Helldivers 2 on Xbox Series X impressions — Democracy spreads to more frontiers

It’s been ten years since we were first introduced to Super Earth, with Helldivers releasing in 2015 on PlayStation 3 and 4, and then later that year on PC. About a year and a half ago, our mission to protect Super Earth was escalated in Helldivers 2 for PlayStation 5 and PC, which also switched the game to third-person, a big change from the original’s top-down, twin-stick shooter style. The stakes are high, and the casualties are piling up. More troops are needed to help combat the ever-growing threats that Super Earth faces. It’s time to summon the green team.

Helldivers 2 was recently ported over to Xbox Series consoles, giving Xbox players the chance to hop in their Hellpods and drop into the fight. On Series X, the game performs similarly to the PlayStation 5 release, with similar options for graphics, performance, and other settings; however, PlayStation 5 takes the Democracy cake with slightly more vibrant visuals. This is a little disappointing given how close the two systems are in technical specs. Xbox Series X edges over PlayStation 5 in terms of performance, although the PlayStation 5 has the faster SSD. Regardless, I see no reason why there should be any performance differences for games that are on both platforms when the overall difference between the two is virtually negligible.

I have seen discussions around this, with some wondering if this is intentional to coax players to play on PlayStation 5, fueling even more of the console superiority debate, which is a discussion that really should be laid to rest at this point, but that’s a topic for another day. Either way, Xbox players have been dropping in with a fervor, lending their deep space battle experience from years of playing Halo to continue spreading Democracy. And, for the most part, the existing Helldivers 2 community has been very welcoming to the newcomers, helping guide Xbox players (including myself) as we navigate the hellscapes on Super Earth.

Speaking of Halo, I’m always a fan of collaborations, especially between competing entities, so I was excited to see the Halo ODST warbond that players can unlock to get Halo-themed gear for their Helldiver. However, this is an expensive, Legendary warbond, requiring 1500 Super Credits to be unlocked, and most items in the warbond take dozens of medals to acquire. I’m sure there’s some die-hard Halo fans out there who’ve already racked up the 637 total medals needed to acquire everything in the warbond, but I’ll be lucky if I even manage to get a few items from it, especially with all the other warbonds available.

Of course, the Xbox Series release also supports cross-platform play, with quick and easy matchmaking if you want to join a mission in progress, though you can always drop an SOS Beacon to have players join your existing mission as well. I did experience a few disconnects, with some players randomly dropping from the mission or me even getting sent back to my own ship (the SES Queen of Individual Merit, of course), but it’s hard to know for certain if this was a server issue or if it was just players dropping in and out because the game doesn’t exactly specify the reason.

Aside from that and some minor framerate issues when dropping down to Super Earth in the hellpods, the experience on Xbox Series X has been pretty clean. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Series S to speak on how the game performs there, however, the Series S is a less powerful system, so if you’re thinking of playing the game there, don’t be surprised if it isn’t as smooth. Overall, this port fits perfectly on the Xbox Series X, though I do hope they work on optimizing the game to improve performance and visuals.