Helldivers 2 Director Admits Overemphasis on Balance Has Hurt Game Enjoyment

The director of Helldivers 2, Johan Pilestedt, who also serves as CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios, has conceded that the team might have taken the balancing of the game a notch too high. Since its debut in February, the third-person multiplayer shooter has seen Arrowhead diligently releasing patches and content updates on a near-weekly basis, significantly altering the gameplay in the process.

While regular updates aimed at maintaining game balance are generally viewed favorably, it appears that a segment of the gamer base has expressed dissatisfaction with how these adjustments are diminishing the game's enjoyment. This sentiment was echoed by Pilestedt in a statement reported by Eurogamer.

A particular instance involved a gamer reaching out to Pilestedt via X/Twitter to express how the continual balance modifications over recent months have rendered the game less enjoyable and, to them, unplayable, lamenting the overshadowing of fun by balance considerations.

Responding to the feedback, Pilestedt conceded that perhaps they had overemphasized balance to a fault. "Hey, I think we've gone too far in some areas," Pilestedt admitted, pledging to revisit the balancing approach with his team. He recognized that the modifications might have diminished some of the fun aspects players had enjoyed.

Furthermore, another individual highlighted how it seemed every weapon had been downgraded in pursuit of balance, diminishing the enjoyment, a perspective Pilestedt recognized as unfortunate. He also observed in the conversation that the balancing efforts had relied too heavily on modifying damage outputs, neglecting alternative adjustments such as recoil, reload times, aiming accuracy, the speed of projectiles, and equipping times. He critiqued this method as overly simplistic.

In the most recent update, Helldivers 2 experienced a comprehensive balance overhaul, including a significant reduction in burn damage alongside other modifications affecting weapons, strategies, and antagonists.