Helldivers 2 has already had its share of community-wide controversies less than a year after its release, with the latest being a potential turning point for the franchise. While Helldivers 2 had a massively successful launch that blew the expectations of both fans and Arrowhead games themselves, it always struggled to keep up a good relationship with the player base. While the recent Illuminate update is a fantastic reason for players to give the action-packed co-op shooter another chance, its recent collaboration has overshadowed some of its best features.

While the community criticized Helldivers 2 for its lack of updates and a long list of weapon nerfs, the largest issue was raised over Sony's adding unnecessary steps to the game. Although just when Helldivers 2 had been recovering from the impacting reviews resulting from Sony's PSN requirement and its ensuing backlash, Helldivers 2 caused even more outrage among fans for an entirely separate reason. The recent surprise release of a crossover between Helldivers 2 and Killzone 2 sounds like a match made in heaven at first, but the execution missed the mark in winning the goodwill of fans for both franchises.

The Killzone 2 Gear is Some Of The Coolest Yet

Blowing Helldivers 2's Armor Out Of The Water

It's no secret that Killzone 2 had an undeniably cool aesthetic, being an incredibly iconic Sony IP that's been relatively left behind over the years. While fans of the series are still waiting for a potential sequel, the Killzone franchise has been getting more love recently thanks to Helldivers 2 and even the GOTY Astro Bot. Not only is the Killzone 2 armor aesthetic fantastic in its own right, but it's a perfect fit into the world of Helldivers 2 both thematically and visually.

A perfect fit into the world of Helldivers 2.

While some of the cosmetics are simple decorations and banners, the armor and weapons were the stars of the show, with the incredibly iconic red-eyed gas mask offering a striking appearance on the battlefield. The weapons themselves were the StA-52 assault rifle and WASP launcher ripped straight from Killzone 2, with the latter only available as a temporary mission inclusion for the time being, although it is incredibly satisfying to use whenever the chance arises.

While this collaboration has all the makings to be a smashing success for Arrowhead games with its high level of quality and partnership with a beloved IP, there's one major aspect that left a poor impression on the community.

Fans Aren't Happy With The Price Of Helldivers 2's Collaboration

A New Sales Model That Doesn't Align With Past Content

The biggest problem with the initial store offering is that the items themselves had a huge markup from previous content, being roughly twice the size of a regular DLC , while offering less than a third of the content. Unlike previous es where a single purchase would net players with a plethora of content to unlock alongside bonus super credits as a nice bonus, each Killzone 2 item had to be purchased individually. When tallied together, each Killzone 2 item would cost players roughly $20 USD, which is especially hard to justify when compared to the most recent $10 that provided new vehicle skins, unique weapons, multiple strategies, and a return of $3 worth of super credits.

No matter how good the collaboration content is itself, the method of delivery is just as important when it comes to generating a positive reception from fans. Despite the backlash, it's somewhat of an industry standard to have increased prices for collaboration content given that more companies need a greater share of the profit, but Helldivers 2 failed to provide content worth the additional price tag.

While many players in the community still praised the skins for their authenticity and thematic consistency for Helldivers 2, it just wasn't enough to justify the increased price tag for less content.

The Developers Are Open To Fan On Content Updates

A Back And Forth Relationship With The Community

Another significant issue with the Killzone 2 gear is that it has a 5-day time limit to purchase it, likely to encourage players to buy without thinking so they don't feel bad about missing out in the future. Given that this wasn't the first time Arrowhead has had to do major damage control after an update, they were more than prepared to react immediately to appease fans.

As posted on the official Killzone 2 gear free of charge, which would previously have been released separately following the success of the Illuminate campaign.

Despite this being another controversy to add to the long list of Helldivers 2's less-than-stellar record, giving all players over $20 worth of free cosmetics is an incredibly generous way to smooth over any complaints. While this is a great way to show empathy towards the community, the multitude of poor decisions followed by backpedaling after fan complaints has started to get all too familiar.

Even with these problems happening on a somewhat regular basis, Arrowhead's willingness to listen to the community and provide reasonable changes, like adding a patch for buffing weapons that were previously nerfed, is something more companies in the industry should strive towards.

The Future Of Helldivers 2's Updates Are Relying On The Killzone Collab's Success

Providing More Incentives to Helldivers 2's Collaboration Content

Thankfully for Helldivers 2 fans, all future collaborations with the game will stay in tune with the themes and visual settings of the alien slaying franchise. While this may seem like a standard to expect from a gritty game like Helldivers 2, more and more triple-A releases have started to take inspiration from the ever-popular Fortnite to add colorful and immersion-breaking cosmetics. Even with this good news, the poor reception of the Killzone 2 crossover might spell doom for future partnerships with other franchises.

As reported by HelldiversAlert on X, community managers have spoken to the developers to say that this is still a learning experience for them, planning to apply the given to future releases. In the same message, the community manager also noted that the success of DLC Connect like this has a direct correlation with the free content updates like the Illuminate players can expect, further complicating issues over the DLC boycott.

There's still hope that the developers at Arrowhead will take the lessons learned from their Killzone 2 collaboration and apply them to future crossovers, eliminating the need to react to fans once again by sticking with what has worked best in the past. With Arrowhead choosing to forego the profits they could have made with the second Killzone 2 item wave by releasing it immediately for free, It's safe to say that there's not much chance of a repeat issue happening anytime soon for Helldivers 2​​​​​​.

Source: Helldivers 2/X, HelldiversAlert/X