Recent reviews by Shadowpants

The game is mechanically sound. The reason for this negative review is due to a bait and switch that has been done by 2K in the name of 'balance', when the actual reason is greed. The VC digital currency which is needed to level up stats, is earnable by playing. The issue is the amount you can earn was stealthily DECREASED the day of launch and the cost to level skills was INCREASED. 2K benefited from glowing reviews during the seven day early access period and once the game launched they artificially ratcheted up the grind considerably; all a clear attempt to get more 'recurrent revenue' from an already $70 dollar game. Fie and shame on them. DO NOT PURCHASE VC FROM THEM. The only way to get this to stop is to savage them with reviews expressing the disgust we as consumers have for this type of deception and to hurt their bottom line. Infinite growth DOES NOT EXIST, so be content with the millions you already have you corporate parasites. We know that none of that extra cheddar makes it is way down to the developers or those that actually worked on the game.

Edited Review as of 5-6-2024: Ironic that a game that wants us to buy into the hyper patriotism that is generally poked fun at by using the guise of 'democracy' actually forced their corporate overlords to bend to the power OF democracy. Sony has relented from the PSN requirement. Hopefully they have learned (they haven't) that fostering the health of a game and its community will lead to greater returns rather than going scorched earth to just show a quarterly profit bump for the next quarter. The better you treat the consumer, the more we'll frequent your wares. Just be content with having ALMOST everything rather than actually having EVERYTHING.

Now Arrowhead Studio isn't innocent in all this. However they have been earnest in regards to their mistakes in this matter. Not once as I saw it, did they try to deflect the blame or put the onus on the user base. They have created something truly special here and have most certainly earned a second chance at our trust. As enraging as the last few days were for us as players, imagine how the devs felt. Years of their lives seemingly going up in flames because of corporate greed. I cannot even imagine how horrible that must have felt. We should all move forward together from here, cautiously, to put this incident behind us. We've managed to spread democracy to our fellow Helldivers who were affected by Sony's undemocratic actions, but now it is time to spread forgiveness to the developers. Thank you Arrowhead for the work you have put into this game and I suspect, being in our corner during this fiasco...at least as much as you could be publicly. Let's celebrate over a nice cool glass of Liber-Tea.



Original Review as of 5-5-2024: (In relation to the PSN debacle) My time with this game was phenomenal. But the fact that shady business practices all in service of short term stock bumps versus long term return, consumer goodwill and player satisfaction has forced me to recommend this game NOT be purchased or played by anyone else. I'm not blind to the strife involved for the developers of this game, they may bear some partial responsibility for this but they weren't wholly motivated by greed. They wanted to make a great game. They did that. It was their corporate overseers that pulled the choke chain around their necks...and as a result asphyxiated the game and a good portion of it's community. Playstation had ZERO reason to sell this game in regions that are not serviced by their network. There is no excuse for that ignorance. This was not a mistake, this was planned. Perhaps it is capitalism that needs to be managed, as it is trying to kill democracy and sell the remains.