The release of Helldivers 2 sparked excitement among third-person shooter fans, however, for Mac users like us, the absence of macOS support posed a significant challenge in experiencing the game’s adrenaline-pumping action. Inspired by our previous experience with playing unsupported games on Macs, however, we set out to find potential Helldivers 2 Mac solutions that we can share with you.
The Helldivers 2 Mac Solution
After a careful research and a bit of experimentation, we found that Boosteroid and Boot Camp are currently the most reliable Helldivers 2 Mac ways to play the game. In this guide, we’ll outline the performance and experience you can expect with the two methods, but if you’re eager to jump straight into action, here are the instructions that you will need:
Boosteroid is an independent cloud gaming platform that integrates all major vendors to its service and excels in adding support for the latest titles before other platforms. Read our review on Boosteroid. Look at our Boosteroid list of games.
Editor’s choice: we recommend Boosteroid as a starting point for most Mac users because of its plug-and-play nature and overall performance. It is especially useful for its constant 60 FPS even on modern titles while not causing your Mac to overheat or requiring tens of gigabytes of storage.
Features: Constant 1080p/60 FPS; Stable connection; Low bandwidth requirements (15 MBPS); Huge gaming library with all the latest AAA titles
Boot Camp Assistant is a built-in Apple app that comes pre-installed on Intel-based Mac models. With its help, users can install the Windows 10 OS in a separate partition on their Macs. Booting from that partition allows the Mac to function exactly as a Windows PC and lets it run all compatible software.
Note: Not available for Apple Silicon models.
Features:
- Provides native Windows 10 experience.
- Allows running all Windows-compatible programs and games as long as the Mac’s hardware can support them.
Playing Helldivers 2 on Mac with Boosteroid – How good is Cloud Gaming?
Having experienced the limitations of Mac machines when it comes to gaming – be it due to the unavailability of macOS support for certain games or demanding system requirements of others – we’ve often turned to Boosteroid as our go-to solution. Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that Helldivers 2, the much-anticipated sequel, had been added to Boosteroid’s extensive game library.
Getting started with the game was as straightforward as ever. We simply navigated to the Boosteroid website, signed into our account, found Helldivers 2 in the search bar, and hit the Play button. Within a couple of minutes, we were greeted by the game’s main menu, poised for an epic session of alien combat.
One of the greatest benefits of using Boosteroid is that the computational heavy lifting is handled by their servers, allowing us to max out the graphical settings. Despite the streaming quality being capped at 1080p and 60 frames per second, this setup was more than adequate for a visually stunning gaming experience.
During our tests, we relied on a wireless connection with 40 Mbps speed and around 40-45ms average latency. Although it’s generally better to stream games with a cable internet and although our latency wasn’t the best, we still had a mostly smooth stream with occasional, minor interruptions that did little to diminish our gaming session.
In conclusion, our journey with Boosteroid has solidified cloud gaming as our preferred avenue for playing high-end games on a Mac. It offers a seamless and effective solution to bypass the hardware and compatibility hurdles often encountered with Apple computers, allowing us to dive into the world of games like Helldivers 2 without a hitch.
Helldivers 2 on Mac with Boot Camp – is this a viable method?
Boot Camp is a method for playing unsupported games like Helldivers 2 on Mac that comes with its set of challenges that may deter users from choosing it over other alternatives. To start, Boot Camp is exclusive to Intel-based Macs, meaning newer models equipped with Apple Silicon chips cannot utilize this method. Setting up Windows OS with this software involves partitioning your Mac’s storage, which is a process that demands significant computer knowledge and time. Moreover, Intel-based Macs, particularly those with lower-end graphics processing capabilities, may struggle to run the game smoothly.
In our tests, we started the game on a MacBook Pro with 16 GB RAM, and it ran on the low settings, but soon after that we encountered rapid heating and continuous fan operation while playing. Now, this is something common when running graphically demanding tasks like gaming on Intel Macs and is expected, but if we have to add it to the mixed reviews from gamers that reported stuttering and crashing issues, it may be wiser for Mac users, eager to experience Helldivers 2 on Mac with Bootcamp, to consider waiting until patches and fixes for the Windows version of the game are released.
Can you play Helldivers 2 for Mac with other methods?
When it comes to playing Windows-only games on a Mac, two popular methods often come to mind: Crossover and Parallels. Crossover allows users to run Windows applications directly on their Mac without needing to install a separate operating system, and that offers a more seamless experience. On the other hand, Parallels creates a virtual machine on the Mac, enabling users to run Windows alongside macOS, which provides more flexibility but potentially requires more system resources. However, since Helldivers 2 is a new release and has been encountering some initial issues, such as crashes and anti-cheat concerns, we need more testing of both Crossover and Parallels to determine their effectiveness in running the game on Mac systems.
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