Arrowhead Games Studios’ smash hit squad-based shooter Helldivers 2 is getting a board game adaptation by Steamforged Games, a studio that has a long history of bringing popular video games to the tabletop through its adaptation alchemy.
This board game version of the best-selling PlayStation game will launch on the crowdfunding platform Gamefound on April 8, 2025. It promises a mixture of fast-paced action, strategic decision-making, and comedic hijinks, as 1-4 players work together to battle alien threats in the name of democracy (and maybe die to friendly fire a few times along the way).
Steamforged Games is known for its detailed miniatures and, judging by the Terminid Warrior below, Helldivers 2’s alien enemies will be rendered in plastic in this game.
This board game studios past tie-in titles include Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Hearts of Iron. Many of these have been strategy board games or long campaign games. Though we don’t know how the Helldivers 2 board game will play, a press release seems to suggest a more arcade-y experience than these, telling us it will “match the fast-paced, tactical, tongue-in-cheek energy of the video game”.
That makes me think of the developer’s (frankly quite underrated) pirate board game Sea of Thieves, which was good for some fairly rules-lite, treacherous hijinks. But we’ll just have to wait and see how “challenging missions” gel with “chaotic and comedic” gameplay on the tabletop – at any rate it certainly works on our screens.
The press release also hints at the inclusion of flamethrowers and machine guns, but we’d be shocked if all the best Helldivers 2 weapons aren’t present in the final product – perhaps some will unlock at particular crowdfunding milestones? And of course, you can deploy classic Helldivers 2 stratagems, calling in airstrikes, reinforcements, and turrets as you fend off wave after wave.
“Just as in the video games, players will need to contend with evolving threats and objectives, as well as watch out for explosions and friendly fire,” the release continues, while Steamforged’s co-founder Mat Hart is quoted saying: “players can expect heroic last stands, spectacularly avoidable friendly-fire, and the kind of cinematic action that turns every gaming session into a glorious war story”.
You can definitely blow each other up in this co-op board game, that’s what I’m getting here. Honestly, we wouldn’t play a Helldivers game if you couldn’t.
Stay tuned, as Steamforged promises more details will appear on the title’s Gamefound page leading up to its April 8 crowdfunder.
For more great reads and recommendations, check out our guide to the best board games of all time, or read our Elden Ring board game review.
Source: Wargamer
