My Favorite Thing About Helldivers II
By: Bryce L. Jackson
One thing about me, I love seeing people enjoy the things they care about from the sidelines. Whether that be games, movies, or a sport I don’t follow, people having good, clean fun makes me happy without having to jump in myself. When Helldivers II was released, it wasn’t on the radar for many gamers. It is a sequel to Helldivers, which was a top-down, twin-stick shooting game released in 2015 on the PS3, PS4, PS Vita, and PC. Though it reviewed well, with an 81 Metacritic score and with most of the same tongue-in-cheek humor, it didn’t blast into the cultural zeitgeist as Helldivers II did.
Helldivers II’s humor and unadulterated fun took over the internet with memes, highlight videos, and had a meteoric rise through Steam charts. Fans of the game have taken the mantra of “managed democracy” and all that it entails and ran with it in multiple entertaining ways. Helldivers II wasn’t on my radar either. But I saw the reactions early and saw it build into the number 1 gaming topic and couldn’t help but be caught up in the wave of Liberty. I’m so far into the Freedom rabbit hole that I watch random streamers on Twitch at times I’ve felt the itch to watch some controlled, or uncontrolled chaos. I nearly pulled the trigger to buy the game and enlist, but I haven’t.
I love the fun that the Super Citizens are having, causing chaos to countless enemies and sometimes each other. It’s a game that runs on pure, uncapped fun, even when the bot hoards are relentless and teammates can’t quit dropping napalm strikes near their teammates’ feet. The Helldivers' II Community embraces the tongue-in-cheek commentary, creating their own propaganda posts, and speaking in over-the-top patriotic diatribes I love that they’re trying to police their own who are straying into typical gaming toxic behaviors. Things like calling out players who want to kick players for not running ‘meta’ loadouts or being too low-leveled. There are going to be players who still will, but this wasn’t a suggestion from a community manager or a lead developer. Its an issue that is serious enough for Arrowhead Games’ CEO Johan Pilestedt to chime in and take suggestions from Helldivers II players on how to combat it, with hopes that Arrowhead developers can form some sort of deterrent in the future.
It’s also a live-service game that respects the player. A $40 purchase with a free battle pass that feels just as rewarding as the premium pass and fairly-priced microtransactions to buy other items in the in-game store. It’s a pitfall that we’ve seen other games of that genre fall into in the never-ending quest to make the most money as fast as possible The live-service games of today would rather do things like go free-to-play and bank on players’ inability to handle FOMO to open their wallets. Or just be full price and still bank on player peer pressure. Helldivers II feels more like a “here’s a tip for you” for buying certain items like a cape or new armor style among other things.
I want to see Helldivers II continue to thrive and become the new benchmark for how live-service games function. Many factors will contribute positively and negatively to the game’s future: Worst case scenario, Arrowhead willingly, or by force due to pressures from publisher PlayStation, to offer fewer items for more money to meet updated financial projections. Content updates and balance patches are being released regularly but any perceived slowdown of new content can easily draw out the “dead game” boobirds. I just want to continue seeing players have fun with this game and maybe one day I’ll sign up to do my part.