Helldivers 2 Board Game: Exclusive Hands-On Preview

Last year's breakout hit in the multiplayer gaming world, Arrowhead's Helldivers 2, captivated players with its mission to spread democracy across the stars through intense battles with aliens and robots. Now, following their successful adaptation of Elden Ring into a board game, Steamforged Games is bringing the fast-paced, frenetic action of Helldivers 2 to the tabletop. The board game is currently available for backing on Gamefound. IGN had the opportunity to play a prototype and discuss the project with the game's designers, Jamie Perkins, Derek Funkhouser, and Nicholas Yu.

Helldivers 2: The Board Game

17 ImagesDevelopment of Helldivers 2: The Board Game began shortly after the video game's launch, capturing the essence that made the original so thrilling. The board game maintains the cooperative, objective-based skirmish gameplay, where one to four players (with solo players recommended to control two characters) collaborate to complete missions while facing waves of enemies and unexpected events. Each player assumes the role of a unique Helldiver class, such as the Heavy, Sniper, Pyro, or Captain, equipped with a kit including primary, secondary, and support weapons, grenades, and strategems.

Gameplay unfolds on expanding grid-based boards, revealing sub-objectives and primary mission locations, such as Terminid hatcheries, as players explore. The mission timer adds urgency, ensuring a tense and frenetic experience. The base game will feature two of the three main factions from the video game, the Terminids and the Automatons, with each faction comprising 10 unit types. While not confirmed, the possibility of the Illuminate faction appearing as an expansion adds excitement.

The board game adapts the video game's sense of being overwhelmed by opting for fewer, stronger enemies, fostering tactical close-combat encounters. Turns involve players and enemies contributing action cards to a shuffled pool, placed on an initiative tracker similar to Steamforged's Elden Ring board game. Every fourth card triggers a random event, adding unpredictability and excitement.

Combat for the Helldivers is resolved through dice rolls, with damage determined by the total value, simplifying the mechanics while maintaining engagement. The innovative 'Massed Fire' mechanic encourages teamwork by allowing players to focus fire on the same target, enhancing the cooperative feel of the game.

Nic explained, "In the video game, obviously, you're encouraged to work together as a team. You have a heavily armored enemy, you need to 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 a lot of facing and armor mechanics. So what we implemented was 'massed fire,' so when anyone shoots at a target, if that's within range of another Helldiver's primary or secondary, 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."

While players can opt for solo exploration, the 'Massed Fire' mechanic reduces downtime and increases player engagement. Enemies, however, have a more straightforward approach, inflicting set damage or effects, with wounds causing detrimental effects. Death isn't permanent; players can respawn based on the chosen difficulty level, regaining their full loadout.

One aspect of the original game, the galactic war, did not make it into the board game, as Arrowhead wanted the tabletop version to stand out. Jamie shared a playful bit of lore, positioning the board game as a training simulation for Helldivers, adding a unique touch to the game's universe.

The designers, Nic, Jamie, and Derek, have focused on retaining the core feel of Helldivers despite the new medium. Nic emphasized, "We wanted to make sure that even though it 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 strategems 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 strategems, 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 around 75-80% finalized, allowing room for community feedback and further refinements. Jamie assures 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. While the tactical focus on larger, tougher enemies is appreciated, there's a desire for more smaller enemies to enhance the shooting experience. Additionally, more dynamic enemy combat could align better with the game's chaotic nature.

The anticipation for what Steamforged Games has in store for Helldivers 2 is high, with excitement to explore new classes, game types, and combinations with different enemies and biomes. The question on everyone's mind is: Where are we dropping next?

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