Helldivers 2 takes Critics' Choice Award at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024

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Job done, divers

Helldivers 2 Flamethrower
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

In a year packed with plenty of top game releases, Helldivers 2 has won the Golden Joystick Awards' Critics' Choice Award for 2024.

While the players decide many of the show's award winners, this prize has been decided by veteran journalists from GamesRadar+, PCGamer, Edge, Retro Gamer, The Future Game Show, and Future's trusted network of freelance writers. There's no shortage of excellent candidates this year, but the lure of spreading managed democracy has proven too great.

Our Helldivers 2 review gives the prize winner a four-star rating, calling it "astonishing to behold" and "a fiercely challenging and visually breathtaking cooperative shooter where failure is funny and success feels magnificent." The judging panel clearly shares this sentiment, with Helldivers 2 winning out in a year packed with great releases.

Alongside some biting satire, what makes Helldivers 2 special is that you shape the ongoing narrative. Success or failure dictates where the overall story heads next. Over the year, we've seen players finally take the infamous Malevelon Creek and aid in completing a space station that we're not totally sure is friend or foe – more on that as we have it.

Iain Harris
Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.