Helldivers returns with a tough update and a free weekend

To save our mother Earth from any alien attack

If you missed Helldivers (and it sure seems like a lot of folks did), this weekend is your chance to see what’s up. Arrowhead’s unforgiving sci-fi twin-stick shooter has a new content update and an obligatory free Steam weekend to further entice onlookers. The free-play event runs until Sunday, October 28 at 10:00am Pacific. Helldivers is also marked 50 percent off if you want to keep playing.

The thought of returning to a punishing co-op-centric shooter like Helldivers hasn’t entered my mind in a long time, but I do have such a soft spot for its bug-killing ways and regularly scheduled “accidental” friendly fire. It’s the type of game best enjoyed with longtime online friends who are on the same wavelength. It is possible to survive intense missions with randoms, but they can be a handful.

My favorite aspect is the game’s flexibility in terms of challenge and your individual equipment loadout and how that can synergize with teammates. Also, it’s just plain satisfying to mow down overgrown bugs. This latest update adds three more difficulties that culminate with the “Inner Circle of Hell” (level 15), as well as three enemy types (one for each alien faction that opposes Super Earth).

Lastly, Helldivers has another stratagem to tinker with: a 300-round, one-use, toss-it-when-you’re-done machine gun called the MGX-42. Just be sure to watch your positioning before opening fire.

With any luck, we’ll get a Helldivers 2 one day with more mission variety.