Recent reviews by MeatShield

Simple and easy to use, and a great option for gamers who don't have a graphics card with support for frame generation or for use with a handheld gaming system. Well worth the small investment.

Edit: 2/25:
Things have changed, and it looks like server capacity has been increased and it's been easier to join games. Also, recent patches have added an AFK auto kick feature, which also contributes to a more positive gaming experience. Every time I've logged in, I've been able to go straight to my ship and start playing immediately, including having others join in my game. So, at this point I highly recommend Helldivers II. This is an EXTREMELY fun game -- when you can play it, and when you can get others to join you. But a game shouldn't be released where, after you spent upwards of $60 to play the game, you simply cannot. There's no other industry where you purchase a product, bring it home, and then have no access to that product. It would be like buying the latest Stephen King novel, loading it into your Kindle, and then when you open it up, finding that chapters were missing with a note saying "check back later to access this content." Or going to a movie and finding that sections didn't have CGI and other special effects completed, with captions reading "we couldn't complete the special effects in time for the release of this movie." For some reason, the video game industry gets away with selling a full-priced product that simply doesn't work. Of course, there's probably something in the terms and conditions that state that gameplay isn't guaranteed, so what can you do? I'm sure at some point all of these issues will be ironed out, so for now, I'd wait until then. Once these issues are worked out, then please do, grab this game -- it's great fun.

Not As Bad as The Reviews Make It Seem
I think the key to enjoying this game is to forget that it has anything to do with the Contra series, and just accept it as a top-down shooter. In that context, it's pretty fun: there's crazy weapons, cheesy one-liners, and lots of weird enemies to turn into jelly. Yes, it's a console port (capped at 30 FPS, only playable by controller) but it's possible to buy this game on sale for cheap (it's not on sale that often for consoles) and get some enjoyment out of it. I haven't had any bugs or crashes, and it plays fine at 30 FPS. Sure, 60 FPS would be better, but such is life. If you want to spend 20 minutes in stupid fun, this is a game that can provide it.

For a student project, this game feels like it could have been produced by an indie studio. I hope the instructor(s), and the students involved, are reading the comments posted by Steam users like myself, because it's a very impressive game so far. Yeah, I've only played a few minutes but it's clear that a lot of love went into this.

I played the hell out of this game when it was first released, so it was nice to find it again on Steam -- and at a discount. It looks like the game has been updated to work better with modern systems, so it looks great at 1920x1080 and runs smoothly on my archaic gaming laptop. It's your basic hack-and-slash set in ancient Rome. I've been playing it with my Xbox 360 wireless controller, and it controls well. The only slight critcism is not knowing which button presses go along with on-screen prompts, but it's not too hard to figure out. For the price, you're getting a great game that plays well in 2018.

I haven't been playing for long, but I wanted to put in a quick review to say how much I'm enjoying the experience. This type of game isn't one I'd normally play, so I can't speak to how great a game it is as far as tactical RPGs go, but for me it's been fun and also difficult -- and I'm playing at the easy setting. It's difficult in the same way the Dark Souls series is difficult, so that you might die many times before you realize the error of your ways and use a different tactic. This isn't a graphical powerhouse of a game, but it looks nice enough and plays well on my toaster of a laptop. The voice acting leaves a little to be desired. So far, a fun game.

Obviously I don't have much time in, but so far, I have to say, this game is stupid fun. It's really not even that good a game, but it's basically pennies right now, and if you have a toaster like I do, it will run great on the highest settings. Multiplayer is no more, so you're just left with a confused single-player story, but hey, there's not much else you can do for fun that's under a dollar, and I'm having fun.