Helldivers 2 Easy Anti-Cheat sparks Steam backlash

Helldivers 2's Easy Anti-Cheat switch has sent its Steam reviews tumbling. Arrowhead added the anti-cheat in the October 20 update, and it has broken many popular mods. Recent Steam reviews are now Mostly Negative, with only 37% positive over the last 30 days.

Most players are not against cracking down on cheaters. The anger is about the side effects: broken mods, games that will not launch and worries about kernel-level access.

Where do Helldivers 2's Steam reviews stand?

These are the figures shown on the Steam store page at the time of writing. The backlash is large, but the game's long-term record is still positive.

Why did Easy Anti-Cheat cause a backlash?

Arrowhead brought in the system to cut down on cheaters. In a post last week, the studio said mods are part of the DNA of PC gaming and that it appreciates cosmetic and non-gameplay mods. But it said it needs to do better at protecting players from changes that create unfair advantages or hurt others.

Useful mods broke too

The problem is that Easy Anti-Cheat does not tell good mods from bad ones. IGN points to popular fixes for Hellpod steering, smoother vaulting and climbing, and AI improvements. Polygon highlights the Vanilla Plus Megapack, one of the most downloaded mods, which also adjusts stratagem-throw physics. Many players argue these are issues Arrowhead should have fixed itself.

Some players cannot launch the game

A bigger issue is launch failures. IGN and Polygon both report players saying the game will not start even without any mods installed. Workarounds exist for some cases, but a game that used to run fine and now does not appears to be the biggest driver of the negative reviews.

The kernel-level concern

Polygon notes that Easy Anti-Cheat is a kernel-level system, giving the game near-total access to a PC. Some players simply do not trust that. Helldivers 2 is also a co-op PvE game rather than a PvP one, so many feel cheating does less harm here.

There is an ironic twist as well. Polygon says some players report cheaters getting around the system, with machine guns firing mini-nuke projectiles and near-infinite Exosuit stratagem spawns. These are player reports, not something Arrowhead has confirmed.

What are players asking for?

One Steam review sums up the mood: Arrowhead could have embraced mods, added Workshop support, or split modded and vanilla lobbies, as Left 4 Dead 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 do.

This is not the game's first community crisis. Polygon recalls the 2024 PlayStation account requirement row, after which players were not forced to link accounts. Whether Arrowhead will step back again this time is unclear.

For more on the game, see our Helldivers 2 system requirements guide, our beginner tips and the Turkish translation patch guide, noting that there is no official word yet on how community mods like that are affected.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Helldivers 2 being review-bombed?

The October 20 update added Easy Anti-Cheat. It breaks many mods, and some players say they cannot launch the game at all.

What is Helldivers 2's Steam rating now?

On Steam, 37% of the 9,940 reviews from the last 30 days are positive, which is Mostly Negative. The all-time rating is still Mostly Positive.

Does Easy Anti-Cheat block mods in Helldivers 2?

According to IGN and Polygon, yes. It does not distinguish between cheat mods and fix mods, so bug-fix and quality-of-life mods are affected too.

Sources

• IGN: Helldivers 2 review-bombed on Steam
• Polygon: Helldivers 2 anti-cheat update backlash
• Steam: Helldivers 2 store page