Helldivers 2: Fun as Hell

That’s right folks, Drunken Marmoset is back reviewing games, and the first we’ve chosen is a doozy. Arguably the biggest game of 2024 (so far), there’s no better place to get this website back on track informing the wonderful masses than this beast of an online multiplayer game. 

It’s been years since I’ve felt passionately about any online games. I’m older (30’s is still young, though, folks), I work hard, I like having the control my single-player games offer. Keeping up with other players is often daunting for me; I’m not the competitive champ I used to be. Then came along Arrowhead Games’ Helldivers 2, and with it a sense of confidence and excitement that I haven’t felt since my college-era gaming days. It has been a great experience because of its riveting gameplay, impressive emergent storytelling, and generally fun and reliable community.

The core of the gameplay here is all about teaming up with other players to manage swarms of enemies while accomplishing an assortment of missions. At the center of my love for Helldivers 2 is the horde-murdering fantasy that’s invaded and occupied my overactive imagination since childhood. The few-versus-many hero and horror stories of Helldivers’ inspiration Starship Troopers, The Lord of the Rings’ orcish attacks on Helm’s Deep and Gondor, and the good ol’ Zerg rush of Starcraft left me with a deep-seated hankering to fight throngs of overwhelming and horrific force that lives with me to this day. Few games, like the aforementioned Starcraft, have scratched this particular itch in all the fantastic ways that Helldivers 2 does, capturing the intensity, unpredictability, and high pressure of fighting off legions, while making one feel like a single small piece of a much larger force.

The struggle of fighting overwhelming odds has never been more cinematic or visceral. A highly customizable third-person camera guarantees a fantastic view of truly dramatic chaos; massive explosions rock the screen as they tear through giant bugs and automotons, allies’ gunfire zips above my prone body as I desperately crawl away from encroaching danger, all the while landscapes as various as deserts, jungles, swamps, and tundra gleam under red, setting suns. Thick fog, unpredictable earthquakes, and violent firestorms add their own beauty and challenges to the battlefields. Every mission feels incredibly grandiose and personal at the same time.  

One can expect an assortment of firearms and grenades, which all feel great and work differently enough to make for fun and varied strategies, but it is strategems that give Helldivers 2 its unique strategic spice. Strategems, this shooter’s version of “abilities,” present a plethora of tactical options like support weapons (machine guns, anti-armor weapons, personal shields and drones), automated turrets, air- and orbital-strikes, gift players many ways to damn the flood and mete out impressive destruction. The input demand for each, directional inputs much like a code, creates a wonderful tension when threading through groups of enemies that a simple single button press couldn’t. It’s a delight hearing other players’ characters call out the strategem they’re summoning, seeing the red and blue beacons and watching as equipment pods fall from orbit or multiple explosions from an airstrike rip through a cadre of enemies. Exploring these options and learning how to utilize them to highest effect is a linchpin of Helldivers 2’s action, elevating it from what could be a simple player-versus-environment cooperative shooter to something special. And accidentally murdering your teammates with strategems makes for some dramatic–and often hilarious–“oops” moments. 

All of this in-the-moment badassery intermingles with a compelling gameplay loop and fantastic live-service. At its most basic, the game offers multiple mission-types, from simple kill-these-many-enemies skirmishes that can take 10-12 minutes, to larger 40-minute missions with multiple objectives. Players are currently engaging two battlefronts against very different enemies; the Terminids, bug-like creatures that most resemble the aforementioned nemeses in Starship Troopers and Starcraft, and the Automotons, a robotic force that operates more like a conventional army with lasers, missiles, tanks, and mechs. The community contributes to advances and successful defenses of each battlefront, and every week Arrowhead adjusts community objectives based on how these battlefronts are doing. There’s something special about not only working in a squad to complete objectives in a single sortie, but also contributing towards capturing the planet as a whole, or defending it, or some other metric like killing 2,000,000,000 (that’s right, 2 billion) enemies. 

New strategems are even linked towards the success of some of these community goals, such as mechs (successfully unlocked by the community) or anti-tank mines (so far still unlocked due to operation failures). This allows for some powerful emergent storytelling, where the progress and history of the war is based on the performance of the community, but also motivates that community to cooperate and support one another. Fronts ebb and flow, with some real community losses already logged. 

