Helldivers 2 quickly became one of 2024's biggest hits, garnering a huge audience and an unexpected explosion of popularity when the game launched in February of that year - a considerable step up from developer Arrowhead Game Studios' previous game in the series, which had an all-time peak of under 7,000 total players on Steam. Going into 2025, however, Helldivers 2 has undergone some significant changes, and for new and returning players alike, it's worth questioning if the game is still worth getting into.

Over the course of 2024, Helldivers 2 has already had a tumultuous history of updates, with heavy-handed balancing changes, bugs, performance issues, and the narrowly averted implementation of mandatory PSN linking on Steam, all sparking backlash from players to the point that, at multiple points in 2024, Helldivers 2's Steam reviews took drastic hits. More recently, though, Helldivers 2 has been on a definite upswing, winning Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2024 and, more importantly, putting out several updates that have been largely well-received - including the introduction of the game's third major faction, the Illuminate.

Helldivers 2 Updates Keep The Game Fresh

Regular Updates Are Constantly Evolving Helldivers 2

Closing out the first year, Helldivers 2 has received several updates in a row, which have included major course corrections in of balancing, new content, and, most importantly, an entirely new faction in the Illuminate, a reintroduced enemy type from the first game. The regular addition of new Warbonds, new Major Orders, and an ever-changing galactic map means that Helldivers 2 can manage to stay fresh between play sessions, and there's plenty of new content for new or returning players to check out, especially if they've taken a long break from the game.

Whereas, closer to the game's release, Helldivers 2's approach to balancing player equipment was controversial, to say the least, more recent updates have switched up the game's approach, offering meaningful and interesting buffs for a wide variety of weapons, giving players a wider selection of effective tools. The game's difficulty, fortunately, has mostly managed to keep up with the higher levels of player power, with the highest difficulties in particular still able to offer a meaningful challenge even after player tools received significant upgrades for several patches in a row.

A tenth tier of difficulty, "Super Helldive," was added in a post-launch update, featuring exclusive challenges and rewards, and future updates may bring even more tiers of difficulty.

As of the game's most recent major update, the Illuminate faction has also provided some much-needed variety. It provides players with a third front to fight on that has drastically different enemies from the Terminids and Automatons, which have been in the game since launch. The "Voteless" zombie hordes and shielded enemies that Illuminate missions pit players against require a different approach from either of the other two factions. This allows players to use different tools and gives them more choices about where they want to direct their efforts.

New Content Planned For Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2's Developers Have Promised To Continue Updating The Game

Furthermore, while plans are vague at this point, the developers behind Helldivers 2 have confirmed their intention to keep ing the game, with the game's Creative Director and COO of Arrowhead, Johan Pilestedt, commenting on X that "we are growing Helldivers 2 into Helldivers 3", ensuring that the game will continue to receive new content. After the addition of the Illuminate, it's likely that more significant additions in that vein will take some time to be implemented, but new enemy types for existing factions, new mission types, and new player equipment are likely all in the works.

The games Warbonds are also released regularly, bringing new weapons, armor, stratagems, and cosmetics to the game, functioning as their mini-updates to give players new tools to play with. ittedly, however, grinding for Warbonds without spending additional real money on Super Credits can be a grinding process and incentivizes playing on lower difficulties, where the game may not present enough of a challenge to be interesting for every player.

Already, after the addition of the Illuminate, the game has received some minor updates in the form of Helldivers 2's Killzone crossover (which came at the cost of controversy over pricing and FOMO marketing tactics) and the addition of the W.A.S.P. Launcher stratagem, which was made freely available to all players. Helldivers 2's developers have already discussed the possibility of future crossover content for the game as well, promising to learn from the mistakes of the Killzone crossover, opening up more possibilities for the game's future.

Why Helldivers 2 Is Still Worth Playing In 2025

A Year After Launch, Helldivers 2 Is Arguably In The Best State It's Ever Been In

While Helldivers 2 has been through some rough patches, including a rough launch and some poorly received updates shortly after, its current state is probably the best the game has ever been, and given the lessons learned by the developers, it's likely to continue that trend with future updates. Helldivers 2 is not a perfect game, and its live-service elements and updates aren't always perfectly handled, but it's still one of the standout live-service titles currently on the market, succeeding where many other games have failed.

Importantly, Helldivers 2's update history has shown that, while the game's developers don't always make perfect decisions, they are at least willing to learn from mistakes, as shown by the game's shift in of balancing and the swift correction of the Killzone crossover content, for which the developers made the second wave of equipment free after backlash from players. The result has been a rebounding player population, increased significantly from the game's least popular months, and a renewed interest and enthusiasm from the Helldivers 2 community.

Like any other live-service game, Helldivers 2 will continue to live or die by the quality of future updates, and there's no guarantee that it can maintain its current trajectory forever. Heading into 2025, though, the game is currently in an excellent spot, with plenty of varied content to offer its player base. While Helldivers 2 might not reach the absolute height of popularity that it enjoyed shortly after it was initially released, it's definitely still worth playing a year after launch.

Source: @Pilestedt/X