Getting Blown Away in Helldivers 2
Don Everhart, Managing Editor
A caped and helmeted trooper stands in front of a computer terminal, finger poised to peck away at the screen. Their job is to arrange the flow of… something.
Stop me if you’ve heard of this game before: it’s a space science-fiction adventure that’s made to be played with other people online. Players drop from a ship onto a planet’s surface and start shooting. There are places to discover, step-by-step tasks to complete, and enemies on patrol. Players have their choice of enemies in the forms of large insectoids or robots. If Helldivers 2 is the answer, then the question was delivered by Bill Paxton’s character, Private Hudson, in Aliens: “Is this going to be a standup fight, sir, or another bug hunt?”
Hudson winds up answering the question, anyway: it’s a bug hunt. From its opening cutscene, Helldivers 2 is eager to remind players of Paul Verhoeven’s version of Starship Troopers. Earth is now Super Earth, a “Managed Democracy” in which words like “Democracy” and “Liberty” are taglines more than meaningful political signifiers. Helldivers are space commandos that are gassed up by the crew members of dropships, pre-recorded messages from generals who exist as exaggerations in their own descriptions of themselves, and, most of all, in the battlecries that they spout to nobody in particular while they fight.
The Helldiver looks out from the bridge window at the planet below. A crowd of other dropships occupy space between them and the surface.
The tutorial drew the first laugh. Players are made to injure themselves with a station that, at the press of a button, drives a spike into their helmet. Helldivers need to be injured so they know how to heal, right? And so my Helldiver administered a syringe of whatever it is that makes one’s health meter go up and splotches of red vanish from the corners of the screen. As that happened, I heard the bark, “NOT TODAY!” It was unexpected and overly dramatic, particularly as it had no other context and nobody around to hear or appreciate its moxie. The line itself is nothing special, but it was situationally absurd.
Lack of human presence is notable throughout the tutorial. Voice lines come off as purposefully and overtly-scripted and are delivered with a stereotypically hoarse shout from a character who is nowhere to be seen. Squadmates are introduced in the form of stand-up cardboard cutouts. There isn’t even a bureaucrat with a clipboard anywhere in sight, just an obstacle course that culminates in waving the flag of Super Earth. The only other living things of any kind are the bugs released for players to shoot and explode with grenades.
On my first actual drop, which I did solo in order to get a feel for things before hopping into a round with randos or friends, my Helldiver quickly perished. Another was dispatched from my ship in orbit, which I named the Superintendent of Super Earth. As the hatch on the cylindrical tube of the Helldiver’s rocket popped and an identically-armored stormtrooper walked out, I realized that I wanted to change something in the game’s voice settings. Instead of having a Helldiver with one vocal style and pitch, I set it to “random.” Despite being greeted as a conquering hero every time I set foot on “my” ship’s bridge, I wanted more acknowledgement that Helldivers are, in fact, completely expendable. The tubes that contain them are fired like so many bullets and spent shells.
Pods containing Helldivers flare with heat, entering a planet’s atmosphere. A caption reads, “Training Manual Tips: If you notice a squadmate sympathizing with the enemy, report them to your Democracy Officer. Thoughtcrimes kill!”
Ultimately, it’s the capacity of Helldivers 2 to deliver the absurd in the presence of friends that will keep me playing. It’s more fun to see a buddy fleeing from an overwhelming horde of monsters, some that are beetles the size of great danes, some that leap and slash with mantis claws, and some that are the size of mining trucks and charge with similar force, than it is to backpedal from a similar horde on my own. Seeing your or your buddies’ bodies flying through the air is de rigueur. It’s like co-starring as one of the many troopers to be overwhelmed or dismembered in Starship Troopers, or, maybe, like being invited up on stage to be devoured by GWAR. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind more scumdogs, hell worms, and thrash metal in Helldivers 2.
In some ways, that makes me think that Helldivers 2 is just a shinier Earth Defense Force. That game has long deserved its moment, but it looks like Helldivers 2 is seizing it. I kind of wish that I could also play as a robot or a bug, like a present-day Aliens versus Predator, too. Let me run with those big dogs. But I also have the feeling that there really are some mechanics in Helldivers 2 that shine in context, things that games like it have been trying to work out for a long time. It’s more than a coat of present-day graphics and lighting. The weapons have a punch and enjoyable variety. When I found a flamethrower in an escape pod right off the bat playing solo, I made like Hank Scorpio and held an extended bug barbecue. And hey, I only lit one Helldiver on fire while getting into the swing of things! Some of the other weapons facilitate cooperation, like rocket launchers that work best with a shooter and a loader. There’s also gear like backpacks that can be used to haul supplies to be redistributed to the squad when calling down a resupply rocket would be a bad call. Speaking of calling down rockets, the way Helldivers operate both their wrist-mounted computers and field terminals is by entering combinations using the directional buttons, which is accompanied by the on-screen animation of a decked out commando hunting, pecking, and swiping away at their screen.
There’s some tactile crunch in the interactive design of the game that differs from all those other sci-fi squad-based shooters. It may be junk food, but it’s the kind that gets that it’s better to have some nuts or big salt grains to compliment the sugar and chocolate. Or maybe what I’m thinking of is a chocolate-covered grasshopper. As Dina Meyers’ character, Dizzy Flores, deadpanned in Starship Troopers, “Yum yum yum.”
