Arrowhead, the developer of Helldivers 2, has reached the point where it can laugh at old troubles. After a hard period of review-bombing, the developer has now given players an exclusive in-game cape. The cape symbolizes one of the many times this community took exception to a title otherwise highly regarded.
A Cape with a Story
This distinctive cape is unlike any other. It shows the high and low reaction of people to the review-bombing event using a graph of frequencies. If you take a closer look at the cape, you’ll see a few light blue bars that represent positive comments. The red bars which dominate represent negative comments. The cape was announced more than a year ago and is now free for all Helldivers 2 players. It is a reference to the past.
Remembering the Controversy
Anger over Arrowhead’s game ‘Helldiver’ reportedly resulted from a decision made by publisher Sony about the PC version of the game. Soon after Helldivers 2’s early 2024 release, PC players were given the option to link their PlayStation Network accounts. The PC gaming community took action against it for being out of line.
Sony and Arrowhead received enough backlash to reconsider and overturn their decision. Through coordinated review-bombing, this corporate behaviour caused a temporary dip in an otherwise stellar review curve. After the reversal of the policy, a wave of positive reviews returned for Helldivers 2. This episode certainly made an impression on Arrowhead, leading to a nice gift for the player’s base.
Moving Forward
Arrowhead’s journey to recovery was not an easy one as they worked on Helldivers 2 to get back its first success. Luckily, recent content updates have been appreciated, with almost 200,000 users last month. In April, there was a slowdown with the game but Helldivers 2 has been given new life with the Heart of Democracy update and is ready to move forward.