Helldivers 2 Players in Open Revolt Over Game’s Controversial Update

Published Oct 29, 2026, 10:25 AM EDT Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area. The addition of kernel-level anti-cheat hasn't been well-received Helldivers 2 players are furious over game's latest update Image: Arrowhead Game Studios Sign in to your Polygon.com account Things are not going well on Super Earth. Helldivers 2 fans are in open revolt after an Oct. 20 update added the already controversial Easy Anti-Cheat software. The game’s Steam rating has taken a massive hit, with a brutal Mostly Negative score (37% positive reviews) over its last 10,000 or so user scores. One of the main issues is that Easy Anti-Cheat breaks many of the game's mods, which some players argue address issues that Arrowhead should have fixed by now. While many of the most popular mods are cosmetic updates that don’t affect gameplay, some players have come to rely on ones that address bugs and other perceived gameplay flaws. For instance, one of the most downloaded is the Vanilla Plus Megapack, which includes quality-of-life fixes like updates to the stratagem-toss physics, better Hellpod steering, more consistent vaulting, and more. Even worse, many users are saying that Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) is blocking them from launching the game at all. While there are workarounds to some of these issues that prevent launching the game, the fact that EAC is breaking a game that previously ran fine for some users is perhaps the biggest driver of negative reviews. Even if EAC worked as intended, the software is inherently controversial because it’s a form of kernel-level anti-cheat, meaning it gives the game near-total access to a user’s computer, something that some users don't trust. While many players seem okay with Arrowhead going after cheaters, most don’t think the current trade-off is worth it, especially since this is a co-op PvE game, not a PvP one where cheating is more detrimental to the experience. Some have even reported cases of players getting around EAC, with “machine guns firing mini-nuke projectiles” and near-infinite Exosuit stratagem spawns, which has further fueled opinions that this latest update is a huge whiff. What other problems are people having with Helldivers 2? Since Helldivers 2 launched in 2024, the game has gone through several booms and busts, with a massive Steam debut that was almost spoiled when Sony attempted to enforce a PlayStation log-in requirement. While widespread backlash prevented players from being forced to sign in with a PlayStation account, players have also taken issue with other elements, like the game's microtransaction-driven Warbonds and controversial balancing changes. Considering Arrowhead previously backed down on the game’s PlayStation log-in requirement, it will be interesting to see if this backlash against EAC leads to this controversial change being rolled back. Helldivers 2 is available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox SEries X.