Helldivers 2 for the PS5 and PC is now out, and we've enlisted three IGN staff members to take on the disgusting bug like Terminids, and the Terminator-esque Automatons, in this explosive, intense and bloody 18 minutes of 4K 60FPS gameplay - all captured with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

’s smartest choices, though, is not to just throw thousands of identical, easy-to-kill bugs at you. Enemies more often number in the dozens, but developer Arrowhead Game Studios’ masterstroke is to make each bug dangerous in its own way. Some have armor covering almost all of their body, some can turn invisible, and all of them want to tear you apart. Every attack also has a chance to injure your limbs, slowing you down or reducing your accuracy if you aren’t able to heal. Missions also have time limits, and traversing each map takes careful planning and quite a bit of running.

The map itself is significantly larger too, meaning there’s more space for you and your squad to explore, but in turn, you also need to be covering all basis faster.

Avoid moving around when you're aiming. The tutorial will cover this, explaining how your reticle will move all over the place when you're firing your weapon, and if you want to take down enemies, precision is key.

Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt addressed this on social media recently, noting that the studio would "never add a PvP mode" as it hopes "to reduce toxic elements from the community.

As it is now, it is an entertaining action spectacle that is definitely best when played with others. Despite the repetitiveness, I have had a lot of fun with it and I look forward to diving into new planets to save humanity.

There's also a setting to adjust the level of image sharpening. At zero sharpening in performance mode Helldivers 2 looks soft and indistinct, while stepping up to the max sharpening level increases clarity at the cost of additional artifacting. Quality mode exhibits the same difference, although given its higher resolution, the effect is a bit more subtle. Helldivers' performance mode runs smoothly. We're mostly at 60fps in typical play, with a very smooth readout, especially when combined with the game's motion blur. The game can suffer from extended dips into the 50s though, typically during larger firefights. In my gameplay the worst Helldivers 2 Gameplay I saw was about 50fps, so the game does manage to stay pretty close to 60fps more generally, although it can spend a long time hovering in the 50s in extended firefights. The quality mode also manages a tight lock on its 30fps frame-rate target, but it clearly has issues with bouts of inconsistent frame-pacing.

Most live service games have a paid Battle Pass for players to progress through by leveling up or spending a currency, with each tier of the pass giving you a reward when reached. Helldivers 2 has a paid Battle Pass, too, though it works differently than most.

As the second installment to the series, we expect the in-game content to shake up the original formula, but the limited trailers we are working with aren’t giving away too much information. That said, there are a few things we can pinpoint from what we have seen.

The game has fully transitioned to a live-service model which means that the game aims to make you play for continuous amounts of time.

Jetpacks may seem unnecessary at first, but they can be particularly useful on snowy maps. Just remember you can't go prone with a jetpack on.

On the topic of Stratagems, ship module upgrades are equally important. These will affect your Stratagems, and you can see the ones that will be influenced in the bottom right corner on each ship module upgrade.

Helldivers 2 is a mighty fun time especially with friends, family, and anyone you might want to “accidentally” flatten with a supply package.

Even if you’re in a full squad, the smallest bugs pose a real threat, whether it’s killing you themselves or overwhelming you until their bigger, scarier cousins catch up. Thankfully, bugs aren’t immune to specific limb-related injuries either; you can also shoot their legs, tails, claws, and other parts off in a gory spray that can render them alive but harmless — though still extremely gross. This little gameplay and gore nuance, combined with the ammo limitations, mean accuracy is paramount, and every little encounter feels like life or death. All of this makes for an infectiously fun gameplay loop.