Helldivers 2 is being review bombed because its 20 October update swapped GameGuard for Easy Anti-Cheat, and that broke a lot of PC mods. When I checked Steam today, only 38% of the 9,619 reviews from the last 30 days were positive, which puts it at Mostly Negative. Understandable.
Key takeaways
- Helldivers 2’s recent Steam reviews are Mostly Negative after Easy Anti-Cheat broke a lot of mods on 20 October.
- Arrowhead says Helldivers 3 isn’t in development, and 95% of the studio is working on Helldivers 2.
- At $39.99, I think you’ll get about 40 hours out of it, which is my $1 an hour rule.
Why is Helldivers 2 being review bombed?
Helldivers 2 is being review bombed over mods. Update 7.2.0 landed on 20 October and moved Helldivers 2 from GameGuard to Easy Anti-Cheat, which games.gg covered on the day. By the next day it had picked up 2,365 negative reviews, and one of the biggest mods, Custom Galactic War, was down “for the foreseeable future” (TheGamer).
It’s got worse since. TheGamer had it at 55% positive across 6,500 recent reviews on 21 October, and a week later it’s at 38% of 9,619. Overall it’s still Mostly Positive on Steam, with 79% of 641,287 English reviews positive. The anger is all recent.
The modding community put a lot of work into modding parts of the game, and for it to get blocked through anti-cheat is kind of interesting to me. Plenty of the broken mods were just bug fixes and quality-of-life stuff.
What is Easy Anti-Cheat blocking in a PvE game?
I don’t really understand what anti-cheat is blocking in Helldivers. It’s not PvP, so the most it’s stopping is you being big number on a leaderboard. It’s a very strange thing to not consider when pushing it out.
Arrowhead’s answer, in its Steam announcement on 20 October, is cheat mods that affect other people’s games, “even going so far as to manipulate the war itself”, meaning the Galactic War every player shares. The studio said GameGuard “wasn’t as effective as it could have been”, and that Easy Anti-Cheat is used in over 200 games.
There’s money in it too. In July, Arrowhead started stopping anyone earning Super Credits, the premium currency, at rates no human could reach, after bots and duplication exploits were farming them (games.gg covered the crackdown). Medals, Samples and Requisition got the same treatment.
Do Helldivers 2 mods still work?
Some Helldivers 2 mods still work and some don’t. Arrowhead said mods that affect other players “may no longer function”, and that harmless cosmetic mods may need updating by their creators before they work again. If Easy Anti-Cheat blocks a mod that isn’t doing any harm, the studio wants you to tell its support team on Zendesk.
Arrowhead also said the switch doesn’t change the hardware requirements, and Steam Deck and Linux players can still play. The team behind Custom Galactic War says it’s looking at other options, but for now that mod doesn’t work with the current game.
Is this the first time Helldivers 2 has been review bombed?
No, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue getting review bombed into the dirt. They already got review bombed a while ago because of the PlayStation thing: in May 2024, a few months after launch, Sony said PC players would need a PlayStation Network account. After more than 84,000 negative reviews, Sony backed down on 5 May.
By TheGamer’s count, this is the seventh review bomb in two years. There was another in May this year, over the Exo Experts Warbond putting exosuits behind a paid pass (games.gg). I think it’s just another time for them to eat a whole load of review bombing.
Is Helldivers 3 in development?
Helldivers 3 isn’t in development, and I’d be very surprised if it was. I feel like Helldivers 2 has only just come out, right? It’s been out on PS5 and PC since February 2024, and it only reached Xbox in August 2025, so why would they be making a 3 already?
Arrowhead says the same. Chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt says 95% of the roughly 150-person studio is on Helldivers 2, with a small team prototyping its next game. “The biggest competitor to a Helldivers 3 would be Helldivers 2,” he told Rock Paper Shotgun. A sequel only makes sense, he said, if it’s so different that both games can exist side by side.
Is Helldivers 2 worth it in 2026?
Helldivers 2 is worth $40, probably. I think you’ll get 40 hours out of it, and I rate my fun at $1 an hour. I’ve only got 20 hours in it on Steam myself, so by my own rule I’m halfway there.
I played solo, which was fun, because people get thrown in and join in with you. I had all the problems in the world trying to play with my mates, because cross-platform wouldn’t work properly, to the point we just stopped playing. That was nearer to launch. I did then play later down the line with viewers of my stream.
It’s co-op for up to four players, with optional crossplay, on PS5, PC and Xbox Series X|S. 21,874 people were playing it on Steam when I checked today, and it has sold over 20 million copies.
FAQ
Why is Helldivers 2 being review bombed?
Because the 20 October update swapped GameGuard for Easy Anti-Cheat, which broke a lot of PC mods. Recent Steam reviews are Mostly Negative.
Is Helldivers 3 in development?
No. Arrowhead’s Johan Pilestedt says there are no plans for one, and 95% of the studio is working on Helldivers 2.
Do Helldivers 2 mods work with Easy Anti-Cheat?
Some don’t. Arrowhead says cosmetic mods may need updates from their creators, and mods that affect other players are meant to stop working.
