Co-op shooter Helldivers 2 was enjoying tons of success in the months since its February launch. Then, a few days ago, Sony announced that PC players had to link (or create) a PlayStation Network account to continue playing the game. This enraged fans who have been playing for months, resulting in a massive review-bombing scheme that cratered Helldivers 2’s Steam score. On May 6, Sony reversed this mandate, and now Helldivers fans are corralling to lift Arrowhead Game Studios’ live-service multiplayer shooter review back up on Steam, giving thousands of positive reviews in two days in what the community has dubbed “Major Order: Operation Clean Up.”
Helldivers 2 launched to an “overwhelmingly positive” rating on Steam on February 8. It was—and still is—one of 2024's hottest games, garnering hundreds of thousands of players with its fun, chaotic gameplay and clever storytelling. On May 3, Sony told players that a PlayStation Network account was required to play the PC version of Helldivers 2. This mandate obviously riled up the community, with many going to (digital) war over it, review-bombing the game on Steam and sharing angry posts on social media with such intensity that Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt apologized for the issue. Three days after the announcement, Sony announced it would remove the PlayStation Network account linking requirement.
Now Helldivers 2 fans have rallied to pay it forward. In the game’s subreddit, a moderator dropped a new Major Order, which are main objectives in the live-service shooter usually passed down by Arrowhead, calling for fans to reverse their negative reviews.
“Sony has reversed their decision to move forward with the account linking update,” the post, created by OmegaXesis on May 6, reads. “Helldivers; should you choose to accept this major order. Please consider reversing your steam review. Arrowhead has worked very hard to make this game special, and you the player have shown both Sony and Arrowhead that your voice matters too. Let us restore Helldivers 2 on steam back to its former glory. And let us restore this community back to normal. Please reverse any negative reviews you left for any other games that Arrowhead or Sony has worked on. Let’s do better as a community and not do that again. Thank you, Helldivers mod team.”
At the time of writing, over 75,000 positive reviews have been submitted since the Major Order was delivered, raising Helldivers 2's Steam rating from “mostly negative” to “mixed.” With over 600,000 reviews right now, the game has a “mostly positive” rating overall, but if this Major Order continues as planned, I’ve no doubt that Helldivers 2 will, as OmegaXesis said in the subreddit, return to its former glory of “overwhelmingly positive” reviews on Steam. For his part, Pilestedt said he’s impressed with the community’s “willpower” to collaborate together and effect change.
I guess good things happen when you use your voice.
In other Helldivers 2 news, the game received a patch on May 7 that addressed some lingering issues. This includes things such as misaligned scopes, damage over time problems, crashes and other bugs, and much more.