On the 20th, Helldivers 2 rolled out a hefty content update alongside a brand-new anti-cheat swap to tackle lingering security headaches. While the move briefly catapulted the shooter to second place on Steam's global top sellers chart, the user reviews pouring in since the patch are sitting firmly at Overwhelmingly Negative.

The headline change here is the wholesale replacement of the anti-cheat system. The developer decided that nProtect GameGuard, which had been handling duties since launch, simply wasn't cutting it, opting instead to introduce Easy Anti-Cheat alongside extra security tooling. The stated goal? To crack down on malicious cheat mods currently doing the rounds and safeguard the game's integrity.

Alongside the security overhaul, the patch brought a suite of combat balance tweaks and fresh toys. A bunch of primary and secondary weapons received baseline buffs, while the handling and firepower of stratagems like the mech and orbital airburst strike got a neat tune-up. On top of that, the 22nd premium warbond, Truth Enforcers, dropped into the mix, bringing along a sniper rifle, a machine pistol, camouflage armour, and a support weapon stratagem.

Yet, user reception over the subsequent two days has nosedived into Overwhelmingly Negative territory, drawing 3,847 user reviews with a dismal 12 percent positive rating. Players are up in arms, arguing that the introduction of Easy Anti-Cheat has turned out to be a cure worse than the disease. The core of the backlash is that in hunting down the troublesome mods, the sweep also blocked various community scripts and quality-of-life mods that many relied on to smooth over bugs and annoyances left unattended by the developer for ages.

To make matters worse, players are reporting game-breaking launch failures in vanilla states, crashes, and broken Steam Deck compatibility, while growing increasingly cynical about a developer perceived as prioritizing paid warbonds over actual bug fixes. Still, the fundamental brilliance of the core gameplay remains widely acknowledged, meaning everything hinges on how the developer plans to untangle this latest mess.

Elsewhere on the charts, We Were Here Together Tomorrow, the latest entry in the cooperative puzzle series returning after four years, clawed its way up to fifth place.

Over in the peak concurrent players top 20, Deadlock climbed to fourth place with 279,472 players following an update introducing the new hero, Mirage, while Aion 2 slipped to fifth with 254,118 players, a slight dip from the previous day. Meanwhile, Call of Duty pulled in 112,541 players, buoyed by the influence of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 kicking off its DMZ early play.