Helldivers 2 might be one of the best surprises I’ve had all year. I played the first one with friends when we were desperate for a new co-op game and had already burned out on the usual suspects. It was fun, chaotic, and completely under the radar. So when I saw that they were making a sequel—and that it was going to be a third-person shooter instead of the original top-down twin-stick thing—I got that mix of curiosity and gamer anxiety.

I was wrong to worry. Helldivers 2 rules.

The second I dropped onto a bug-infested planet with two other Helldivers, I was in. This game is chaos in a can, and I mean that in the best way. You’re a soldier of Super Earth, a glorified propaganda puppet in shiny armor, thrown into an intergalactic meat grinder to protect democracy and blow up anything that isn’t human. The enemies fall into three broad categories: bugs, bots, and space zombies (aka the Illuminate). And they all want to eat you, your teammates, your home, and definitely your dog.

Each mission starts with your squad being fired out of a cannon like democratic bullets of justice. You land, guns blazing, and have maybe ten seconds to figure out where the enemy is before they’re already eating your face. You’ve got your basic weapons—primary, secondary, grenade—but the real star here is the stratagem system.

Stratagems are these little combos of directional inputs you punch in during the chaos of combat. They call down everything from machine gun turrets to orbital strikes to giant mechs with cannons for arms. You want a backpack that shoots homing missiles? Done. A napalm airstrike that just keeps going? Yep. You just have to remember the input while dodging acid spit and being chewed on by a building-sized termite.

The missions themselves are spread across different planets, and each one is broken into three mini-objectives. Finish all three on the same difficulty and you get a reward bonus. You earn a bunch of different currencies as you go—Requisition Slips for gear, Medals for cosmetic stuff and new weapons, Super Credits for premium unlocks (which I never felt pressured to buy), and Samples for upgrading your ship.

Oh, and you will die. Like, a lot.

You start each mission with 15 reinforcements for your team. That sounds generous until your buddy calls in a turret that instantly mows everyone down, or a giant bug just yeets your entire squad into a canyon. There were nights we’d burn through every life before we even finished the first objective. Friendly fire is not only on—it’s a core mechanic. If your friends haven’t accidentally killed you yet, do they even love you?

But somehow, that’s what makes it beautiful. Helldivers 2 isn’t trying to tell some sprawling cinematic story. It’s not trying to be The Last of Us. It’s trying to make you laugh and scream and fail gloriously alongside your friends, and it nails that.

There’s something magical about the simplicity. You can hop in for 30 minutes and get your fill. Or play for five hours and lose track of time. Whether you’re fighting waves of bugs, escorting a nuclear briefcase, or just seeing how long you can last on a suicide mission, every moment feels intense and ridiculous in equal measure.

It’s the kind of game where even the losses are funny. Especially the losses.

Helldivers 2 isn’t perfect—some of the mission variety gets a little samey, and the harder difficulties can feel downright punishing—but I honestly didn’t care. I was too busy laughing, shouting, and accidentally launching myself into orbit with a poorly-placed stratagem.

If you’ve got a group of friends and even a tiny love of mayhem, this game is 100% worth your time. Grab a cape, load your backpack with rockets, and go die for Democracy. Again. And again. And again.