Recent reviews by BlackRainWillow

I want to preface by saying that as far as recommendations go, this one is contingent on the DLC being on sale.

My review is also not going to talk a whole lot about the gameplay itself, as there's not much that watching a video of gameplay wouldn't cover. If you're curious about what its like to play the game, go watch a video of it, there's worldbuilding but not really anything resembling a 'story' so a video is not going to spoil anything but the types of gear you can get and enemies you can face.

I love this game, and have played it on and off for years (played it on console originally, so I've got a bit more time ingame than what Steam says). I've always had a lot of fun with it; and these days I primarily use it for killing relatively small chunks of time (10-20min). The main reason my recommendation is contingent on the DLC being on sale is because the enjoyment of this game comes in large part (but not solely) from having various gear and stratagems to play around with, and the DLC packs add a lot of the most fun ones (and some that border on the pay-to-win line). On the subject of that pay-to-win borderline, the UAV from the Ranger pack makes the research point grind far less of a grind, and the All Terrain Boots from the Terrain Specialist pack are *almost* required for snow planets to not be a slog. I'd point toward those if you can only get one or two DLCs for the game.

On the subject of Helldivers 2 and comparisons, I very much prefer Helldivers 2 over this game when it comes to getting the helldiving experience, but I still ALSO play this game.
By comparison, this one has a much more significant grind to unlock everything, but its much easier to fit into smaller windows of time for a satisfying play session.
Missions on this game don't have a time limit but generally won't go any longer than 15-20 minutes even for long missions (with chosen difficulty heavily affecting the duration of missions), compared to Helldivers 2 where there's a 40 minute time limit on most missions and its not uncommon to hit or come close to that time limit (depending on playstyle/skill level of the group you're playing with).
This part is a bit more anecdotal, but I don't feel like this game requires as deep thought as the sequel, however while the thought processes during play aren't as deep in this game, it more consistently demands your attention. What I mean by the depth of thought is that I can play this game while listening to podcasts and not miss much of either; if I play Helldivers 2 while trying to listen to a podcast, I will not be able to properly follow the podcast. As for what I mean by it more consistently demanding your attention, the sequel allows moments of down-time during missions where you can relatively safely step away briefly to do something even while you're playing solo, this game doesn't really afford you those types of windows, the best you get is 10-15 seconds between patrols showing up where you'd be able to alt-tab and respond to a message.