Helldivers 2 is one of the most refreshing – and straightforward – multiplayer games I’ve played in a while. It’s a third-person bug-shooting blitzkrieg, offering simple sets of objectives and a broad armament to help satisfy them. The actual action of defeating the game’s foes is a lot of fun, with hordes of enemies to shoot into gibs with a four-person player squad. But does all that multiplayer chaos come with strings attached? Few games try to achieve destruction at this scale, especially factoring in the unpredictability of multiplayer gameplay, so what kind of visuals and performance should we expect in the game’s console outing on PS5 and how does the quality of the PC port fare?
Visually, Helldivers 2 hardly advances the state of the art, but that’s not to say that its visual make-up – and its environments – aren’t compelling. There’s a typical mix of modern graphical staples, but they are deployed effectively. Volumetric lighting is heavily used, for instance, with shafts of light shooting through rocks and trees. The quality level is high, presenting without obvious aliasing, even on the PS5 in its performance mode. The clouds are also volumetric in nature, at least at lower levels of the atmosphere, and resolve without distracting artifacting. Low-lying fog also appears to be part of the equation, with ground-level fog often giving planets a certain ethereal quality.
Environmental density is impressive. There’s a lot of scattered rocks, shrubs, and tufts of grass throughout the various planets. Given the size and scope of the game I have to imagine that procedural systems have been used extensively here, but the final results look quite natural. Foliage in particular can be generously placed, with some especially verdant garden worlds. I did note animation issues with the foliage on at least one planet but on a more macro level, lighting and assets come together to make each world feel distinct, giving each environment some nice vistas.
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