UPDATE May 6, 2024 @ 0604 Hours (UTC -5): I am updating my review as promised. Sony has walked back their brain dead decision and will NOT be requiring PSN account linking for now.

To Arrowhead: Thank you for making a great game and baring with us as the community came together to send Sony a message. We can now resume regular operations after this brief distraction. I'm sorry you guys got caught in the middle and took a bit of friendly fire. I sincerely hope the community will work together to fix the review score with the same fervor as when we tanked it. Hope you guys can have a better weekend next weekend. Sending virtual hugs to all of you to include your awesome CEO who weathered a hell of a storm :)

To Sony: F*** you. Still hate you, your garbage network, and your garbage platform. You have proven once again you only care about one thing: money. You don't care about the community, gamers, or your developers and I hope this moment serves as a warning to you and future potential partners working with you. We WILL be watching, we WILL be prepared, and we WILL respond if you try to do something this stupid again.

- JediMasterShark

/// END REVIEW ///

Previous review from May 3, 2024:

Allow me to tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a teenager who enjoyed his PlayStation 2. He loved that PS2 and all the wonderful games on it. He loved that PS2 so much that when the PS3 was announced, he begged his parents to get it, willing to give up every other present that Christmas and his current PS2 in exchange for it since it was $500. He then got that PS3 with PS2 backwards compatibility and he loved that PS3 like it was his PS2. Then one day that PS3 stopped working a month after the warranty expired. He loved his PlayStation so much that when Sony told him that the only fix was to pay them $300 to fix it, he sold most of his old video games collection to GameStop at terrible prices to get just enough money together. When he got his PS3 back, it worked... for 2 weeks before the disk drive broke. The repair from Sony came with an extra month warranty, so he called Sony for help and mentioned what happened and the 1 month warranty. This major corporation then proceeded to call him a liar trying to extort and rip off Sony. They claimed he broke the PS3 on purpose out of resentment. Hours of being accused of being a piece of trash eventually resulted in a supervisor saying 'We'll take a look at it, but we won't promise to fix it if it turns out you are a liar.' He sent the console in and, thankfully, they wound up fixing it under warranty. Two months after getting it back for a second time, the PS3 got the famous 'Yellow Light of Death'. Calling Sony again, Sony Customer Support gleefully asked for another $300.

That teenager was me. I never forgot how Sony treated me and how terribly made their PS3 was. I switched to Xbox, thankfully a friend helped me out by giving me their old Xbox 360, and then eventually I made my way to PC. The only Sony consoles I have now is my second hand PS2 that I use for my rebuilt collection that I had to sell and a second hand PS4 that I got at a deep discount that I've barely used beyond using it to play previously exclusive Digimon games. I refused to buy anything that would give Sony money again for over 10 years, making sure anything by Sony was bought used.

Then came Helldivers 2. Wasn't even aware it was Sony published at first. I just saw a neat game that I really enjoyed. Arrowhead has made something amazing and I was very excited to see where it would go. Heck, I was even starting to let go of my anger for Sony over the treatment they gave me those years ago.

And now Sony has hurt me again. I loved this game, I loved where it was going, and I was willing to finally let go of an old wound for it. The level of spite I had for Sony ran deep, but Helldivers 2 was helping me to stop being such a grump about ♥♥♥♥♥♥ customer service and bad luck from years ago. Sony, however, has reminded me that it is still the vindictive, back stabbing, zip-loc bag of diarrhea its been since back then. They came to ruin my belief in gaming over a decade ago, and they've come back to attack it once again.

Never again Sony. I don't care what you will claim. "Its only an online account." "It takes 2 minutes to set up!" "It's standard practice!" "It will help keep the game and gamers safe." "Whats wrong with an extra account anyway, you use Steam, dontcha?" These arguments are hollow. Fun fact: I dug up my PSN account and added it to my Helldivers 2 account just because I wanted to and had the ability to. But there is a simple reality that while almost anyone on 'Super Earth' can have a Steam account, PSN accounts are more limited. For regions without PSN access, are they not worth your time Sony? Is their money worth less to you? Are those customers lying pieces of trash like you accused me of being? I bet you would call them that when you ban them after forcing them to create an account for a service not available in their country, necessitating them to lie about where they live and breaching your precious ToS. I bet you enjoy pulling the rug out from under paying customers who were enjoying a game happily before you decided to change the rules.

At this point, its not about the fact that people could get around this requirement, its not about the fact that the account takes 120 seconds to create, its not about the fact that you originally planned this to be a requirement before removing it after server issues, hell its not even about my old grudge, its about the principle of this. Technically Sony isn't doing anything illegal here, but they sure as heck are doing something immoral. You turned off the PSN requirement and most people didn't know you even had it as a requirement, and now that most are past the Steam return window, you are turning that requirement back on. I deal with enough B.S. at work to know B.S when I see it and you claiming that this was a 'grace period' sure looks like B.S. to me. I don't know what your endgame is and, to be frank, I don't care even if this was 100% meant to be a benign thing. Perception is reality and the perception of what you are doing is HORRIBLE. At some point enough is enough and Sony's behavior is enough for me to go off on a tirade about them once more.

Sorry about the friendly fire Arrowhead, but you can thank Sony for this negative review. Maybe you should re-evaluate your publishing partner if they are happy to do this to you right before the weekend and make your Community Mangers look like fools.

Go to hell Sony, and take your shoddy, poorly secured network with you.

