Like many at PC Gamer, I've been enjoying a healthy amount of Helldiving the last two months. Whether I'm shoulders-deep in pulped bug biomass or cowering beneath a storm of automaton energy bolts, Helldivers 2 has been a refreshing surprise. I expected Helldivers 2 to be good, but not "unforeseeable appeal that knocks out back-end servers and leaves players in a weeks-long login purgatory" good—similar to how I couldn't imagine Baldur's Gate 3 consuming the entire gaming consciousness for the tail end of last year.
Helldivers 2 isn't an anomaly. It's the product of 13 years spent honing the craft of creating jolly, gratuitous meat grinders
