Will this game have matchmaking or do you have to manually invite people for online?
Game has crossplay so (random) matchmaking is a given.
Helldivers 2 is not a rehashed gaas game that is chasing trends. It seems like a naturally organic evolution of Helldivers 1. Just by watching previews, there is nothing really like it on the market. GAAS games that push the genre forward shouldn't automatically be criticized
We've seen recently folks taking the stance that "GaaS is GaaS" and there's no nuance there whatsoever; that's clearly nonsense given the lack of hand-wringing in this or the preview thread and it's pretty obvious why: the game doesn't have a massive amount of baggage it is lugging around. Even in the preview videos I've seen where folks - in between the praise - manage to bring up the fact that, "Yes, this is in fact a live service game. . ." a lot of it is just handwaved away given the quality and just overall "fun" that is on offer (nevermind that this is about as GaaS-y a game as you can get and an opening salvo in SONY's "GaaS Wars!").
. . .TLDR: What a good chunk of the (gaming) public is willing to put up with in terms of live-service and GaaS, seems entirely dependent on how "creative" or "genuine" a person thinks the product on offer is.