It seems to be tradition at this point to see Helldivers 2 get absolutely wrecked by negative reviews whenever any sort of inconvenience happens. This time, the game moved to Easy Anti-Cheat, a presumably more aggressive system than its previous GameGuard, which, as the negative reviewers claim, completely bricked many quality-of-life mods players used.
“Cracking down on mods instead of actually fixing issues in the game we have requested for two years is a real kick on the balls,” one negative review reads. These problems, which mods seemed to have fixed, included Strategems bouncing off the ground when thrown, excessive ragdolls, armor mixing, and so on. A lot of big gameplay implications are there, and for many users these were essential.
However, Arrowhead’s implementation of Easy Anti-Cheat seems to have put a stop to everything, and last week the company even issued a statement saying it will allow cosmetic mods but vehemently root out anything that affects gameplay or creates unfair advantages.
“We know mods are part of the DNA of PC gaming and gaming communities as a whole. In general, we appreciate the creativity behind cosmetic and non-gameplay mods, which players can enjoy without negatively impacting those who play alongside them. Where we need to improve is how we protect players against modifications that create unfair advantages or negatively impact others, which goes beyond software manipulation to tamper with our game,” Arrowhead wrote in an Oct. 20 post.
Ever since then, players have been generally prevented from using any mods that alter gameplay in the majority of ways.
“No one asked for this arbitrary removal of easy access to such fixes and the like, in fact, the majority wished for the opposite (as seen with the sheer popularity and positive endorsement these mods gained),” another negative review says.
“Essentially, modding has become so difficult and inaccessible that mods are effectively dead UNTIL Arrowhead adds mod support. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I think this won’t happen, and they’re saying they’re ‘fine with QOL mods’ because they want to trick the community into calming down,” says yet another.
As of writing, the game’s recent reviews stand at “mostly negative” on Steam.
Review-bombing campaigns against Helldivers 2 have become rather prevalent over the last couple of years since the game’s launch, as they appear to be the only tool players have to actually make a difference. Whether it’s justified to ruin a game’s score completely every few months is up for debate, but so far it’s proven to be quite effective.
