I love the game, and it has undergone enough fixes to be worthwhile now.

It now has improved replay value, offering a much more expansive network of upgrades, weapons, armours and other gear to work towards. Offering dynamic, limited-time missions and events that more live-service games should really be taking notes of.

All in all, my concerns about content have been almost entirely addressed. The neutral/performance concerns have been partially addressed, and most of the negative points are now completely negligible.


+
It has massive replay value, there are gameplay mechanics I haven't even considered the existence of in other games, and it balances realism and fun gameplay quite well.
Its battlepass feels like a nice-to-have once you've saved up enough premium currency (which the matches are quite generous with), rather than a necessity to keep up with the weapons you get through natural progression.

I don't know how it is for anyone else, but I also found that resource and level grinding hasn't been a bottleneck for mission performance - you can collect a decent amount of XP and samples (resources for upgrades) and medals (unlocking weapons, skins, taunts and team buffs) over time, without having to actively worry about it. As far as the gameplay quality goes, Helldivers 2 makes a joke out of other newly-released online co-op games. And that says a lot, considering most of them have come with an AAA sticker plastered over all the bugs and holes, as well as a pricetag that's triple of what this game asks for.

-
Please optimise the game. The performance is terrible in contrast to how much power it eats up. Not to mention that the game continues to eat all hardware usage even when you tab out.

Automatons can shoot through some natural terrain that seemingly have no projectile collision.

I feel like after 50 hours, I've already played through all the available mission and campaign formats - and while there is a good enough variety of them between the enemy factions, it would be nice to have more. I don't know what shape new missions might take or how they would connect to the campaigns they're in, but this was the main reason why I slowly burnt out of Deep Rock Galactic.

I know they are working on NPCs in missions; AI troops that can accompany you in missions, mechs and other vehicles for you to ride - so perhaps we could have missions where we (the Helldivers) are the reinforcements for an NPC battalion, or we (the Helldivers) are tasked with eliminating NPC troopers that have gone rogue and joined the enemy.

There are a lot of server issues. Some are simple nuisances and side-effects of server maintenance difficulties (planet statistics counters not working, bugged lobbies that people cannot join). Some armour customizability would be nice. As would if my client actually remembered and retained my character settings choices (body type, voice, taunts keep resetting).
I hope they add more soundtracks, adaptive music in a game like this is a godsend, but variety would be the cherry on top.

X
And some are more severe (games crashing mid-mission, players randomly booted, players cannot join at all, environmental features in map not responding to player input).
Current balancing is horrendous. Some weapons are redundant, enemy spawns are completely random and environmental hazards too frequent (especially meteor showers), etc. Enemies on higher difficulties shamelessly spawn right in front of your face, without Bug Breaches or Drop Ships. It's extremely frustrating to deal with on higher difficulties, because there are a lot more hostiles to begin with; not to mention that sometimes you have no idea which ones are about to call in reinforcements, so you get stuck in an infinite loop.

The game frequently crashes no matter how much I fiddle with settings. It has happened up to 5-6 times in one day, and it has happened from practically anything: Leaving game to go to your own ship, leaving party, joining party, kicking a player, starting the landing sequence, or just during completely random moments. But I still want to say that there are good days, and there are bad days. They are currently at a 2:1 ratio or something for me.

The performance is horrendous. No matter how much I tweak my settings, the game fluctuates between an unstable 40-70fps, sometimes hitting 30 for no discernible reason. I'm playing on a 3080, 64GB, 7 3700X build which has so far taken on any other game in my library head on at a stable 100~ or higher framerate at High-Ultra settings at 1440p. Reducing all the power-hungry settings in Helldivers 2 only nets something of a 10-15fps increase.
My friend who plays on a much older rig with a 1050Ti runs between 20-40fps on Low settings at 1080p, but God forbid if more than 2 other people join because then it plummets to 15fps - I wouldn't have thought that this is what they meant when they said "Minimum requirements".

The anti-cheat scandal, controversy, whatever you want to call it: There are countless threads, posts, discussions, and reviews that complain and exclaim about its usefulness, vulnerabilities, risks and dangers. While I do not fully know how true any of them are (because a part of me also believes that some posts are just fear-mongering, failing to provide evidence of any sort), there is no denying that it has sparked serious paranoia in the community, posed a risk to Arrowhead's reputation, and the damage control that has been put forward could have been avoided completely if they had just used a different anti-cheat and looked at the current solution's past controversies.

