Something a little more fun, and a change of pace from my last blog. Helldivers 2 and extraction shooters are a new form of gaming for me, at least. Not a huge fan of FPS games, even less a fan of multiplayer FPS games. Fornite, Call of Duty, even Battlefield. Whatever the case may be, have never been something I rush to play. The only time I’ll submit to playing these, is with friends and or family.
Recently I’ve gotten into several extraction shooters as part of my streaming repertoire. Hunt: Showdown, Dark and Darker, Warhhamer 40k: DarkTide, and Helldivers 2 have come to be some of the best FPS games I’ve played since the old days of Golden Eye or lan parties playing Battlefield 1942.
Helldivers 2 and Hunt, in my opinion, are the best in this genre, and couldn’t be any different from one another.
First, Helldivers 2. While the game is grind-y as all get out, and there is a 30$ price tag, in terms of content, its worth it. Sure, there is the ability to sink more money into the form of cosmetics, but you don’t have to, in order to feel like your both getting somewhere, and unlock things you would actually like to see and use. Most games in this field have cosmetics locked behind pricey micro-transactions. And I am not at all defending those. Here, you don’t HAVE to spend money to get good looking cosmetics. Same goes with Hunt: Showdown.
What about the game mechanics, how are they different? First, Helldivers 2 has skills and abilities you can unlock, by simply playing the game, and participating in that grinding. You get money and samples you can use to unlock different abilities, that make things far easier for you and your teammates. Hunt: Showdown is a bit different, first and foremost if you die in game, you loose the character you were building up. Any weapons or skills you unlocked, are gone. However, what makes it worth playing is not only the challenge of it, but EVERYONE is mostly in the same boat as you, so it never feels like your ever to outmatched. It is about skill, and hearing your opponent before they find you. Sound and a good headset are a must for Hunt. Plus, where Helldivers is a Scifi military game, Hunt is a hellish weird west game. And I LOVE that.
I’m not going to jump into FPS as much as the next person, I’ll play with friends, as that makes the experience way better then solo multiplayer. Always has been.