Sony announces Helldivers 2, which is now a third-person shooter

Helldivers, the 2015 top-down shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios, is getting a sequel.

Announced at the 2023 PlayStation Showcase, Helldivers 2 keeps the Starship Troopers-style tone of the original game intact while changing the perspective to third-person.

The trailer is heavy on vibes, with a goofy promotional video about Super Earth, where the normal citizenry lives, and the Helldivers that keep them safe by traveling the galaxy to eradicate insect-like aliens.

Helldivers 2 will let players team up with up to three others in a co-op shooter where players fight off waves and waves of nasty alien baddies. Per a post from developer Arrowhead Game Studios on the PlayStation Blog, Helldivers 2 aims to keep the hectic bombast of the arcade-style original by letting players call in ludicrously devastating support weapons. Arrowhead writes:

“In the heat of the battle and your squad needs to take out a massive onslaught of Terminids in one go? You can have an Eagle drop a 500KG bomb, leaving behind only liberated bug corpses. Need to lay down a defensive perimeter? You can call for the Anti-Personnel Mine Deployer to layer the battlefield with deadly mines.”

Helldivers 2 is set to launch on PS5 and PC in 2023.