Helldivers

Even if it wasn't on sale, I would have bought this game 100 times over. Even though Helldivers 2 is out, this game is still being played, so multiplayer is still active. it's pretty much the same game as the second with a few changes, that I will list here in great detail:
TL;DR
Helldivers 2 is objectively the better game, but I would personally say that I prefer this game over its sequel. It's more accessible because the hardware requirements are significantly less. The community is less toxic, the missions are bite-sized and honestly more goofy to me, and I feel like I'm really part of a team.
SHARED CAMERA
This game is meant to be a team game. There is no going off on your own. There is a single camera and you can't split up. It was certainly a complaint I had initially, but after a day or two, you not only get used to it, but you start to appreciate the teamwork aspect of it. I don't feel like I'm getting dragged around by teammates because we have to stick together. It feels more like my fellow Helldivers have my back than like one of us is a weak link being carried around by someone else.
MISSION TIMES
Missions tend to last shorter here than in Helldivers 2. Most are completed in 2-15 minutes depending on the difficulty, type of mission, how many players are in the party, and how many objectives there are. I really enjoy that there is no mission timer in this version of the game, so you can comb every corner of the map looking for samples if you want to.
DIFFICULTY
The max difficulty level is 15.
REINFORCEMENTS
This one is a little tricky and a double-edge sword. On the one hand, there is no limit to how many times you can reinforce your allies. The reinforcement strategem does have a cooldown, but it's only between a 30-60 second-cooldown depending on its upgrade. The cooldown is individualized, so your party can take turns reinforcing each other.
That being said, if the entire party goes down, that often results in an instant game over. There are separate "auto-reinforcements" that you can earn by finishing main objectives or by playing solo, but you definitely have to be very careful and always prioritize reinforcing your team when someone goes down. Just like with the shared camera, I have grown to like this aspect because it adds to the cooperative aspect and values of the game.
UPGRADES
There is only one type of sample, and collecting 10 samples grants you one research point that you can then spend to upgrade any one weapon or strategem of your choice. You also gain one research point per level up. Personally, I much prefer this system because upgrading individual strategems offer very unique upgrades depending on what they do. For instance, the Recoilless Rifle at max upgrade ignores armour entirely, and the barbed wire defense doubles in size. You not only get upgrades faster, as they only cost between 1-4 research points each (between 10-40 samples per upgrade) with only 2 upgrades per strategem, but you can also prioritize the strategems you use most often.
PERKS
Whereas you had armour and boosters in Helldivers 2, here you have perks. Perks include heavy armour (all armour is purely cosmetic and offer the same benefits), getting up faster, gaining reduced cooldowns/call-ins for all strategems, quicker extractions, and immunity to environmental slows. This is also how you change your secondary weapon or grenades.
KEYBOARD CONTROLS
Aiming via mouse-and-keyboard is very confusing, and you cannot control how far strategems or grenades are thrown. Things are thrown normally based on what direction your character is currently facing, not where you are pointing the mouse. Additionally, the mouse cursor is a blurred black circle, so it is difficult for people like me who have vision issues.
EXTRACTION
The extraction ship is significantly bigger than it is in Helldivers 2. You enter the ship from either side, and the entryways are plenty big enough that you don't feel as if you are running over each other trying to get through a tiny door.
HELLPODS
I hate how the Hellpod drops were designed. Whereas in Helldivers 2, you rise out of your pod like an elevator, in this game, you have to climb into and out of it. So when you start a mission, you climb out to the northwest corner of the pod. You cannot control where your pod lands before it drops, and when playing multiplayer, some players will crawl out of their pods the second that a fellow Helldiver is dropping, right in the spot that they just climbed out of. It is avoidable, but you have about half a second to run or spring prone out of the way to avoid dying. Again, there are no limits on reinforcements, but this can still get frustrating because the drops seem to be randomized.
Additionally, a single Hellpod will instantly kill one of your vehicles. Yes, I know why they do, but with the very little warning you get for the pod drops (about 1 or 2 seconds), you can lose vehicles very easily simply by accident. I got killed by an incoming Helldiver once in my mech.
SINGLE-USE STRATEGEMS
Support weapons, packs (e.g. the jump pack, guard dogs), mechs, and vehicles can only be called once per mission. If your vehicle gets destroyed or your team runs off without allowing you to pick up your weapon after you die, there's no getting them back. It makes sense for balancing why the vehicles and mechs are single-use, but I once called down a tank in a level 9 mission only for it to be instantly destroyed by a falling Hellpod. Additionally, while they can be healed by the Angel Guard Dog, vehicles cannot be resupplied, so once your ammunition has been used up, they are essentially useless. Your vehicles can also explode upon taking enough damage, instantly killing you.
RESUPPLIES
The Resupply strategem must be manually selected before a mission, and it does take up one of your four available strategem slots.
WEIRD WEAPON HOTKEYS
Secondary weapons are (at least by default) bond to slot 1 while your primary weapon is bound to slot 2. This definitely confuses me and sometimes it will take me a hot minute to adjust my mindset.
GETTING KNOCKED DOWN
Thank god there is no ragdolling in this game, but if you take too much damage, you will be knocked prone. You have to hold E to get yourself back up, which does take 2-3 seconds, or your teammates can help you up instantly. There is a perk to get yourself up faster, and I believe the Angel also helps you get up faster, but it can get very annoying very quickly. It is just another incentive to always stick close to your fellow Helldivers.
HELLBOMBS
Hellbombs detonate approximately 3-4 seconds after activation. Two problems arise from this: If you're in a vehicle (most of them move pretty slowly), you're dead. If your teammates ran the opposite way of you, you're dead. Be very careful with Hellbombs, or make sure somebody has a strategem that can take them structures out without using them.
INFINITE STAMINA
To counter the getting-knocked-down part, you can run infinitely. And coupled with the lack of mission time limits, there is no harm in simply running away from a tough battle and coming back later.
9.5/10

