Arrowhead Comes Under Fire for Apparent Helldivers 2 Nerf Strategy
The community is starting to see a pattern in the Helldivers 2 developer's approach.
Helldivers 2 may be one of the biggest video games of the year until now, but with its player base always having something to complain about, its overall longevity is constantly at risk. In the process of releasing updates and patches to keep its title going, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has been making some decisions that have been met with very little enthusiasm by its community.
With each Helldivers 2 patch, a few adjustments are made to the in-game weapons to either make them more powerful or mostly bring their power level down to such an extent that the fanbase has started to observe a pattern, and the CEO’s statement has not exactly made the situation any better.
Helldivers 2 Keeps Nerfing Its Weapons, and Players Have Had Enough
Even with the addition of new content in the form of its Escalation of Freedom update and the Freedom’s Flame Warbond, Helldivers 2 continues to frustrate its loyal community of players mainly because of the strategy that Arrowhead Game Studios seems to be following to pick which weapons it should nerf.
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Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, director Johan Pilestedt, the studio’s newly appointed CEO, Shams Jorjani, has been quite vocal with the game’s fanbase ever since he took up the mantle, but not everything he is saying seems to be resonating with the players. It turns out that the latest weapon to be nerfed in Helldivers 2 is the SG-225IE Incendiary Breaker, which has already not been appreciated by the community, but the CEO’s reasoning behind this action has made it even worse.
Being one of the first few weapons that players get a hold of while playing Helldivers 2, the Incendiary Breaker quickly became a fan favorite shotgun, so naturally, many members of the community preferred to equip and use it while facing enemies like the Terminids. However, Arrowhead apparently did not like that one bit, as it reported that 30% of the Terminid encounters involved the now-nerfed weapon, which eventually led the developer to turn the shotgun’s power down a notch.
While this could be seen as an attempt to encourage players to use the plethora of other weapons available in the game, fans are clearly not seeing it that way, feeling like Arrowhead is taking the “unfair” route and making the most accessible guns completely useless.
Fans Wonder Why Arrowhead Does Not Discuss Potential Issues Before Implementing Them
“We’ll discuss it,” wrote the Arrowhead Game Studios CEO regarding player complaints about the shotgun nerf, which seems to have become a habit for the developer at this point considering the similar routes it has taken in the past.
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Seeing the pattern of the studio continuously putting itself in unfortunate situations and saying that the developers will have a look at the problem is raising concerns among the community, with members wondering why these mentioned discussions do not take place before Arrowhead launches a “poorly received” patch.
The developer’s approach to nerfing numerous weapons despite having the player feedback right in front of it has led to the community pointing out the potential flaws within the studio’s management that result in these types of circumstances.
Many of Arrowhead’s recent decisions and additions to Helldivers 2 have been criticized by a community that just wants to get its complaints heard and fixed, and it is clear that the developer’s current way of handling things is not proving to be effective.
