While it seemed that Helldivers 2's launch was going to be a bit bumpy, it seems Valve had decided to step in and smoothen the road out for them! Earlier today, a new Proton Hotfix was released to fix the issues the game was having, including the game not being able to launch via Game Mode.

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Announced on X by Pierre-Loup Griffais, this Hotfix was implemented about 6 hours ago and fixes Helldivers 2's inability to launch when in game mode. Of course, I had to go and try this out myself, and it definitely works! I did get the nProtect Game Guard FAQ website popup the first time I launched, but otherwise, it works like a charm! And yes, quickplay and online multiplayer are working as well.

As for performance, we are still testing, but we want to make sure we play on all the planets with varying difficulty before our review is posted. So far, I have found that a Balanced rendering quality with Medium to Low graphics will keep a mostly stable 30 FPS when things are getting heavy in missions. There is definitely more to test, so I won't go into it too much right now, but if you need an answer, I would consider it playable at 30 with compromises.

Helldivers2FirstLook 1
Helldivers2FirstLook 2
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Some of the menu text is a bit small, though, so I would recommend going into the Accessibility tab in settings and increasing the subtitle size. It may not change all the menus, but the option is there! The game also has HDR support, so make sure to enable that in the Display settings if you have an OLED Steam Deck.

Helldivers 2 is available now on Steam for $39.99, but if you want to save a little, you can get it on Fanatical now for $33.19.

The Fanatical link above is using an affiliate link, which gives us a little back from sales at no extra charge to you. All proceeds go back into SDHQ and its development.

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Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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