Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is the surprise hit of 2024 that nobody saw coming — a third-person cooperative shooter by Arrowhead Game Studios that launched to an explosion of enthusiasm and held the internet's attention for months. Players are Helldivers, elite soldiers of Super Earth fighting for managed democracy against relentless alien hordes — Terminids (giant bugs) and Automatons (killer robots) — across procedurally generated planets. The genius of Helldivers 2 is its Stratagem system: calling in orbital strikes, turrets, airstrikes, and supply drops by inputting specific button sequences in the heat of battle, which creates moments of brilliant chaos when everything goes wrong simultaneously. The galactic war map, where millions of players contribute to a shared persistent campaign, gives every mission a sense of meaningful consequence. Friendly fire is always on. The memes it spawned were legendary. One of the most purely fun co-op experiences of the generation.