Helldivers 2, in the running for the most review-bombed game in history, got another Steam beating a few weeks back when Arrowhead announced a change in anti-cheat services that would break or disallow existing mods.

The goal with the switch from GameGuard to Easy Anti-Cheat, as the studio explained at the time, was to combat mods that "create unfair advantages or negatively impact others," but it also acknowledged that mods it has no problems with, like cosmetic add-ons, would also be affected. The news went over like a lead balloon, prompting over 10,000 fresh negative Steam reviews and a "mostly negative" recent rating.

Skimming the last few weeks of ratings, negative reviewers are either miffed about their broken mods, new and old bugs, or the perception that Arrowhead is attacking modders instead of fixing bugs. There was no reality where a community notorious for intensely boycotting everything it finds annoying was going to embrace stricter modding oversight, but Arrowhead did address the outcry in its latest Helldivers 2 developer blog.

"We added Easy Anti-Cheat for one reason: to reduce the number of cheaters joining your missions and ruining the experience. On that front, we think we’re taking steps in the right direction," the blog read. "However, we do see that this change means that some PC players lost the use of fan-made game mods. While all mods are not officially supported, we have been reviewing how the code changes disabled cosmetic non-gameplay mods.

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