Helldivers 2’s main orders are imagined to be goals that unite the group to work towards a standard aim, one that always paves the way in which for momentous beats in its ongoing galactic struggle. Previous main orders have led to unbelievable player-led tales just like the liberation of Malevelon Creek and the securing of mechs on Tien Kwan. They’ve additionally led to some intestine punches, just like the return of the Automatons after gamers had been led to imagine they’d expunged them from the galaxy. The purpose is that following by way of on these main orders tends to have penalties that may be both good or dangerous, and it’s been nice to look at Hellidivers 2 gamers must roll with the punches. That every one makes the newest main order somewhat deflating, then, because it form of undoes a alternative that they collectively made only a few weeks in the past.
At one level, Helldivers 2 gamers had been requested to decide between the protection of two planets, every with their very own stratagem they might earn as a reward. Although the group might ostensibly liberate each, solely the primary one to be liberated would yield a stratagem. Gamers got the chance to trial every stratagem whereas they had been on both of the worlds, they usually in the end picked the planet that granted everybody a rocket launcher moderately than the one which granted anti-tank mines. It wasn’t the most important determination on the earth, but it surely was one which bore out some form of consequence by locking away a new weapon. Now, Helldivers 2’s latest main order is reversing course and giving gamers the chance to unlock the mines that they’d missed out on.
Let me begin with the plain: sure, one thing like this was all the time going to occur! You don’t work on a complete new function for a recreation, or on this case one other model of an identical weapon, simply to scrap it. I simply want they’d form of held onto it a bit longer, although, in an effort to make its reintroduction extra of a dramatic deal than it’s now. Arrowhead Studios was all the time going to discover a method to implement them into the sport, in any other case it will simply be consuming improvement prices for nothing and I don’t fault the builders for that. However this twist, and the way rapidly it got here, does form of lay out how consequential some decisions in Helldivers 2 actually are, and it’s somewhat deflating.
The introduction of the selection only a few weeks in the past felt like an amazing pivot to make after months of uniting the group behind one trigger at a time. Gamers had been legitimately divided, even when issues in the end swung in favor of the massive gun, as I predicted they might. Of us merely can’t say no to an enormous gun. The idea of forcing gamers right into a alternative with lasting penalties had potential past merely selecting between weapons, although, and it isn’t robust to think about the crew extrapolating it to bigger choices regarding the destiny of complete planets or the tide of the struggle. I used to be wanting ahead to seeing how Arrowhead would possibly proceed creating these frictional moments and constructing upon them, to not sow seeds of precise dissent within the fan base, however simply because it’s fascinating to look at a gaggle weigh a number of components and are available to a consensus (or lack thereof) after which stay with it. Internally, I guess it was additionally a really useful method to informally ballot Helldivers 2 gamers about what they wish to see in future weapons and stratagems!
Following up the selection with a narrative beat that successfully communicates, “Psych, that was all for nothing,” is just a bit weak. The subsequent time Arrowhead tries an identical transfer, people are going to be savvy sufficient to know that it in all probability doesn’t actually matter all that a lot, and what was as soon as a galvanizing goal is now little greater than one thing for the group to recreation the following time it rolls round. I’m positive most folk are fully unbothered by this, and are actually celebrating that they now have the chance to get each of the stratagems that had been on provide, however as somebody largely having fun with the narrative of Helldivers 2 from the surface, it’s a disgrace to see such a potent storytelling mechanism be pacified so abruptly.
