PLEASE implement a couch co-op version! That is and always has been what Helldivers was all about. Sitting together, drinking beer and saving the world. Without playing together on the PS5, it’s just another shooter… and there are already enough of those!
Now that it’s 3rd person in HD2 and presumably they can’t “squad screen lock” the view anymore as they could in a top-down isometric game, the only couch co-op they could do is splitscreen, and do we really want to play on 1/4 of a TV screen? That’s probably the dilemma.
I assume there’s no technology hindrance to offering splitscreen (or “quad” splitscreen) co-op since Unreal engine can do pretty much anything the devs want it to.
For us PC players it’s a moot point because Steam won’t allow multiple Steam logins on one PC, so all we could do on Helldivers local “hotseat” co-op was play a temporary “clone” of the host player on one PC, and progression of everyone but the Steam-logged-in-host-player went POOF after the session was over.
Unfortunately, this couch co-op mode with the top down view was exactly what made the game. So the game becomes just another first person shooter on the market…nothing special anymore. Very sad!
Well, “just another 3rd person shooter on the market” you mean. 
However, nowadays, everything 3rd person makes me as nauseous as everything first person. I blame it on my getting Old, and maybe on everything becoming multi-platform, although adjusting FOV settings hasn’t ever really helped me with motion sickness/nausea issues.
With me my other concern was the (apparent) absence of exosuits and vehicles in HD2 marketing/videos. I mean, I’ve seen nothing to suggest they’re in anymore. Exosuits were what initially got me excited about Helldivers way back when reading previews in 2014. I realize many Helldivers vehicles were clumsy to control (tank) or utter death traps (motorcycle), but I also had many co-op groups who wouldn’t venture out except as group in an APC and the like.
Maybe they’re just not doable in 3rd person, or maybe it’s later planned DLC, or maybe they just wanted to focus on every Helldiver as individual super soldier and not so much as reliant on suits or vehicles. I would get that, but it’s disappointing to not at least hear a reasoning if they’re all absent from the sequel.
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