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Logo uses joystick by liftarn
One thing all these games share: not being made by one of the big companies like EA, Activision-Blizzard-King, or Ubisoft.
Hell, one of these was made by one dude, and another was made by the guys who made Magicka and was expected to have a player population of around 10k.
Yeah. A few companies made good games. Doesn't mean most companies aren't making dogshit games that everyone keeps gobbling up and shelling money for
This is the way it’s been since the beginning. Way more people are going to try making something good than people are going to succeed at it. Whether it’s greed, incompetence, laziness, they ran out of time, whatever.
You don’t have to give a bad product any attention at all just because it’s “big”. The box says “Suicide Squad” not “guaranteed to be good” 😅
In the same time period, we've gotten Skull And Bones, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, and Diablo IV skins that cost more than the base game.
It can simultaneously be true that the big companies are churning out cash grabs while other companies are making awesome games.
Didn't Helldivers 2 ship with a kernel level spyware? I wouldn't put it on this list.
Did it? Most games with kernel-level systems won't run on linux, but Helldivers 2 is running fine for me via proton.
That's because the anti cheat is running in a fake kernel with Proton. Developers have ways of detecting when the kernel isn't real... Sometimes... But the Helldivers devs don't seem to mind for now.
Why is this comment downvoted? To my understanding it's entirely accurate...
I agree, except I'm hesitant to include hell divers because of the kernel level anticheat. I don't need to give a video game of all things access to my kernel. But the general idea is right, I am playing so many fire video games all made by indie devs right now.
The key difference is Originality.
"Originality" is overvalued. Yes, it's an important aspect, but even near-clones can be great. Just look at Stardew Valley vs Harvest Moon.
Imo, the real key to making a great game (along with skill) is heart/care. If a dev is only making a game to make bank, it's going to come through. And when a game is made with care and attention, that comes through in spades. All of these games have creators that clearly care about the game itself and, while they are being rewarded for their efforts, that wasn't and isn't their primary drive in developing or maintaining the games.
Counterpoint, “originality” almost never really refers to something that has never been done before. Instead it refers to something that the intended consumer has no, or little, reference for. Prime example is stardew valley and Helldivers.
Harvest moon has existed for awhile but few potential consumers have reference for it when playing stardew. So it succeeds. Helldivers is an alt version of many games but earth defense force is one of the genres it’s in. They’re very similar games at the core. Yet most people have no reference for it so it can still be “original” to them.
While I agree these games have heart and care, the success is largely to do with having a genre that already works with some audiences and then polishing it up and adding that heart factor to reskin it and try a new audience.
This is what indie games are great for. Take core ideas from big studios that work. Then don’t skip the part where the heart is ripped out for profit. And bam it’s a good game.
Yep, it's usually passion that drives a game (or any art) to greatness. If you're passionate about it then you'll see the flaws. If you're just doing a job then you only care about completing goals and getting it done.
Lethal Company seems pretty original but the other 2 are franchise games built upon very saturated genres, so idk about that take.
Yeah when people say that, they're talking abt AAA. 2/3 of these are indie games.People are sick of corposlop. Indie games are the only games we have left, with some exceptions.
Can someone sales pitch help divers and the other one?
I’ve noticed a thriving hell diver community here and I need to decide if I want in
Helldivers is a game where you play in a squad of 1-4 (solo, friends, or it'll pair you with randoms) to drop down to planets and try to survive against bugs or automatons while completing some objectives.
The galaxy map is dynamic, with aliens pushing from multiple directions toward "Super Earth", and the more the entire community fights on planets, the more they're pushed back. Planets can be liberated, or we can lose them (RIP Malevelon Creek). It's chaotic and fun, and basically "Starship Troopers the video game".
Ooh, that actually sounds like it kicks ass.
I love PvE of small teams against monsters way more than PvP. (Mostly because I get railed in PvP because there's not enough time in my day to get that good).
It’s a “glorious chaos” kind of game. The developers made a wide variety of explosive weapons on purpose so that things got chaotic. There is no (and never will be) PvP mode strictly speaking, but friendly fire is always on and cannot be turned off. Teammates will kill each other accidentally all the time, but there’s little penalty for dying, they just call you right back in. Seems kinda grindy to me to get to level 10 where you start to unlock much better weapons.
I've been having a blast with it. It really feels like you're in a movie.
Helldivers is a game where you play in a squad of 1-4 (solo, friends, or it'll pair you with randoms) to drop down to planets and try to survive against bugs or automatons while completing some objectives.
Wait... that's just Deep Rock Galactic!
(With a skybox)
And the automaton part feels like being in "Terminator the video game"
The launch trailer is pretty good, though I honestly feel like the actual graphics at launch turned out better than the trailer showed.
In short, on one side of the war it's Starship Troopers. On the other side, it's the Terminator Wars. There is a developer assigned to act as a DM of sorts, and they influence the way the war unfolds while the entire community fights to achieve the goals of said war.
The game is both very fun and very challenging. It has a good balance of making you feel completely badass one moment, and then absolutely humbling you moments later. The missions can get very intense at a moment's notice. I've also had a pretty good time playing with randoms, and toxicity is incredibly rare (I have yet to encounter any, myself).
Everyone compares the game to starship troopers and Terminator but I haven't seen anyone mention that the game loop is literally left4dead. I guess everyone forgot about those games.
Thanks, that sounds pretty cool!
Help divers launches helpers to a planet to help bugs and bots. Help them stop being a menace.
There's also tons of REALLY good games that are made by small developers and cost about as much as an energy drink.
It depends on whether the game was designed with shareholders in mind or the player. Most AAA games are designed with profit in mind rather than what's fun. For example, buying skins and doing the same thing on repeat is not fun. Roleplaying as Starship troopers with your friends is fun.
I dont get the hype for Helldivers or Lethal Company.
I think Lethal Company is popular because it is a great experience with friends, especially with mods. The horror aspect of people just going silent when dead and not knowing if you are the last alive, feeling like everything is going fine and turning a corner to find a monster that has you dead to rights, and the non-serious almost parody meta make it entertaining beyond the core gameplay.
Helldivers is also a great friends game and the bigger picture meta of the game gives a greater goal than to just complete the mission. It feels like you are part of something bigger than just that match while you are just ripping through enemies. It apparently was originally a Halo ODST Helljumper game pitch that Microsoft didn't think was good, hilarious that they didn't greenlight it in retrospect.
Lethal Company it's an Indie Game, so it doesn't fit in the "Game made by a Company" Category
AAA studios are making crap games recently, the more middle grade ones that absolutely rocking it.