A shockingly alive game considering its age and the sequel.
Vastly different from Helldivers 2, but better in some ways honestly.
If you like top-down satirical shooters, this is the game for you.

Wow, great game. I hope they come out with a sequel. Hopefully in third person, better graphics, better enemies, and so on.
God Speed to the devs.

Hold my Liber-Tea again, and check this out. For whatever reason I played the games in reverse. It's just as awesome as the sequel but delivered in a top down shooter package.
One of my favorite parts is the local co-op so you can hell dive with your buddies while chilling in your home. Being a bit older and a different camera perspective the game runs way smoother this way. I'm not at all disappointed that I played them in the wrong order!

Beautiful game, Cant play Helldivers 2 cause my pc is shit, but atleast im enjoying this

The first Helldivers is far and beyond my favourite game of all time. Something about how the theme, the weapons, the music, the world and the gameplay all come together to make the most memorable and beloved gaming experience i ever had. Steam can't account for the hundreds, maybe thousands of hours i put into this game on Playstation Vita, 3 and 4. I am deeply distraught that i own neither a PS5 or a PC powerful enough for Helldivers 2, but its success fills me with joy.

I'll admit it! I only heard of this game because of Helldivers 2 and the only reason why I got this game is because it seemed more likely to run on my potato than the second game. But hey! I ended up getting one of my most favorite top down shooter games! So score! Or, well, I don't think I've played any other top down shooter games and I definitely haven't played another game that contained 3 separate enemy factions that each contained 15 levels of difficulty, a couple varied enemy types, and a raid boss. I also haven't had any more fun shooting bugs, running over squids, or blowing up fleshy microwaves with other people. I can't say I made any friends or anything from this game but I do have to give credit to the players who play it as you can pretty reliably get people in your game (up to four) and you can almost always find at least one public game you can join. The community isn't large but it's far from dead I'd say. But if you don't know already, the game involves you going to different planets so that you can shoot enemies, complete objectives, extract, and bask in the glory of managed democracy. Honestly, I don't think another game has made me more patriotic than this one. That's a lot of things this game has given me that others haven't but I really am not exaggerating when I say that this game is just that good. It's got guns, a unique stratagem mechanic, enemies to shoot, vehicles to drive, you name it. I don't want to make this review too long but you could genuinely make a whole presentation on how to fight each faction that's at least over 20 minutes long. Buuut that doesn't mean the game is perfect. As much as I love giving Super Earth the praise it deserves I must expose at least some of the lies that have been spread around. And no, it has nothing to do with the voting or where all the tax payer money is going (I trust the ministry of truth to give me the right answers to those). It actually has to do with the repetition the game faces. Sure, there are plenty of enemies, plenty of worlds, plenty of guns, but once you kill your 3,000th scout bug or your 2,500th illuminate tripod, they get a little less exciting. Unfortunately, this really doesn't go well into how wars are carried out in the game. Basically, as soon as you get into the game you'll join the current war. This war could've started the day you joined or before that and it's your job to contribute as much as you can. This involves liberating planets when the Helldivers are on offense but it also involves defending