As this issue goes to press, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has just teased its playerbase with artwork showing the armoured mechs that are due to be dropped into the game. No doubt these additions will make its rip-snortingly entertaining co-op action even livelier, but isn’t it odd that we’re into the promotional phase for such heavyweight forthcoming features before the base game is even stable? It feels a bit like your dinner host enthusing about dessert before they’ve even put out the napkin that is on fire because of the candle that just fell over during the main course. Even now, a month on and with multiple patches in place, Helldivers 2 is still annoying players with ser ver issues, balance concerns and random bugs. It says a lot about the quality of the core concept that, even in this subpar state, the game is a powerful enough draw to attract nearly half a million concurrent players via Steam at its peak in February. But it all makes the review process a bit more complicated than usual.
It is the fault of storage technology, of course. Without access to hard drives on which updates could be stored, the games of old simply had to be robust from the word go. Not so nowadays. To many, the trade-off is worth it, and getting a malfunctioning game in Februar y that can be improved incrementally over time is better than having to wait another three or six months or more for a much more dependable v1.0. And maybe Arrowhead’s limited resources are better spent in areas other than QA. Whatever the case, it is frustrating to have to temper our praise of an uncommonly riveting sci-fi shooter in the cold light of fixable flaws. It’s surely going to be worth a revisit in The Long Game later this year.
In other sci-fi fare, this month we’re proud to present an exclusive report on Citizen Sleeper 2: Star ward Vector. Our guide is Gareth Damian Martin, who tells us how the sequel’s vision stretches across an entire asteroid belt, while retaining the style and personality that earned the first game awards to go with its many fans. Our cover stor y begins on p58.