[b]UPDATE May 6, 2024 @ 0604 Hours (UTC -5): I am updating my review as promised. Sony has walked back their brain dead decision and will NOT be requiring PSN account linking for now. [/b] [b]To Arrowhead:[/b] Thank you for making a great game and baring with us as the community came together to send Sony a message. We can now resume regular operations after this brief distraction. I'm sorry you guys got caught in the middle and took a bit of friendly fire. I sincerely hope the community will work together to fix the review score with the same fervor as when we tanked it. Hope you guys can have a better weekend next weekend. Sending virtual hugs to all of you to include your awesome CEO who weathered a hell of a storm :) [b]To Sony:[/b] F*** you. Still hate you, your garbage network, and your garbage platform. You have proven once again you only care about one thing: money. You don't care about the community, gamers, or your developers and I hope this moment serves as a warning to you and future potential partners working with you. We WILL be watching, we WILL be prepared, and we WILL respond if you try to do something this stupid again. - JediMasterShark /// END REVIEW /// Previous review from May 3, 2024: [strike]Allow me to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a teenager who enjoyed his PlayStation 2. He loved that PS2 and all the wonderful games on it. He loved that PS2 so much that when the PS3 was announced, he begged his parents to get it, willing to give up every other present that Christmas and his current PS2 in exchange for it since it was $500. He then got that PS3 with PS2 backwards compatibility and he loved that PS3 like it was his PS2. Then one day that PS3 stopped working a month after the warranty expired. He loved his PlayStation so much that when Sony told him that the only fix was to pay them $300 to fix it, he sold most of his old video games collection to GameStop at terrible prices to get just enough money together. When he got his PS3 back, it worked... for 2 weeks before the disk drive broke. The repair from Sony came with an extra month warranty, so he called Sony for help and mentioned what happened and the 1 month warranty. This major corporation then proceeded to call him a liar trying to extort and rip off Sony. They claimed he broke the PS3 on purpose out of resentment. Hours of being accused of being a piece of trash eventually resulted in a supervisor saying 'We'll take a look at it, but we won't promise to fix it if it turns out you are a liar.' He sent the console in and, thankfully, they wound up fixing it under warranty. Two months after getting it back for a second time, the PS3 got the famous 'Yellow Light of Death'. Calling Sony again, Sony Customer Support gleefully asked for another $300. That teenager was me. I never forgot how Sony treated me and how terribly made their PS3 was. I switched to Xbox, thankfully a friend helped me out by giving me their old Xbox 360, and then eventually I made my way to PC. The only Sony consoles I have now is my second hand PS2 that I use for my rebuilt collection that I had to sell and a second hand PS4 that I got at a deep discount that I've barely used beyond using it to play previously exclusive Digimon games. I refused to buy anything that would give Sony money again for over 10 years, making sure anything by Sony was bought used. Then came Helldivers 2. Wasn't even aware it was Sony published at first. I just saw a neat game that I really enjoyed. Arrowhead has made something amazing and I was very excited to see where it would go. Heck, I was even starting to let go of my anger for Sony over the treatment they gave me those years ago. And now Sony has hurt me again. I loved this game, I loved where it was going, and I was willing to finally let go of an old wound for it. The level of spite I had for Sony ran deep, but Helldivers 2 was helping me to stop being such a grump about shitty customer service and bad luck from years ago. Sony, however, has reminded me that it is still the vindictive, back stabbing, zip-loc bag of diarrhea its been since back then. They came to ruin my belief in gaming over a decade ago, and they've come back to attack it once again. Never again Sony. I don't care what you will claim. "Its only an online account." "It takes 2 minutes to set up!" "It's standard practice!" "It will help keep the game and gamers safe." "Whats wrong with an extra account anyway, you use Steam, dontcha?" These arguments are hollow. Fun fact: I dug up my PSN account and added it to my Helldivers 2 account just because I wanted to and had the ability to. But there is a simple reality that while almost anyone on 'Super Earth' can have a Steam account, PSN accounts are more limited. For regions without PSN access, are they not worth your time Sony? Is their money worth less to you? Are those customers lying pieces of trash like you accused me of being? I bet you would call them that when you ban them after forcing them to create an account for a service not available in their country, necessitating them to lie about where they live and breaching your precious ToS. I bet you enjoy pulling the rug out from under paying customers who were enjoying a game happily before you decided to change the rules. At this point, its not about the fact that people could get around this requirement, its not about the fact that the account takes 120 seconds to create, its not about the fact that you originally planned this to be a requirement before removing it after server issues, hell its not even about my old grudge, its about the principle of this. Technically Sony isn't doing anything illegal here, but they sure as heck are doing something immoral. You turned off the PSN requirement and most people didn't know you even had it as a requirement, and now that most are past the Steam return window, you are turning that requirement back on. I deal with enough B.S. at work to know B.S when I see it and you claiming that this was a 'grace period' sure looks like B.S. to me. I don't know what your endgame is and, to be frank, I don't care even if this was 100% meant to be a benign thing. Perception is reality and the perception of what you are doing is HORRIBLE. At some point enough is enough and Sony's behavior is enough for me to go off on a tirade about them once more. Sorry about the friendly fire Arrowhead, but you can thank Sony for this negative review. Maybe you should re-evaluate your publishing partner if they are happy to do this to you right before the weekend and make your Community Mangers look like fools. Go to hell Sony, and take your shoddy, poorly secured network with you. [/strike]