Over the weekend, the unthinkable happened in Helldivers 2: players won. As part of a game-wide major order to wipe out the few remaining Automaton strongholds that millions of players hadn’t already conquered via a mind-boggling number of four-player co-op missions, the mechanical menace was erased from the galactic map. No shot this is going to last, but it’s extremely cool that it’s happening at all.
The Automatons’ defeat is the latest twist in a story that’s proven to be one of gaming’s most unique – not because of its blatantly satirical stylings (which are cool), but because of how it’s played out. With a mysterious game master known only as Joel pulling the strings in response to players’ actions, Arrowhead has crafted an ever-shifting warfront where nothing is certain and everybody is in character. Players have suffered heartbreaking defeats and, on the very same planets, stirring victories, which Arrowhead has reacted to the significance of with commemorative in-game items. It’s a story being told collaboratively, like a good Dungeons & Dragons campaign, but at a scale of millions.
This time around, Arrowhead has really leaned into the victory angle, with the game’s unreliable narrator, the oil-hungry Super Earth government, firing confetti cannons and declaring “mission accomplished” in a way that’s definitely not reminiscent, almost eerily so, of any real-world historical moments.
“Today, Super Earth citizens celebrated the full eradication of the Automatons,” read a post from the in-character Helldivers 2 Twitter account today, accompanied by a brief cut-scene of a parade. “Additionally to reward their bravery, each Helldiver has been issued an extra 1 minute break. [Note: 1 minute is inclusive of the time taken to read this. Helldivers currently deployed are ineligible].”
Now, seemingly, all that’s left is to give the bug-like Terminids the boot in a similar fashion, and then that’s it: War over. Managed democracy wins. Of course there’s no chance that’s how things will actually go down. In the original Helldivers, the war would simply reset if players won or lost. Helldivers 2 has so far embraced a much more story-driven approach, so a hard reset is less likely here, but players are expecting – and dreading – something of similar consequence. Perhaps, some believe, the galaxy map will zoom out and reveal that Super Earth has been dishonest about the true scope of the war effort. Others are eagerly awaiting the debut of the Illuminate, a Helldivers 1 faction that has so far been conspicuously absent from the sequel’s tripartite tug of war. There is precedent for this kind of sudden assault; it would mirror the way the Automatons first went on the offensive months ago, shortly after Helldivers 2 launched.
Right now, though, nobody is certain, and that’s the most enjoyable part of all of this. A less confident game would have already shown its hand, jingling keys in front of players’ faces and assuring them that the best is yet to come. There would be some hint, some kind of wink, outside the story itself. But Helldivers 2’s creators have repeatedly proven content to let players stew and speculate as they splatter their screens with bug guts. Arrowhead knows that everyone is riveted by what it’s doing here. It’s got the audience eating out of the palm of its hand, and now it just has to deliver the next act.
In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the map-devouring conclusion to Fortnite’s tenth season back in 2019. A black hole sucked up the whole game, rendering it unplayable for more than a day. In that instance, too, players could only speculate, though companies like Sony were more explicit in informing them that the game would be back to business as usual before too long. But for a brief moment, it felt like anything could happen. In this era of planned expansion arcs and budgets that must be recouped at all costs, that feeling is so rare. It’s more exciting than any single match or new feature could be, in part because it happens in our heads, as well as across subreddits and Discord channels. There’s a magic to it that goes beyond ones and zeroes. The possibility space is as big as our imaginations.
Eventually, Helldivers 2 will go down the same path as Fortnite and other live service games: Its tricks will become more predictable, its big swings less bold. But these early moments are worth cherishing. You only get the chance to be “there” for once-in-a-lifetime events so many times. Enjoy them while you can.
