UPDATED: Seems Sony backed down! Now I can change this review to a good one, because as I said before the game itself is actually really good.

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ORIGINAL:
Helldivers 2. A game that came out of left field and blindsided us all, but gets shafted by their publisher. I want to preface this review by saying the game is completely brilliant. From Top down to Third Person shooter, Arrowhead nailed this game, both in gameplay and how it's very pro-consumer.

For anyone not in the loop, and I am sure everyone is by this point, Sony at the start of Helldivers 2's launch, said a PSN account was OPTIONAL, and now a few months down the line they have gone against everyone and now DEMAND a PSN account to play at all. Not even Arrowhead, the developers, are happy with this. To make matters worse, Sony has even doubled down and DELISTED the game for any country that cannot make a PSN account, meaning if they can't get a refund, they lose all access to the game. Thankfully Valve is allowing refunds regardless of playtime, but anyone who got the game via a key are still out of luck. It's an absolutely pathetic gambit from Sony to boast their numbers, and it's such a shame that Arrowhead have to deal with this, because the game and team are bangers, but I'm not going to play into Sony's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

UPDATED: Seems Sony backed down! Now I can change this review to a good one, because as I said before the game itself is actually really good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ORIGINAL: Helldivers 2. A game that came out of left field and blindsided us all, but gets shafted by their publisher. I want to preface this review by saying the game is completely brilliant. From Top down to Third Person shooter, Arrowhead nailed this game, both in gameplay and how it's very pro-consumer. For anyone not in the loop, and I am sure everyone is by this point, Sony at the start of Helldivers 2's launch, said a PSN account was OPTIONAL, and now a few months down the line they have gone against everyone and now DEMAND a PSN account to play at all. Not even Arrowhead, the developers, are happy with this. To make matters worse, Sony has even doubled down and DELISTED the game for any country that cannot make a PSN account, meaning if they can't get a refund, they lose all access to the game. Thankfully Valve is allowing refunds regardless of playtime, but anyone who got the game via a key are still out of luck. It's an absolutely pathetic gambit from Sony to boast their numbers, and it's such a shame that Arrowhead have to deal with this, because the game and team are bangers, but I'm not going to play into Sony's bullshit.