On top of all that is a simple economy for unlocking strategems, armor, weapons, and various upgrades. Experience and credits are rewarded when finishing missions; level progression grants access to certain features, mostly strategems, and credits buy strategems for permanent use. Samples are harder to come by, collected on the ground during missions, and unlock upgrades to your ship that benefit strategems, like reducing cooldown times or increasing turret ammunition or health. Rarer samples require playing the game at higher difficulties, so be prepared to brave missions with more objectives and tougher enemy types if you want to unlock the best upgrades. Finally, clearing operations–often a collection of 3 missions–award helldivers with medals which are spent on warbonds. Warbonds unlock primary and secondary weapons, grenade types, and armor sets that cater to different playstyles. There’s plenty to unlock, and it's fun and simple progressing through each track.

A note about warbonds. Each warbond has tiers of unlocks to progress through, but only the default warbond is available at the outset. Other warbonds require super credits to unlock. Super credits are available in-game, found in missions or awarded within warbonds themselves, but are also the purchasable currency. It’s easy enough to purchase the first warbond unlock with found or awarded supercredits, but after that getting additional supercredits can feel like a slog. You don’t need to spend a dime above the purchase price of Helldivers 2 to unlock everything in the game, but the time it takes to collect the right amount of supercredits is noticeable. Not everyone will appreciate this limitation.

Helldivers 2 is truly the first online game in many years that I just can’t put down. I can’t wait to see what our new major operation is every week, jumping into a mission and working with a squad towards unified goals is rewarding, and the gameplay is as exhilarating as it is thoughtful. This is a game to keep one’s eyes on, and I’m excited to see how it changes and evolves over time.

Marmoset’s Brew: Chipotle Ale. A familiar smooth, bold texture and flavor with the unexpected and unique kick of peppers that leaves a gratifying, but humbling, fiery taste in your mouth. It’s bold flavor keeps you coming back for more.

The Last of Us Part II

Occasionally a game comes about that sticks in your memory, an experience that finds its place in your heart because it touches all the facets of humanity. These games explore the complex range of often conflicting human emotions, meditations on love, hate, grief, celebration, forgiveness, and revenge. Such games can leave you floored, astonished, trying to find your breath as the credits roll and your mind reels. The Last of Us Part II is one of those rare games.

Developer Naughty Dog begins our story years after the end of the first game. Joel’s actions at the hospital weigh on both he and Ellie in their own ways, complicating their relationship. It is Joel’s final act in the first game that drives this narrative and several characters’ internal arcs, giving the game a sense of legacy and consequence for both the world as a whole and specific individuals. 

Once Ellie’s adventure is started in earnest, the action is mostly familiar. Throughout the adventure, several factions, including the zombie-like infected, await to be stealthily dispatched or actively gunned down as players see fit. New additions like crawling prone or diving through narrow divides give environments a more flexible flow. Enemy line of sight was often more distant or wider than I expected, pushing me to plan better or think quicker on the spot. It’s a blast learning how to run circles around enemies with all the resources at your disposal, and the mastery the game allows, even when you’re discovered and on the ropes, is exhilarating. High-intensity encounters are balanced with moments of silence, and every corner reveals additional resources for crafting, leveling up abilities and weapons, and even environmental details and notes that tell their own quiet stories of survival.

Naughty Dog expertly weaves its complex narrative into the many, many people the player will dispatch. Enemies talk about their lives while we skulk about, discussing a new child or some atrocious act they witnessed. They call out each other’s names while looking for one another or after discovering a body. Oh, that throat I just slit belonged to Greg. Apparently he had a wife waiting for him after his turn scavenging. And his wife was pregnant. Bummer. We are regularly reminded that good and evil are relative terms, that everyone has their own goals and motivations with their own costs, and this gives the broken world depth and begs us to think more critically on each character’s actions. 

This means being the player in this narrative can at times be painful. Though you can sneak by some enemies instead of stealthily or gruesomely dispatching them, the story beats are linear; this is Ellie’s yarn, not ours, we are merely the ones guiding her through it. On top of that, the production values are amazing, with absolutely real-feeling characters with life-like ticks and beautifully written dialogue. There were times I hit buttons to make Ellie do some things that I was hoping, as they were happening, she would stop herself from doing. The uncompromising narrative inspires apprehension in us as enactors, playing off our empathy, and there is a sensation of being pulled down with the thematic descent that you don’t experience in many narrative-focused games. 