I love the game, and it has undergone enough fixes to be worthwhile now. It now has improved replay value, offering a much more expansive network of upgrades, weapons, armours and other gear to work towards. Offering dynamic, limited-time missions and events that more live-service games should really be taking notes of. All in all, my concerns about content have been almost entirely addressed. The neutral/performance concerns have been partially addressed, and most of the negative points are now completely negligible. + It has massive replay value, there are gameplay mechanics I haven't even considered the existence of in other games, and it balances realism and fun gameplay quite well. Its battlepass feels like a nice-to-have once you've saved up enough premium currency (which the matches are quite generous with), rather than a necessity to keep up with the weapons you get through natural progression. I don't know how it is for anyone else, but I also found that resource and level grinding hasn't been a bottleneck for mission performance - you can collect a decent amount of XP and samples (resources for upgrades) and medals (unlocking weapons, skins, taunts and team buffs) over time, without having to actively worry about it. As far as the gameplay quality goes, Helldivers 2 makes a joke out of other newly-released online co-op games. And that says a lot, considering most of them have come with an AAA sticker plastered over all the bugs and holes, as well as a pricetag that's triple of what this game asks for. - Please optimise the game. The performance is terrible in contrast to how much power it eats up. Not to mention that the game continues to eat all hardware usage even when you tab out. Automatons can shoot through some natural terrain that seemingly have no projectile collision. I feel like after 50 hours, I've already played through all the available mission and campaign formats - and while there is a good enough variety of them between the enemy factions, it would be nice to have more. I don't know what shape new missions might take or how they would connect to the campaigns they're in, but this was the main reason why I slowly burnt out of Deep Rock Galactic. I know they are working on NPCs in missions; AI troops that can accompany you in missions, mechs and other vehicles for you to ride - so perhaps we could have missions where we (the Helldivers) are the reinforcements for an NPC battalion, or we (the Helldivers) are tasked with eliminating NPC troopers that have gone rogue and joined the enemy. There are a lot of server issues. Some are simple nuisances and side-effects of server maintenance difficulties (planet statistics counters not working, bugged lobbies that people cannot join). Some armour customizability would be nice. As would if my client actually remembered and retained my character settings choices (body type, voice, taunts keep resetting). I hope they add more soundtracks, adaptive music in a game like this is a godsend, but variety would be the cherry on top. X And some are more severe (games crashing mid-mission, players randomly booted, players cannot join at all, environmental features in map not responding to player input). Current balancing is horrendous. Some weapons are redundant, enemy spawns are completely random and environmental hazards too frequent (especially meteor showers), etc. Enemies on higher difficulties shamelessly spawn right in front of your face, without Bug Breaches or Drop Ships. It's extremely frustrating to deal with on higher difficulties, because there are a lot more hostiles to begin with; not to mention that sometimes you have no idea which ones are about to call in reinforcements, so you get stuck in an infinite loop. The game frequently crashes no matter how much I fiddle with settings. It has happened up to 5-6 times in one day, and it has happened from practically anything: Leaving game to go to your own ship, leaving party, joining party, kicking a player, starting the landing sequence, or just during completely random moments. But I still want to say that there are good days, and there are bad days. They are currently at a 2:1 ratio or something for me. The performance is horrendous. No matter how much I tweak my settings, the game fluctuates between an unstable 40-70fps, sometimes hitting 30 for no discernible reason. I'm playing on a 3080, 64GB, 7 3700X build which has so far taken on any other game in my library head on at a stable 100~ or higher framerate at High-Ultra settings at 1440p. Reducing all the power-hungry settings in Helldivers 2 only nets something of a 10-15fps increase. My friend who plays on a much older rig with a 1050Ti runs between 20-40fps on Low settings at 1080p, but God forbid if more than 2 other people join because then it plummets to 15fps - I wouldn't have thought that this is what they meant when they said "Minimum requirements". The anti-cheat scandal, controversy, whatever you want to call it: There are countless threads, posts, discussions, and reviews that complain and exclaim about its usefulness, vulnerabilities, risks and dangers. While I do not fully know how true any of them are (because a part of me also believes that some posts are just fear-mongering, failing to provide evidence of any sort), there is no denying that it has sparked serious paranoia in the community, posed a risk to Arrowhead's reputation, and the damage control that has been put forward could have been avoided completely if they had just used a different anti-cheat and looked at the current solution's past controversies.