Helldivers 2 is wildly different from its predecessor. If you were someone who played the original, it’s easy to feel like you’ve skipped a sequel and landed straight into the third installment.
That’s because of how much the game has advanced since the first one. Johan Pilestedt, the mastermind behind Arrowhead Studios, explains how the studio managed to pull off such impressive improvements.
Helldivers 2 Took a Big Risk, and It Paid Off
It takes guts to shake things up, especially when you’ve had a string of successful top-down games under your belt. But Johan Pilestedt, Arrowhead Studios’ CEO, wasn’t afraid to take the plunge. In a recent interview with CGMagazine, Pilestedt explained the studio’s bold decision to shift gears from top-down to third-person gameplay in Helldivers 2.
The question on everyone’s mind was simple: Why the change? Pilestedt answered that the team was really happy with the way the first game turned out. However, they quickly felt a desire to break free from this formula. Pilestedt elaborated:
We’ve sort of gotten a little bit pigeonholed into top-down development… our core principle in making video games, it’s not necessarily about the perspective it’s more about the emotion and the game experience.
With this philosophy in mind, the team explored new horizons. Pilestedt revealed:
We wanted something where you get to laugh a lot and be surprised and have those crazy moments!
Pilestedt also explained, “the slapstick comedy was more effective in third-person than the previous top-down perspective.”
The idea of bringing players closer to the action and immersing them in the visceral intensity of the game took root. Pilestedt recounted how they experimented with shifting the camera perspective in the original Helldivers:
It gave us the confidence to say, ‘You know what? This would actually be a lot of fun from this perspective.
With this newfound confidence, Arrowhead approached PlayStation with a vision for Helldivers 2. The response was positive, and it became an opportunity for Arrowhead “to double down on the visceral reality and intensity.”
There’s a Lot of Changes Between the Two Games
One of the biggest differences from the original Helldivers is how seamlessly you can now navigate with the map open, compared to the original’s clunkiness.
The original game drew inspiration from WWII-era tactics, where unfolding a map and pointing to spots meant signaling the next move. But times have changed, and with the prevalence of smartphones and Google Maps, the team took cues from real-world navigation to enhance navigation in Helldivers 2.
Overall, transitioning from a top-down to a third-person perspective was difficult, but Arrowhead believed it was essential to elevate the gaming experience. This shift allowed the developers to inject more depth into the game’s mechanics.
For instance, players can exploit specific weak points on enemies, a mechanic impossible to implement in the original top-down format.
Do you prefer the third-person perspective seen in Helldivers 2 over the original’s? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments!
