helldivers 2Killzone's first collaboration. It didn't have the most spectacular start. Last month, as the dust settles, some loyal Super Earth defenders were left contemplating the lack of firepower for a given crossover weapon, while the game's creative director insists that “balance doesn't matter.”
The weapon in question is the PLAS-39 Accelerator Rifle, the Killzone-inspired burst sniper. It's far from the strongest thing in the game, to the point that some on Reddit have asked “why would anyone use the sniper rifle when the [PLAS-101] Purifier [exists]”?” The discussion clearly caught the attention of creative director Johan Pilestedt, who has also been weighing in on the matter, confirming a fan theory that “[Arrowhead] “is probably making Killzone weapons as statistically accurate as possible for the Killzone series,” regardless of the impact this might have on their usefulness.
An honest question: why would anyone use the sniper rifle when the purifier exists? from r/Helldivers
Furthermore, he agrees with the sentiment of a player that at the end of the day, “not everything has to be competitive.” This might sound a little unusual… another asks why the development team would want to have “intentionally poor quality weapons that clog up the weapon pool”, adding: “I thought you guys learned from the 60 day patch debacle that it's good to have a lot of good weapons.” To this, Pilestedt maintains that “it's not useless,” because it still “kills things,” and I guess he's not wrong about that.
“Guns are what guns are, balance doesn't matter.” he answers. “This is also what was wrong before. Things looked like game objects instead of real weapons. If you like the [Killzone] fancy, you might want to use it. Kill things, not useless things.”
Despite defending the weapon, Pilestedt admits that it “could maybe use some tweaking,” but the sniper's design naturally leaves a lot to be desired. “Unfortunately, a three-burst sniper with nine shots per magazine…isn't that good,” he continues. “But that's how the gun works.”
I guess not all weapons can be winners, and as Pilestedt suggests, the Killzone ones at least have the added benefit of being Killzone weapons, which is fun in itself. Anyway, it doesn't look like Arrowhead is going to fight to improve this one.
Be sure to check out our guide to everything included in the Helldivers 2 Killzone crossover to see what else has been added in the shooter's first collaboration.