After the recent fiasco surrounding Helldivers 2 and Sony’s attempt to make PSN account linking on Steam mandatory, the game’s community is campaigning to commemorate its victory with a special cape. After days of backlash following the announcement that players on PC would need to create a PlayStation Network account to keep playing Helldivers 2, users showed their dissatisfaction by “reviewing bombing” the game’s Steam page with hundreds of thousands of negative reviews. The tactic proved effective, forcing Sony to walk back its decision while accidentally creating what could be a very cool cosmetic.
Per IGN, the idea to turn the negative Steam reviews with a cape originated with Arrowhead Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt posting an image of a graph representing Helldivers 2 reviews on X (formerly Twitter).
The orange lines that emphasize the game’s rapidly falling reputation, work especially well in a game about soldiers using Drop Pods to cruise down to a planet from orbit. The community was quick to take the idea and run with it, conjuring several mock-ups for what the “Steam Reviews Cape” could look like, and it sounds like there’s a chance it could become a reality.
When asked by a fan whether a cape inspired by Helldivers 2‘s review bombing campaign could happen, Pilestedt noted that Arrowhead Studios is “taking (sic) about a good name for it right now,” suggesting that it will be added in the near future. Even better, the CEO also confirmed that if it does feature in the game it will be a free cosmetic that won’t cost players any additional money. Given the studio’s rapid turnaround times for updates and patches, it’s possible that the new cape could be included in the next major update which is scheduled for May 9.
The Helldivers 2 community is still speculating on what the final version of the “Steam Reviews Cape” will look like but many are hopeful that the red bars will be countered by an upward blue bar representing their victory and the game’s recovering reputation. Over on Reddit, user mjbga04 shared a particularly great design that spotlights this concept in all its glory, earning plenty of praise from other users. It remains to be seen what direction Arrowhead Studios opts to take with the design.
Now that the catastrophe that was mandatory PSN account linking has been overcome, Helldivers 2 players can look forward to the game’s next Warbond: Polar Patriots. The new season, which kicks off on May 9, will introduce several new items to the game including new sets of ice-themed armor, weapons, and cosmetics. Perhaps most exciting is the new Booster “Motivational Shocks” which provides slowed Helldivers with an electric kick to get them back up to speed.
Source: IGN, Johan Pilestedt/X, mjbga04/Reddit