planets that are under attack. (PARTICIPATE IN DEFENSES) The second part is important as if a defense is lost the whole sector the planets were in is lost and if, as a community, enough sectors are lost to a faction the enemy faction will start attacking Super Earth itself and if Super Earth is lost the war ends as a failure and a new war is started. This doesn't sound too bad on paper but it does have some problems. For one, no actual punishment is received when a war is lost but no meaningful benefit is gained when a war is won (except maybe a cosmetic and an achievement?). That means that particularly lazy Helldivers just quit or don't contribute as much as they could when a defense requires them to fight a faction they don't particularly like or, even worse, they may allow factions they like to get to Super Earth so that they can fight them more. This playstyle is absolutely treasonous and completely unacceptable but it is only further supported by how wars are won as it requires all 3 factions to die completely. Factions are also only defeated one at a time which means that if your favorite faction was defeated you will no longer be able to fight them until the war is over. So, if you enjoy shooting the vile, undemocratic squids with heavy machine guns like I do and they are defeated you will be benefitted by not doing anything to win the war as it will just mean you'll get to fight your favorite faction sooner. It's not particularly awful but it's certainly a little frustrating and I’m sure it’s made more than one person quit playing. The game also has friendly fire but I don't think I've ever been struck down intentionally and without good reason even after 100 hours of gameplay. Even if some Helldivers are more lazy than others I guess all of us still have freedom in our hearts and liber-tea in our guts. Also, if you're antisocial and would much rather spread freedom solo you can still do that by making your game private in the escape menu. The only problem with that is that the game doesn't have many solo quality of life features which means you'll still have to fight the same amount of difficult enemies that you would've fought with a full squad (or, at least, I think that’s the case as I don’t think one diver could realistically kill two different spawns of warlords, 3 tanks that spawn on the zone you’re trying to capture, and however many dogs from socialist hell that may be running at you with a single thunder barrage). Speaking of which... the enemies themselves. Yes, the game can be hard on higher difficulties. Yes, the factions often contain enemies that are either really lethal or hard to kill. Yes, some of these enemies do not die to normal attacks and instead need to be killed by specific anti-tank weapons that are often on long recharges and require full loadouts or paid DLC just to adequately cover the enemies that appear in a game. Yes, this means that retreating is more effective than actually interacting with enemies via the fun shooting combat. Yes, the shooting combat isn't very fun either as many enemies can alter your controls, down you quickly, or (as previously stated) be immune to over half of the game's combat options. Yes, this limits what's viable on certain maps, difficulties, and factions. Yes, this kinda sucks. Yes, Cyborgs suck and that's why most wars have been lost to them. Yes, and yell at me if I'm wrong, Illuminate are the most balanced faction. Yes, the Illuminate are the insta-killing laser squids that can reverse your game controls. Yes, that is not a good sign. But, most importantly, yes, this game is worth every cent as despite all those problems I have never played a game that has made me more passionate to get on just to get slapped by objective camping tanks with only democracy fueling every shot from my trident. If you can’t play the second game, definitely play this one.