get the $59.99 Super Citizen Edition with exclusive extra cosmetics on Xbox for $50.89 at Loaded.
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