Every week, I think about taking a break fromHelldivers 2to finish all the other games I’m playing, and every week I’m pulled back in. There’s alwayssomethinggoing on, which is by design: it’s a live-service game. The story is evolving week by week, sometimes even day by day. Arrowhead’s developers throw us new information and laugh while we tear it apart, players troll each other, and major orders hint at the next evolution in the story. I want to finally finishBaldur’s Gate 3, but I can’t get away.
The Imposter
We know thatHelldivers 2’s Game Master Joel helps and hinders players as he pleases, but websites were reporting this week that he also joined at least one game,dropped an unreleased vehicle, then disappeared. A Twitter account dedicated to Helldivers 2 posted a clip of someone named [AH] Joel (AH as in Arrowhead) saying “Hey guys i need to get back to work” and “Please take this” before leaving the mission, leaving a massive APC in their place. At first, people thought that Joel was actually leaving breadcrumbs for an impending release of APC vehicles, but it turns out that isn’t true at all.
Rock Paper Shotgun waslater contacted by a verified sourcewho said that the APC-dropping player was definitely not really Joel. It seems more likely that the player was just an account with the name [AH] Joel (there are many accounts on Steam with this name, actually) and they were using cheat software to drop an unreleased piece of equipment on the battlefield.
This is fairly foreboding: as if Arrowhead’sconstant gaslightingwasn’t enough, we now have to worry that other players using cheats are futzing with our matches and leading us to false conclusions. On the bright side… APCs!
The Gun
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt simply does not stop dropping hints about Helldivers 2, but sometimes I can’t tell if he’s doing it on purpose or not. In response to a fan’s suggestions about the implementation of a hypothetical gatling gun support weapon, Pilestedt said, “This was the idea for the HMG,” before immediately following up with, “Nevermind. There’s no such thing as HMG.” Dastardly.
The HMG is a real weapon called the heavy machine gun, but it was in the game for only a few hours before disappearing. As always, we know this because Helldivers 2 players had receipts and shared them. We all know Pilestedt doesn’t mention something unless it means something, so… HMG soon?
The Mission
I’m fairly sure the new Major Order is impossible to achieve, even if you’re not suffering from severe skill issues like I am. Helldivers are being directed to the Trigon Sector to carry out Operation Swift Disassembly, which means killing a hell of a lot of Automatons on Troost, for starters. I’m not sure what’s been going on over on that side of the map, because the last time I tried to kill some robots on Mantes my party got absolutely destroyed and I decided I’d rather go to bed than suffer a humiliation like that again. It’s brutal over there.
Before this Major Order, captured bots were interrogated (probably tortured) into revealing that Automatons are launching something called “The Reclamation”, which is likely some kind of rebellion. I guess we’re killing them all in retribution. The community thinks this might be about reclaiming Cyberstan, the homeplanet of the Cyborgs. Some theories include that the Automatons have always been moving towards Cyberstan and not Super Earth, and that the Automatons are somehow descendants of Cyborgs that managed to escape Cyberstan or perhaps the creations of Cyborgs. It’s unclear. Sometimes piecing together Helldivers lore makes me feel likeCharlie Kelly ranting about Pepe Silvia.
Here’s the thing: nobody wants to be over there right now. The bugs aresomuch easier to kill, and there are almost always lower player counts in Automaton regions than Terminid because of it. Killing Automatons on the same difficulty I tackle bugs with led to, again, one of the most humiliating TPKs I’ve encountered in my life. Will soldiers start moving en masse towards this sector to battle for their lives? Hard to say! I probably will, but I’m going to be complaining the whole time.
Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 is the sequel to the third-person shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios. This time out, the Helldivers are deep in the Galactic War, and it’s up to you to bring Managed Democracy to the masses.
