Helldivers 2 hits mostly negative on Steam as player frustrations grow: ‘You had lightning in a bottle and decided to pry the lid off yourself’

Helldivers 2 is one of the most popular games in recent memory, with a gameplay loop so addictive that you could easily lose yourself in its world and chaotic action. It has a lot of players and has maintained a strong audience for over two years now. However, there have been problems in the game since launch, as well as highly requested features that never made it into the game, which, combined with Arrowhead’s horrible patches and sporadic PR mishaps, have caused a lot of frustration among the players.

And that frustration has, for the umpteenth time, boiled over into a review bombing campaign that sent the game’s recent Steam reviews into ‘mostly negative’ territory. While there wasn’t any specific patch or update that caused this rapid decline on Valve’s storefront, the April 28 Warbond, Exo Experts, released with paywalled mechs and was a thorn in players’ eyes since yet another premium battle pass was added into the game while so many other issues remain unresolved.

Prior to that, former Arrowhead chief and present CCO of the company, Johann Pilestedt, hosted an AMA where he generally responded with negative remarks about highly requested features, such as ship modules, a proper endgame, weapon customization, transmog, perks, and so on. For most of these mentioned features, Pilestedt said that they were either not being planned or discussed or that they’re not even remotely ready for public disclosure. This, of course, while many of his other answers were positive and all of them were well-intentioned, caused a massive uproar within the Helldivers 2 community, some of whom bee-lined it for the Steam reviews with no positivity in mind.

The Warbond mentioned above came after the AMA, essentially fanning the flames that were already burning with rage.

Today, players on the game’s subreddit discussed its fall from grace (again), with one noting how the AMA probably caused most of the outrage, even though balance patches that some users say prioritized paying players did produce at least some of the negative responses.

“Pilestedt’s well-intentioned AMA was probably the worst thing Arrowhead could have possibly done. It was PR suicide to so casually say that things almost the entire community has been asking for for the last two years either aren’t being considered at all, have been abandoned outright, aren’t a priority, or to suggest they are pointless because only ‘hardcore’ players care about them,” one user wrote.

The patches in question are the durable damage update that significantly increased enemy damage to mechs and armor, as well as the Hive Guard patch that only came out yesterday. In fact, yesterday’s patch, despite all the fallout from the AMA onwards, only contained updates to the High Guard enemy that was buffed and made quite a bit tankier even though many combat-related mechanics like mantling and climbing as well as some weapons that you can use remain buggy.

On Steam, a user said Arrowhead “had lightning in a bottle and decided to pry the lid off yourself,” adding that the studio “consistently snatch[es] defeat from the jaws of victory, and at this point it doesn’t feel accidental anymore.”

“Weapons swing between feeling incredible and being completely unusable, with no consistency or clear design direction. Enemies get buffed while player tools get nerfed, and every update feels like it undoes the last instead of building on it,” they wrote. Additionally, the player outlined how Helldivers 2 lost its narrative side as well over the last two years, with players left feeling “irrelevant” when major campaigns roll around since they now feel “scripted” rather than active and alive. I myself loved rallying behind certain goals that the game threw at us, engaging with other players and roleplaying as a Super Earth citizen out on the frontlines defending the values of Managed Democracy.

And I genuinely see that absence of meaningful stories and campaigns, as for a while now it appeared to me that Arrowhead fixed the results of these events that are, as the review above says, short-lived and only last for a few days now.

At the end of the day, though, Helldivers 2 is a live-service game with a massive community. At some point, a large enough number of fans are going to feel left behind and either lose interest or become irritated by how the studio is running the live-service model. It’s happened to so many games in the past, and it is unsurprising that it’s happened here, and not for the first time either. The more passionate a community is, the likelier this outcome is. And Arrowhead, so long as it keeps working on the game, can always address these issues and requests, and fairly quickly, too.

But whether that’ll actually happen remains to be seen, and even though it’s a dramatic and radical measure, I think reviews are a great way for fans to feel seen.

The post Helldivers 2 hits mostly negative on Steam as player frustrations grow: ‘You had lightning in a bottle and decided to pry the lid off yourself’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Managing to clean over thousands of books in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library is no mean task, and it gets harder when there are four hidden keys among them. All the keys can be found in the library itself, but they will be mixed with the books. That said, their spots are always fixed, and this guide will help you to locate all of them.

How to find all keys in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library

The four keys have unique colors that will allow you to identify them as they lie inside the library.

• Red
• Green
• Yellow
• Blue

Red key location

This is the earliest key that you’ll be able to find, as it’s near where you spawn. You’ll need to look for the University of Celesthall logo, and the red key will be hanging from it.

Green key location

To find the Green key, you’ll need to look carefully on the ground floor. The floor will be littered with books, and you’ll need to look for a table. The table will be located almost in the middle of the floor. The key will be on top of the table, sitting beside nearby books.

Yellow key location

If you look carefully near the staircases, you’ll find a vase on each side. Look inside the vase kept on the staircase to the right, and the key will be inside it. You’ll need to view it from the top; otherwise, the key will be completely hidden. To do so, you’ll need to use the nearby railing by jumping onto it and then getting to the vase.

Blue key location

To find the Blue key, you’ll need to look between the top of the shelves 2O and 2P. You’ll need to have unlocked the High Jump ability to get to this key. This is also the only one that’s located on the second floor of the library.

How to use the keys in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library

When you find a key for the first time, you’ll find strange symbols on it. Each key corresponds to a treasure chest that you can unlock. These keys are also specific to the chests; if the symbols on the key and the chest don’t match, it won’t work.

Each chest you open helps you get a Minor magic ability.

• High Jump: Obtained from the Red (Crimson Octagon) key, you gain the ability to jump whenever you want, and the chance to access the second floor without using the stairs.
• Run: The Green (Emerald Club) key allows you to run in the library and quicken the speed at which you put the books in their places. It’s a fun ability to have if you want to save time while filling up all the shelves.
• +3 Carry Capacity: Obtained from the Yellow (Golden Diamond) key, you’ll be able to carry more books at any given point.
• +2 Carry Capacity: Obtained from the Blue (Azure Star) key, you can carry more books.

The post All key locations in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library appeared first on Destructoid.