With that said, pacing suffers a bit because of the heavy storytelling focus in the game. Between moments of intensity are sections of gameplay, like flashbacks, that lack high stakes or even any action. I enjoyed these ponderous and touching moments, but for some it might feel like being taken away from the steering wheel just as the race gets started. Some folks will appreciate it as the great storytelling it is, others might feel its bad game design. The pacing is a detail that, for better or worse, helps set The Last of Us Part II apart from other titles.

There is nothing simple about the story, and there are few games that feel as open to interpretation. It is a tale with heartwarming moments filled with hope and shocking acts that might repulse or disgust. An unflinching exploration of humanity and connection, It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s why this is one of the best games I’ve played since the original. I recommend going into it knowing as little as possible, and girding yourself for a brutal, emotional ride. It is an adventure you’ll never forget.

Marmoset’s Brew: For this one, you’re going to want something as bold, uncompromising, and unyielding as the game itself. I recommend a strong, rich, flavorful beer, preferably a stout, such as North Coast Brewing’s Old Rasputin Imperial Stout. A lighter beer in the same ballpark would be the spicy, merciless Arrogant Bastard Ale. Sip as you go, you don’t want to forget any detail.

Alcohol-free pairing: A dark coffee, black as the deepest pits of the human soul, with hints of dark chocolate to remind you of the sweeter parts too.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: More than Nostalgia

Twenty-three years ago, I got home excitedly from school, ran into my bedroom, flung my heavy backpack on the floor, and booted up my Playstation to play Squaresoft’s Final Fantasy VII for the first time. I remember the awkward but charming expressiveness of the stubby polygonal characters, the mind-blowing cinematics, the great cast, and the fantastic combat. I would obsess over and return to this game for years to come, devouring every detail of its story, secrets, splendor. A month ago, I got home from work, slipped out of my not-so-heavy backpack (still love ‘em), and sat down to play the full Final Fantasy VII Remake, a sense of cautious excitement building in me in much the same way as when I was a kid. I’m happy to say, about 50 hours of gameplay later, that I’ve walked away from the reimagining of one of my favorite childhood experiences impressed, satisfied, and a little surprised. I wasn’t a fan of the most recent Final Fantasy XV, and expected FFVIIR to be similarly action-focused and shallow. I quickly learned I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

FFVII Remake builds upon its predecessor rather than using it as simple source material. Everything I loved about the original is here with gameplay elements that improve the formula rather than dilute it. This isn’t a lazy re-hash leaning on reputation or a cash-grab based on branding alone. FFVIIR is a lovingly crafted experience, an ode to fans complete with, for better and worse, the depth and quirks of the original.

You’ll spend most of your time fighting a plethora of enemies, which is great because combat is fun and challenging. The traditional turn-based RPG gameplay is replaced with a more action-oriented approach, but don’t mistake that for simplicity. Players have up to three characters in their party at a time and switch direct control between them at will. Each character has basic attacks, blocks, and dodges, and a unique attack command. Cloud can switch to a high damage-dealing mode with counterattacks, Barret can launch a devastating attack that charges over time, Tifa can unleash powerful combos, and Aerith can charge up a powerful blast. As characters attack, each has two gauges that fill, enabling players to input magic, ability, and item commands. Favorites can be assigned to shortcuts to keep the action going, or players access the command menu at the press of a button to peruse everything available while time slows to a crawl. These gauges act as a limited resource, so choosing the right commands at the right time are paramount. Furthermore, spells cost magic points, or MP, another limited resource, so choosing to cast more powerful spells, or casting spells too frequently, can quickly limit the party’s options. What results is a sensitive, but fun, balancing act. I quickly found myself switching between characters often to harness their strengths and issuing multiple commands at a time. I rarely used the shortcuts because I found the slowdown while accessing the command menu so useful for reassessing the battlefield. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the fluidity and control in combat. 

It’s a good thing the system is fun to master because enemies are not run-of-the-mill static pushovers. Enemies have varied weaknesses like specific elements or attack types or real-time windows of opportunity. Taking advantage of these weaknesses or attacking an enemy enough pushes them into a staggered state, multiplying all damage they receive. Many have attacks that interrupt spells and abilities or otherwise incapacitate the party, so timing is everything. Bosses mix up the action with creative behaviors and patterns, sometimes controlling whole swaths of the battlefield until staggered. In short, enemy makeup demands more than just spamming basic or high-damage attacks; tactics, strategy, and positioning are keys to success.

