News about Helldivers 2 Board Game: Exclusive Hands-On Preview

One of the standout successes in the multiplayer gaming arena last year was Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2, which captivated players with its mission to spread democracy across the galaxy through intense battles against aliens and robots. Now, following the successful release of their monumental board game adaptation of Elden Ring, Steamforged Games is bringing the fast-paced and chaotic experience of Helldivers 2 to the tabletop. This exciting new board game is now available for backing on Gamefound. IGN had the opportunity to play a prototype and discuss the game with designers Jamie Perkins, Derek Funkhouser, and Nicholas Yu, gaining insight into this thrilling tabletop adaptation.

Helldivers 2: The Board Game

17 ImagesDeveloped shortly after the video game's launch last year, Helldivers 2: The Board Game successfully encapsulates the core elements that have made the original so popular. It retains the tense firefights, unpredictable surprises, and cooperative gameplay while introducing its own unique twists to the formula.

Helldivers 2 remains a cooperative, objective-based skirmish game, accommodating one to four players (with solo players recommended to control two characters). Players assume the roles of different Helldiver classes, each with unique perks, action cards, and a powerful one-use "Act of Valor" ability. The demo showcased the Heavy, Sniper, Pyro, and Captain classes, each equipped with a primary, secondary, and support weapon, a grenade, and three strategems, with suggested loadouts on the class card, though players can customize as they gain experience.

Gameplay unfolds on grid-based boards that expand as you explore, revealing sub-objectives and primary mission locations, such as Terminid hatcheries to destroy in the prototype. As players progress, more challenging enemies spawn, and a mission timer adds urgency, keeping the game frenetic and tense. The final release will feature multiple objectives and include two of the three main factions—the Terminids and the robotic Automatons—each with 10 unit types. Although not confirmed, there’s potential for the Illuminate to appear in future expansions.

The adaptation's approach to the overwhelming enemy numbers leans more towards tactical combat with fewer, stronger foes rather than sheer numbers, similar to games like Nemesis. This design choice heightens the strategic element of the game.

Turns involve players and enemies adding action cards to a pool, which are shuffled and placed onto an initiative tracker reminiscent of Steamforged’s Elden Ring game. Combat relies on dice rolls, with weapons determining the type and number of dice. Every four action cards played triggers a random event, adding chaos and excitement. On the Helldivers' side, damage is straightforward: every five points from a roll inflicts a wound on the enemy, simplifying combat mechanics and ensuring players always hit, though area attacks can affect allies.

A standout feature is the 'Massed Fire' mechanic, designed to emulate the cooperative shooting of the video game. Nic Yu explained, “In the video game, obviously, you're encouraged to work together as a team. You have a heavily armored enemy, you need to kind of flank around and shoot at the weak points if you don't have a support weapon to deal with it. But there wasn't a really good way to do that in a board game without going to lot of facing and armor mechanics. So what we implemented was we called 'massed fire,' so when anyone shoots at a target, if that's within range of another helldivers primary, secondary target, they can also focus fire with you at that time, and so you're kind of explicitly rewarded or incentivized to work as a group.” This mechanic encourages teamwork and reduces player downtime.

Enemy actions, however, are simpler, with set damage or effects from their cards, causing players to draw wound cards. A character dies after receiving three wounds but can respawn based on the chosen difficulty level, restoring their full loadout.

One notable omission from the video game is the galactic war, dropped to keep the board game unique. Jamie Perkins shared an intriguing piece of lore, positioning the board game as a training simulation for Helldivers.

Despite the change in medium, the designers aimed to preserve the essence of Helldivers. Nic emphasized, “We wanted to make sure that even though had different mechanics, it felt like Helldivers – like we want to have unexpected things that you have to deal with from turn to turn. We want to have stratagems that could go awry and actually blow up your friends in addition to the enemies. The pool of reinforcements that dwindles as you go through the game and calling in stratagems, those are things that feel uniquely Helldivers.” Derek added, “We knew we needed to keep the core loop of what Helldivers is with the mission objectives, and just being able to chase the shiny, right? We've got points of interest and sub-objectives and the objectives to uncover and find, while also having to deal with enemies that are, you know, trying to eat you.”

Currently, the game's core mechanics are about 75-80% finalized, allowing for community feedback and potential adjustments. Jamie reassured that recent tariff concerns won't impact their plans, and they are moving forward as intended.

After playing the prototype, the systems in place, such as random events and the Massed Fire mechanic, promise epic moments. However, while the tactical focus with stronger enemies is appreciated, I personally miss the thrill of mowing down hordes of smaller enemies, a staple of the video game experience. Additionally, enemy attacks feel somewhat static compared to the dynamic gameplay elsewhere, and introducing varied outcomes via dice rolls could enhance this aspect.

I'm excited to see what other surprises Steamforged Games has in store for Helldivers 2. The prototype has left me eager to explore new classes, game types, and combinations with different enemies and biomes. My friends and I are already planning our next drop.