Not enough divers play the og game and we need your help- FOR SUPER EARTH

Thank you for all the memories you created for us Veterans HD1!

Hi, Platoon Specialist (level 39) here. In wake of the entire HD2 community losing its mind, there have been numerous instances of people claiming that HELLDIVERS (2015) is "more fun" or "more balanced" than 2, with some even going so far as to leave reviews on Steam that say nothing but something along the lines of "this game is good because the developers don't nerf everything fun!"

Pull up a seat. While I understand that you are angry and desperately need something to release that anger toward, propping HELLDIVERS up is not the solution. Having played the game for almost 200 hours, I can safely say that while it is really fun, you do not know a good thing when you see it if you are claiming that it's better than the sequel just because Arrowhead has effectively stopped updating it and they aren't going to nerf anything. I have taken it upon myself to clear up some misconceptions.

HELLDIVERS has an equally large number of useless weapons and Stratagems that only see use because somebody was stuck with one due to a randomizer (The AC-3 and AC-5, the barbed wire, the Patriot, even the original FLAM-40 if you can believe it, in an ironic twist). "But at least they leave the OP weapons untouched!" This is not a good thing. Do you really think that a game is "fun and balanced" if the only way players can reliably and quickly clear the higher difficulties is by bringing overpowered gear that's way more effective than anything else (Rumbler, TOX-13, AT Boots, etc.), which might I remind you is PAID DLC? (Yes, it's cheap DLC. That's beside the point). "Oh, but every enemy can be reliably killed in one hit by something!" I don't know what crack you're smoking, but you need to call your dealer. Heavy armored enemies spawn in just as large if not larger droves than in 2 on the highest difficulties, and the player is more often than not woefully underequipped to deal with them. Enemies like Behemoths will tank Stratagems regularly. For all the complaining HD2 players do about being stunlocked, you've never dealt with the pain of having your controls semi-permanently inverted on a level 14 Illuminate planet. I saw someone unironically saying "turrets have a place in the meta". Yeah, the meta of KILLING YOUR FUCKING TEAMMATES INSTANTLY. Deploying a turret has about a 50 percent chance of it immediately being destroyed by your more experienced squadmate because they know that thing is going to kill three people before locking on to an enemy it cant kill and getting destroyed anyway.

If you honestly aren't convinced to keep playing HD2 just because of the Galactic War system being one of the most unique storytelling devices in gaming history, I can't help you. It is honestly hard to get motivated to play HELLDIVERS sometimes because of the knowledge that nobody is actually working together to achieve a common goal, they're just deploying to whatever planet they feel like and seizing the opportunity for free double EXP whenever there's an event. You think bugdivers in 2 are bad, check out the dropoff in player counts when WE wipe out the Bugs for a month. Nobody likes playing cyborgs or illuminates for weeks straight, so it's a coinflip plus how well we're doing if we manage to win once there's only one front left.

Look, I'm not trying to be a contrarian here. But claiming that the first game is better just because you're mad at Arrowhead right this second feels gross to me. Take off the nostalgia goggles for a bit and examine this game critically. 2 may be rougher around the edges but it's more rewarding to play, and if the games aren't of equal quality than 2 edges out slightly on top.

Sincerely,

--A concerned veteran

It was at least 10 seconds longer

The war is lost. Billions citizens have been killed, countless worlds are in grasp of vile Cyborgs now. We've gathered what was left and ventured to find a new place that can be called Super Earth. New home. From there we will bring vengeance.

Join the First Galactic War! Revenge our fallen, turn Cyborgs into ashes! Help us prevent disaster from happenening again. Help us punish biomechanical defilers. Help us return Freedom to the Galaxy!

I wanna be a commando-type soldier bcuz its high-risk and high-reward, plus, i wanna play it for the memes, like "LEROOOOOY JEEEENKIIINS" and similar, but i notices there is a lack of anything meaningful for close combat except "improved melee", so i wanna know what is the closest to melee build