Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2's central joke is that you are not the hero. You are a barely-trained conscript in a satirical fascist democracy, dropped onto a planet with a rifle and a radio, and the primary cause of death among Helldivers is other Helldivers. Friendly fire never turns off. A misplaced 500kg bomb removes your entire squad. This sounds like a design flaw and is in fact the entire reason the game works.

The stratagem system is the mechanical heart. Calling in an airstrike, a turret or a resupply means inputting a directional code under fire, then throwing a beacon — and the beacon can bounce, stick to a teammate, or land somewhere catastrophic. Every engagement becomes a live problem-solving exercise conducted by four people shouting over each other. No other co-op shooter generates stories at this rate.

The Galactic War

Arrowhead's meta-layer — a persistent front where every player's mission results feed into planetary control, with a game master steering the narrative — turns individual sessions into contributions. It is partly theatre, but it works: a defence that fails on a planet everyone was fighting for lands genuinely.

The rocky parts

The 2024 PSN linking requirement was a self-inflicted disaster that saw the game review-bombed and delisted in dozens of countries before Sony reversed it. Balance patches have repeatedly gutted popular weapons, prompting a long-running argument between a studio that wants players to feel outgunned and players who want to feel powerful. Arrowhead has, to its credit, listened more than most. Stability remains imperfect. None of it outweighs the fact that this is the most fun four people can have in a shooter right now.