For players looking to dive into Helldivers 2 on PC, the game will require the installation of nProtect GameGuard anti-cheat. This has raised a couple of concerns among the community, and one developer at Arrowhead has to explain their decision.
On the r/Helldivers subreddit on Reddit, Technical Director Peter Lindgren clarify why Helldivers 2, which has no competitive multiplayer component, requires an anti-cheat solution in the first place. And the simple answer was cheaters ruining game progression, based on what happened in the first Helldivers game when it launched on PC:
“Shortly after release [of Helldivers 1] we noticed there was a cheat going around which granted 9999 research samples. Unfortunately any non-cheaters in the same mission would also be granted 9999 research samples. These non-cheating players now had their entire progression ruined through no fault of their own.”
Lindgren also explains that Helldivers 2 has a meta-progression called the Galactic War, and cheaters can directly affect the flow of this, ruining the intended experience the developers have in store. “Even though we have other countermeasures in place, a cracked game client could make it easier to disrupt the Galactic War, which would sour everyone’s experience,” his post reads.
Looking the replies of the post, and the tweets about the game around the time of writing, the major concerns revolve around GameGuard not being a trusted anti-cheat name. This anti-cheat solution is mostly used in MMO games made in Asia and not widely used in more widely-played games by a western audience. Like most anti-cheat solutions, GameGuard, has kernel-level access, which Lindgren laments that “it’s unfortunately one of the more effective ways to combat cheating”. Even Easy Anti-Cheat, a more popular solution, has that level of access.
Though another concern from the use of anti-cheat is due to Steam Deck compatibility. Steam Deck doesn’t run natively on Windows and the Proton layer that makes games compatible to play on the Deck usually don’t play well with anti-cheat solutions.
We shall see how the PC version, which will launch simultaneously with the PS5 version with cross-play support, will fare up.
Helldivers 2 launches on February 8 for the PS5 and PC (Steam).