- Joined
- Nov 25, 2017
My opinion has always been that 10 is quite dull because it spams the wrong enemies at you. The tanky ones that require the same strategy to beat with no variation. They're not even challenging to kill, just tedious. Yes, it is technically harder, in the same way cutting down an entire forest in Minecraft is technically a big undertaking. Doesn't mean it's fun.
Then, on something like 7 or 8, it's dull because it's too easy. They spawn normal hordes you can take out in satisfying ways, but there's so few enemies it just becomes a cakewalk. That's perfectly acceptable, but at a certain point you're going to want more to bite into, and the harder content isn't necessarily harder as much as it just limits what you're able to do even further.
However, my opinion on 10 has never been "This is impossible to do, these weapons are awful and enemies are too hard" as much as it's been "I don't think they tested anything on this difficulty." There's some pretty glaring flaws that only get worse as they add in more content. Worst of all, instead of something thoughtful towards the player experience like "On this difficulty, let's spawn the mega-death tank with a ton of tiny enemies you need to clear out first," it's clear a dev just went "This is supposed to be harder, turn the mega-death tank spawn multiplier up by 3, that should do it." The biggest issue is that there are no counters or alternate strategies to almost every boss-type enemy. Your weapon can either can kill them in 1-3 shots, or your weapon cannot kill them at all. So of course you're not going to use the weapons that can't kill the most common enemy they spawn, which does not seem like intentional design. And that's not even mentioning how you'll often get clipped under the ground or launched into space at random, in addition to a thousand other bugs that only act as a detriment to the player.
There was a mode where you transported ingots and it spammed a ton of the squishy enemies which were still dangerous, and it was fun because you needed to constantly be on alert and playing at your best instead of fighting non-stop armored enemies you can only kill with explosives that also aren't threatening because their attacks aren't dangerous once you know how to avoid them. The unfortunate thing about Helldivers 2 is that it is not a very mechanically deep game, nor does it offer much you can do to introduce fair challenge. The gun aiming is delayed and inaccurate, your dodge doesn't have any invincibility frames nor does it move you very far, cover hitboxes are finicky and unreliable. So there's no real back-and-forth you can have with the enemies, you can only just make them tankier or make you shoot a specific part off them. If I remember correctly, one of the most popular items is the teleporter backpack that gives you a blink-dash simply because it gave you a new way to fight enemies, and all because it's just a dodge that actually works.
I can very clearly see the intent with the original challenge, especially because the previous developer livestreams have had them playing exceptionally abysmally on difficulties far below what even an average player can handle. I recall the developers collectively playing on difficulty 5 and each of them trying to shoot an armor enemy with guns that cannot pierce the armor at all. The fact none of them understood this mechanic in their own game has extremely unfortunate implications. Last I played, it was also nearly impossible to go a single game without some glitch causing your death, which I'm sure the challenge was also intended to demonstrate. From what I hear, it's not much better now, either.
Then, on something like 7 or 8, it's dull because it's too easy. They spawn normal hordes you can take out in satisfying ways, but there's so few enemies it just becomes a cakewalk. That's perfectly acceptable, but at a certain point you're going to want more to bite into, and the harder content isn't necessarily harder as much as it just limits what you're able to do even further.
However, my opinion on 10 has never been "This is impossible to do, these weapons are awful and enemies are too hard" as much as it's been "I don't think they tested anything on this difficulty." There's some pretty glaring flaws that only get worse as they add in more content. Worst of all, instead of something thoughtful towards the player experience like "On this difficulty, let's spawn the mega-death tank with a ton of tiny enemies you need to clear out first," it's clear a dev just went "This is supposed to be harder, turn the mega-death tank spawn multiplier up by 3, that should do it." The biggest issue is that there are no counters or alternate strategies to almost every boss-type enemy. Your weapon can either can kill them in 1-3 shots, or your weapon cannot kill them at all. So of course you're not going to use the weapons that can't kill the most common enemy they spawn, which does not seem like intentional design. And that's not even mentioning how you'll often get clipped under the ground or launched into space at random, in addition to a thousand other bugs that only act as a detriment to the player.
There was a mode where you transported ingots and it spammed a ton of the squishy enemies which were still dangerous, and it was fun because you needed to constantly be on alert and playing at your best instead of fighting non-stop armored enemies you can only kill with explosives that also aren't threatening because their attacks aren't dangerous once you know how to avoid them. The unfortunate thing about Helldivers 2 is that it is not a very mechanically deep game, nor does it offer much you can do to introduce fair challenge. The gun aiming is delayed and inaccurate, your dodge doesn't have any invincibility frames nor does it move you very far, cover hitboxes are finicky and unreliable. So there's no real back-and-forth you can have with the enemies, you can only just make them tankier or make you shoot a specific part off them. If I remember correctly, one of the most popular items is the teleporter backpack that gives you a blink-dash simply because it gave you a new way to fight enemies, and all because it's just a dodge that actually works.
I can very clearly see the intent with the original challenge, especially because the previous developer livestreams have had them playing exceptionally abysmally on difficulties far below what even an average player can handle. I recall the developers collectively playing on difficulty 5 and each of them trying to shoot an armor enemy with guns that cannot pierce the armor at all. The fact none of them understood this mechanic in their own game has extremely unfortunate implications. Last I played, it was also nearly impossible to go a single game without some glitch causing your death, which I'm sure the challenge was also intended to demonstrate. From what I hear, it's not much better now, either.