The game’s equipment and materia system enable abilities and spells. One of my major fears was that Square-Enix would sacrifice the original game’s amazing materia and equipment for ease and simplicity, but instead we find a robust and flexible system. Materia, orbs imbued with power, is still slotted into weapons and armor, giving the character access to spells, abilities, summons, and other effects. Any character can use any materia, inviting players to experiment. Materia levels up over time, granting access to more powerful--and more expensive--spells or enhanced effects, so choosing what materia to use is also a long-term goal. In the original game, magic materia usually came with a stat cost, diminishing physical stats while strengthening magical stats. This time around, materia only increases specific stats, so there are no drawbacks to loading anyone with a bunch of magic. I thought a change like that would disappoint me, but with so much else to balance in the game, I didn’t find this to be a loss.

New to FFVIIR, characters learn unique abilities from their weapons, outlining certain roles players can take advantage of if they want. Barret, for instance, can take damage in place of the rest of the party, making him ideal for any gear or materia that buff him into a tank. It’s an obvious choice, but not the only one. Each character has enough weapons with wildly different stats and there’s enough armor and accessories for some serious flexibility in build. Tack onto that a leveling system for each individual weapon enabling other stat bonuses or traits, and one player's party can differ vastly from another’s. Some of my favorite sections of gameplay force the use of specific characters, challenging me to reassess my setup for a more effective strategy. Even if certain characters are unavailable to use, their gear and materia are still accessible, ensuring players are never stuck with a bum load out. No choice feels unimportant or frivolous, and making changes on the fly is easy and encouraged. 

The story itself remains intact with all the important beats we expect and with some we don’t. FFVIIR only covers the beginning of the original game, converting a mere handful of hours into a full fifty-hour long adventure. This meant the developers could explore the characters and locations in more depth, but there’s a ton of character development we don’t experience because it takes place later in the story. The benefit is we get a deeper sense of culture and lifestyle in Midgar and a more thorough understanding of many characters’ motivations. The downside is that since this is only act one, there’s much that hasn’t been explored by the time the credits roll, and if I didn’t already know the narrative like the back of my hand, I might’ve even been confused. An over-the-top ending adds some unnecessary and somewhat confusing foreshadowing while introducing some heady themes around the main antagonist that just aren’t explored enough. It didn’t ruin the experience, but the steady and enjoyable train jumps the rails a bit, and I felt the events didn’t benefit the game or the narrative much. I enjoyed most of FFVIIR’s differences in storytelling from the original, and I can’t wait for the next release to continue the adventure.

Aside from the main story, certain chapters feature side missions and combat challenges. Neither take up too much time, and their rewards are substantial, making them worthwhile for that merit alone. Sidequests often give a glimpse into the lives of the downtrodden, giving a bit more depth to the city, while combat challenges are fun and offer some of the most challenging scenarios. They are also both easily skippable for anyone that would rather power through the main storyline, though that player would miss out on some powerful assets. In the end, I enjoyed them as quick diversions at the least and tough tests of skill and knowledge at their best.

Gripes I have are mostly minor. Some facial animations on NPCs don’t match up to their script, resulting in some silly-, if not downright scary-looking lip-stretching and air-chewing, which is a bit shameful for a game of this caliber. The rest of the game is so damn gorgeous, it feels odd that some facial animations were overlooked. Lots of quirks typical of Final Fantasy remain, like mini-games (mostly fun), errand-running (go talk to folks), and strange NPCs that some may find awkward and unnecessary (random hand massage? Sure, what the hell). These are usually all in fun, giving the game some charm, but sometimes I felt the pace of the experience ground to a slog, or that the mood would swing wildly from grim seriousness to outlandish tomfoolery much too quickly. This is nothing new to the Final Fantasy namesake, so take it as you will.  

Regardless, this was a fantastic game, and any fan of the core material will most likely enjoy it. If nostalgia is all you’re lining up for, there’s that in droves, and the euphoric power of the music, action, art, and narrative will be enough for any FFVII fan. Here, the past also meets excellent design, so anyone who’s unfamiliar with the original still has a great experience ahead of them, and most of the story will make perfect sense. All my fears assuaged, all my doubts proven wrong, FFVII Remake has found a permanent, loving place in my heart. It’s just a bummer we have to wait for the rest, but I’ll be here, even more excited for the next release.

