Look, just listen to me, you need to hear this, man. I was there. When the battles raged over Malevelon Creek and Mort and the Helldivers 2 community tasted both sweet, sweet victory and agonising defeat all in the span of one 24 hour period.
Yeah, it was just after everyone in the trenches had been really mad at some farmers they thought might be harming the war effort and just before we got all of our missing money back. We knew we had to keep on pushing through the galaxy, liberating it in the name of Super Earth, trying to put an end to this blasted Galactic War, man.
I was there man, when Malevelon Creek – that planet that’s covered in jungles and crawling with automatons, we call it ‘Robot Vietnam’ – when it fell, man, after hours of struggle. I was there, watching clips of the exact moment when all hope was lost on the Helldivers 2 subreddit, watching the tweets and memes roll in from the devastated soldiers who were just trying to hold on in that hellhole.
I saw the notification, man. I saw the retreat order roll in alongside the words “planet lost” once the planetary liberation gauge dropped to 0%. As our folks were unceremoniously kicked off the surface of it like fleas off of a dog, like user UntrustedAlly, I whispered “Fallen, but not forgotten”. I swore we’d come back and fight harder, and retake the planet that should have been ours, man.
I was there a few hours earlier, when we were riding high, having just taken full control of the planet Mort and successfully defended it without our own blood, sweat and tears. I was there on Reddit, hooting, hollering, and kissing my brethren-in-arms. I cried tears of joy as one user wrote: “The blood we split for Mort has forged an eternal bond between me and my stalwart brothers and sisters. Our stand symbolised the unyielding shield of justice and liberty. Goddamn… I love democracy.”
I thought it’d last forever, but it never does. Because Helldivers 2’s conflict is ever-shifting, ever-evolving in ways designed to challenge us and push us to the limit in order to earn the requisitions we crave, even if the rewards seem a bit meagre compared to the sacrifice involved.
I know we’ll be back, once we’ve finished making memes about this mechanic we’re all invested in now that Arrowhead’s fixed the server issues.
I don’t know what the future holds for our struggle to best everything Helldivers 2’s campaign and major orders throw at us, man, but I have been told that if you check out this feature you can get an idea of just how good the game might be in further down the line, assuming its trajectory mirrors the first Helldivers.