Helldivers 2 took up more of my leisure time in the months following its launch in February than I care to admit. I played it a ton. I did a weekly roundup of story developments. I wrote countless features talking about its satire and very fair monetisation. I evangelised about it to all my friends in the hopes they’d join me on the battlefield for democracy.
But like so many people, I fell off because it felt like the story was going nowhere, and the people still playing are starting to feel the same. The developers kept hinting at The Illuminate soon becoming part of the Galactic War, leaks about the faction kept coming, and everybody watched with bated breath.
In my weekly coverage of the game, it felt like I was predicting The Illuminate’s arrival constantly. Surely this week? No. Next week? No. There was so much set up, and fans waited, and waited, and waited. The Illuminate never arrived.
Arrowhead Had Bigger Problems
I understand that this likely happened because Helldivers 2 had a lot of issues post-launch that took higher priority. After all, Arrowhead isn’t a huge studio, and it has to direct manpower to the most pressing issues, which means catering to its fickle player base.
There was the PSN debacle that led to the game being temporarily delisted on Steam, constant balancing issues, bugs that made missions downright unplayable, wildly unpopular nerfs, and review bomb after review bomb. Understandably, Arrowhead is choosing to focus on keeping the game fun and regaining player goodwill, because if the minute-to-minute experience of playing isn’t enjoyable, players aren’t going to stick around.
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The Galactic War Is At A Standstill
But the Galactic War is the framing device for the entire game. Speaking from personal experience, the way missions fed into the overarching story and how success and failure could have consequences on the war effort as a whole was a huge contributing factor to my interest in it. That’s why I started writing weekly story summaries in the first place: the evolving narrative was a strong hook.
I eventually stopped writing those summaries because they began to feel pointless. The missions we were sent on bounced us between planets, fighting various enemies on various fronts, but none of our wins or losses felt like they were changing things all that much. I began to wonder if there was even an end goal players had to get to, or if we were all just killing time without quite realising it.
It all led to nowhere but slightly new versions of missions, unlocking new Warbonds, and playing with new weapons. That might be enough for some players, and the missions were still making for some good satire, but it wasn’t good storytelling. All that setup had to pay off somehow.
The Illuminate would have shaken everything up, giving players a new enemy to fight, potentially changing up the meta and allowing players to explore new weapons, loadouts, and tactics. It would have given lapsed players like me a reason to play again, and more importantly, it would have meant the story was actually going somewhere instead of just reiterating the same thing over and over.
Revealing The Illuminate should have happened months ago, when hype was at its peak and we were getting hints they would arrive through blue bolts and invisible enemies on the map, but it’s still not too late. The game has a loyal player base, and many more players besides who want to see where the story leads. It might be a little belated, but the next best time to do it is now.
Helldivers 2
Do you believe in freedom? Can you stand in the face of oppression – and defend the defenceless? Wage war for peace. Die for democracy.
Join forces with up to three friends and wreak havoc on an alien scourge threatening the safety of your home planet, Super Earth, in this multiplayer co-op shooter for PS5 and PC from Arrowhead Game Studios.
Step into the boots of the Helldivers, an elite class of soldiers whose mission is to spread peace, liberty and Managed Democracy using the biggest, baddest and most explosive tools in the galaxy.
Helldivers don’t go planet side without proper backup, but it’s up to you to decide how and when to call it in. Not only do you have a host of superpowered primary weapons and customizable loadouts, you also have the ability to call on stratagems during play.
Helldivers 2 features Arrowhead’s best cooperative gameplay yet. Collaboration will be vital: Teams will synergize on loadouts, strategize their approach for each mission and complete objectives together.1
Enlist in Super Earth’s premier military peacekeeping force today. We are heroes… we are legends… WE ARE HELLDIVERS.