Marmoset’s Brew: Remember the first drink you really enjoyed? Maybe that drink’s remained an old favorite, something you revisit that the first taste of illicits wholesome good feelings. Mine would be Disarrono or the Oatmeal Stout. That’s the drink FFVIIR is: reliable, delicious, and by the last drop you can’t help but want more.

Celeste

At the 2018 Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of sitting down to a short session of Celeste. This platformer, by independent developer Matt Makes Games, seemed cute at first glance, with its charmingly cartoonish character frames and beautiful, pixelated art style, and I had heard rumors about its ability to inspire positivity and perseverance in others, specifically the depressed and suicidal. That’s a tall order, I thought, and I love great narratives, so why not check it out? In my short half-hour with the game on the expo floor, I jammed through the first few levels, which I found intensely fun and reasonably challenging. I enjoyed it enough that I knew I needed to play it, so once back home in Hawai'i, I did.

Celeste is a precise platformer that requires surgical timing, lightning reflexes, and astute analysis and planning. It’s a type of game that I don’t really play anymore, because I’m an adult with a job and lots of hobbies. Writing’s hard enough, why torture myself with an ultra-precise challenge like Celeste? Learning to make pixel-perfect jumps over chasms and between obstacles doesn’t really appeal to me. I promised myself I’d finish it though, to discover what the deal is with this profound effect it has on its players. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Celeste indeed contains a meaningful narrative that is reinforced and informed by its gameplay, and though the experience taxed me in ways only my writing usually does, I was inspired to persevere. And that’s an experience that can inform our daily lives.

In Celeste, players jump from platform to platform, the general goal to reach point B from point A. The unique spin on that formula is that players can dash in any direction as well as grip walls for climbing. This changes how we perceive the landscape because there are far more possibilities. With this foundation, each level layers on more depth or challenge by adding moving or temporary platforms, movement-limiting winds, and additional midair dash mechanisms. Respawn points are frequent, so death is encouraged as a learning mechanism and even tracked by a counter for each level. This leads to plenty of exciting moments of discovery, followed by tons of failed attempts at precision, until you finally get that one move right. The game is challenging, but delivers its difficulty one snippet at a time, and this allows the deviously ingenious design to be incredibly fun and rewarding.

With that said, Celeste pushed me in ways many of the games I play don’t. After the first few levels, the precision the game requires ramps up, and I started to have a hard time. Towards the end of the game, that precision tested my ability, patience, and oftentimes, my civility. Expletives and middle fingers sprouted from me like rampant weeds until I could frustratingly admit to myself that I needed a break. This might sound bad, but I was always excited to get back to whatever section I was stuck on with a fresh perspective and positive attitude. The process of encountering a seemingly insurmountable challenge, succumbing to overwhelming failure, and then bouncing back with renewed zeal and persistence is the whole point of Celeste, and its well-written main character emphasizes this.

Threaded within all the jumps, spikes, and near-death landings is a narrative about a girl creating her own inner peace. The girl, who we discover early in the game is running from some heavy internal issues, is forced to deal with her baggage by the magical properties of the mountain Celeste. The mountain manifests these internal issues as external aggressors, like an “evil” version of the main character, demanding that our hero unpack those bags and take a closer look at what she’s lugging around. As I played, pushing myself to overcome the obstacles before me, I felt intense empathy; I could feel her overwhelming sense of defeat and the tantalizing desire to quit. It was easy to put myself in her shoes and reflect on my own obstacles, whether in the game or in my life. This is what good writing is supposed to do. I even renamed the character (a smart design decision), which made me feel like the game was speaking directly to me. I felt the girl’s crushing doubt and insecurity as well as her hopeful persistence and determination.

Matt Makes Games could have easily delivered Celeste without the narrative and character, and it would have been a fun, challenging, expertly crafted platforming experience. Celeste is more, with its writing and design meshed together in such a way that one cannot be divorced from the other, therefore exploring its subject matter sensitively, personally, and with depth. The experience lingers long after the credits roll. Even writing this article, as I got frustrated with a section or felt something wasn't good enough (and never would be), I'd remind myself to breathe for a moment, to take a short break or push through a block, that I'm not perfect and that's okay. Celeste reminds me that I'm a work in progress, that progress requires effort and patience, and that if I find something incredibly hard, I can overcome it.   

Marmoset's Brew: Peyote. It's a deep dive, you're going to see some stuff, and you're going to come out changed for the better.