Summary
- Helldivers 2 has been a huge success for PlayStation and Arrowhead, which is in no small part due to Joel the Game Master.
- Joel has been known about for a while, but has mostly remained as an all-powerful enigma.
- That’s just changed thanks to a video shared to celebrate the first anniversary of Helldivers 2.
Arrowhead has celebrated Helldivers 2‘s first anniversary by releasing the first part of an interview that gives us our best look at Joel the enigmatic Game Master.
When Helldivers 2 launched one year ago to this day, no one expected it to become one of PlayStation’s biggest hits of all time. And yet, despite some major bumps in the road like the infamous PSN sign-in requirement and flamethrower nerfs, that’s exactly what happened, as Helldivers 2 is still making waves after one trip around the sun.
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There are a lot of reasons for Helldivers 2’s success, but no doubt one of the biggest is its use of Joel the Game Master, who is basically the Helldivers equivalent to a Dungeon Master. Joel is a real developer at Arrowhead who is in charge of controlling Helldivers 2’s flow by deciding which orders are active, where Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminates attack, and even giving players bonus stratagems.
Arrowhead Just Gave Us Our Best Look Yet At Helldivers 2’s Game Master
We’ve known about Joel (often referred to as J.O.E.L.) for about as long as Helldivers 2 has been around but, despite being mentioned constantly and being beloved by fans, we’ve never actually seen or heard anything from him. Just in time for Helldivers 2’s first anniversary, that’s all changed thanks to an interview that was shared by Arrowhead to celebrate the occasion.
The video, which is the first episode in a new series about the Game Master, features a slightly obscured Joel talking about his time running the Galactic War so far. Joel notes that Arrowhead has been “positively surprised” by the now-canon decisions that players have made over the last year, and goes on to share some of his favourite moments.
The first event that Joel highlights is the two weeks of defending planets from the Automatons that took place right near the start of the game’s lifetime. Joel notes that things really turned around on the planet Mort, as players saw how close the battle was to a defeat and managed to turn the tide around just as Steam maintenance kicked in and nearly ruined things altogether.
Despite the fact that a good chunk of the player base was unable to play while Mort was on its last legs, the PlayStation Helldivers managed to hold the line in time for the Steam maintenance to conclude and for everyone to band together and defeat the Automatons. Joel describes the defence of Mort as one of the closest battles in Helldivers 2 to date, which makes it a great first event to highlight.
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