Helldivers 2 gets review bombed after Easy Anti-Cheat breaks popular mods

Helldivers 2 is getting hammered on Steam again. Arrowhead moved the game to Easy Anti-Cheat to cut down on cheaters, and players say the switch has broken a pile of mods they used to smooth out the game.

Recent Steam reviews have fallen to Mostly Negative, while the all-time rating is still Mostly Positive.

The complaint is that the anti-cheat doesn't distinguish between mods. According to IGN, the mods caught in the crossfire include hellpod steering fixes, smoother vaulting and climbing, and AI improvements, and Easy Anti-Cheat treats those the same as something like an invincibility mod.

Destructoid lists other problems players had been patching themselves, including Stratagems bouncing off the ground when thrown, excessive ragdolling, and armor mixing.

A lot of the anger is about why those mods existed in the first place. "Cracking down on mods instead of actually fixing issues in the game we have requested for two years is a real kick on the balls," one negative Steam review reads.

Some players have also claimed the anti-cheat stopped them from launching the game at all, even with no mods installed. Arrowhead hasn't addressed those reports.

Arrowhead laid out its position in a post last week. "We know mods are part of the DNA of PC gaming and gaming communities as a whole," the studio wrote, adding that it appreciates "the creativity behind cosmetic and non-gameplay mods, which players can enjoy without negatively impacting those who play alongside them."

The studio said where it needs to improve is "how we protect players against modifications that create unfair advantages or negatively impact others." So cosmetic mods are fine in principle, but anything that touches gameplay is out, even if it's a fix rather than a cheat.