Helldivers 2
The most recommended of 78 video games
Players recommend it for fun, polished gameplay that lasts hundreds of hours. Critics point to a bloated install size and a buggy, janky experience.
Players recommend it for fun, polished gameplay that lasts hundreds of hours. Critics point to a bloated install size and a buggy, janky experience.
84 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 50
- criticize it
- 34
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 1.9 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 50 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fun core gameplay
“It tends to be buggy as hell but the core game experience is hilariously fun.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Using Generative AI in Content Production” “I put hundreds of hours into HD2 and had a tremendous amount of fun.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 devs slash install size from 154GB to 23GB” “it was an massive success because of how fun it is”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” Long playtime for the price
“I think Helldivers is a good deal for entertainment even if you only play it for under 10 hours.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “It's the kind of game where some people spend thousands of hours in, well worth the $40 to them.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “I have a LOT more hours into the game so from my perspective my $40 has paid quite well.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” - Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction”
Stable, runs well across platforms
“i experience far fewer crashes and instances of weird behaviour than friends on Windows or Xbox”
Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark” “As someone with 700 hours in the game, I've played the game both on Windows and Linux.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “Works perfectly. It crashes less often than it does for my friends who play on PC!”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” - Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction”
Polished design and physics feel
“they've nailed the physics-ey feel so hard that it's a defining feature of the game”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “If anything, it's a testament to how good a job they've done making the game.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “players appreciate high quality, tactile and grounded world interaction”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “Resetting Xbox” - Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 devs slash install size from 154GB to 23GB”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Huge download and install size
“over 6x the size with so little benefit for such a small segment of the players is very frustrating”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “It's a shameful tragedy of the commons if you bloat your game 6x because you think your customers don't have enough SSD space for their active games.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “Their technique makes it so that the normal person with a ~base SSD of 512 GB can't reasonably install the game.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” - Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction”
Buggy and prone to breaking
“it has always worked just fine, besides it being a deeply janky game regardless of OS”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft kills official way to activate Windows 11/10 without internet” “A lot of issues are to do with the fact that the game seems to corrupt itself.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “The game is notorious for breaking things constantly.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 devs slash install size from 154GB to 23GB” Poor technical decisions, no benchmarking
“what they did was remove an "optimization" they had implemented without ever once benchmarking and realising it was making things significantly worse”
Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?” “they did absolutely zero benchmarking beforehand, just went with industry haresay, and decided to double it just in case.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction” “they just didn't really understand industry recommendations or what they were doing”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 devs slash install size from 154GB to 23GB” - Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction”
Rootkit anti-cheat, Windows-only kernel
“helldivers2 kernel component only runs on a normal windows install”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” “There's no reason for a game like Helldivers 2 to require anti-cheat at all, let alone the rootkit variety.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Games using anti-cheats and their compatibility with GNU/Linux or Wine/Proton”
Other video games people recommend
The four most recommended other video games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helldivers 2This page | 50 | 34 | 60% | 10 | 1.9 yrs3 owners | — |
| GPU building game | 49 | 16 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| Triple-A Minesweeper | 40 | 25 | 62% | 1 | — | — |
| Quake II | 33 | 8 | 80% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 28 | 13 | 68% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 104 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Helldivers 2 for example also has a lot of game design focused on creating this kind of feeling.”
“players appreciate high quality, tactile and grounded world interaction”
“what they did was remove an "optimization" they had implemented without ever once benchmarking and realising it was making things significantly worse”
“One exception was Helldivers 2, but the performance gap has more or less closed”
“it has always worked just fine, besides it being a deeply janky game regardless of OS”
“Works perfectly. It crashes less often than it does for my friends who play on PC!”
“helldivers2 kernel component only runs on a normal windows install”
“It's the kind of game where some people spend thousands of hours in, well worth the $40 to them.”
“I don't consider a 154Gb download before I can start playing a good first impression.”
“it can expand to fill whatever amount of time you want to dedicate to it”
“I think Helldivers is a good deal for entertainment even if you only play it for under 10 hours.”
“Their technique makes it so that the normal person with a ~base SSD of 512 GB can't reasonably install the game.”
“It's a shameful tragedy of the commons if you bloat your game 6x because you think your customers don't have enough SSD space for their active games.”
“A lot of issues are to do with the fact that the game seems to corrupt itself.”
“I have a LOT more hours into the game so from my perspective my $40 has paid quite well.”
“As someone with 700 hours in the game, I've played the game both on Windows and Linux.”
“over 6x the size with so little benefit for such a small segment of the players is very frustrating”
“it was an massive success because of how fun it is”
“If anything, it's a testament to how good a job they've done making the game.”
“Compared to the other games available these days (combined with how fun the game is) I definitely give HD2 a big pass on a lot of stuff.”
“I am a lot more forgiving of smaller organisations when they make mistakes.”
“they've nailed the physics-ey feel so hard that it's a defining feature of the game”
“led to more unexpected/emergent gameplay that was way more entertaining”
“it's been a pretty good experience playing it on Linux”
“they did absolutely zero benchmarking beforehand, just went with industry haresay, and decided to double it just in case.”
“they did NO benchmarking of their own before choosing to do all that duplication”
“I put hundreds of hours into it (over 1K, I think) and most of the time it was trouble-free (and fun).”
“It really shows in the level of polish this game has.”
“Every now and then Arrowhead says something that implies they are just utterly clueless.”
“they just didn't really understand industry recommendations or what they were doing”
“I put hundreds of hours into HD2 and had a tremendous amount of fun.”
“I've racked up 700 hours in the game and the storage requirements I didn't care about.”
“The game is notorious for breaking things constantly.”
“It's also a title that shows you can have a really good game without the latest tech.”
“it's a very nice looking game with fairly sizeable worlds and lots of different enemies, biomes, etc.”
“I'm thankful that these developers aim to reduce, and optimise post ship.”
“There's no reason for a game like Helldivers 2 to require anti-cheat at all, let alone the rootkit variety.”
“It tends to be buggy as hell but the core game experience is hilariously fun.”
“the worst impact I have seen is on Helldivers 2 (at least 15 to 20% lower FPS)”
“i experience far fewer crashes and instances of weird behaviour than friends on Windows or Xbox”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.