re: Helldivers 2 has lost 90% of its players

Lateral progression does not maintain interest in a PvE game. It's a good idea on paper to attempt to keep everything at the same level of power, but in reality players want to become more powerful over time. Your level is just cosmetic and that's fine, but there needs to be some persistent progression systems that don't just result in side grades.

The game is just too restrictive on load outs and that's what got me to not be very interested in playing anymore. Some flexibility in build is nice, but there are so many enemies that require certain types of loadouts that it makes 95% of the equipment in the game useless. Developers should be balancing difficulty in games to attempt to counter the meta that pops up as the result of all of the resources and info we have access to online, so why pump enemies into the game at a high rate that only some loadouts can deal with?

This is supposed to be a drop in and play co op game, and it shouldn't be pushing you towards certain play styles.

I would also say that it was a huge missed opportunity to not have a game that really scales difficulty with player count. I know that there are slightly less patrols on some difficulties, but there are a ton of gamers that love mastering games solo. I am one of them. A game where you're more or less forced to party with randoms is not appealing to many people. You CAN play the game solo, but you have to use these ultra meta cheese strats which are not fun at all.