Helldivers 2’s main orders are purported to be aims that unite the neighborhood to work towards a standard objective, 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 that they had expunged them from the galaxy. The purpose is that following by on these main orders tends to have penalties that may be both good or unhealthy, and it’s been nice to observe Hellidivers 2 gamers must roll with the punches. That each one makes the newest main order just a little deflating, then, because it type of undoes a alternative that they collectively made just some weeks in the past.
At one level, Helldivers 2 gamers had been requested to choose between the protection of two planets, every with their very own stratagem they might earn as a reward. Although the neighborhood may 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 somewhat than the one which granted anti-tank mines. It wasn’t the largest resolution on this planet, nevertheless it was one which bore out some type 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 characteristic for a recreation, or on this case one other model of an identical weapon, simply to scrap it. I simply want they’d type of held onto it a bit longer, although, with the intention to make its reintroduction extra of a dramatic deal than it’s now. Arrowhead Studios was all the time going to discover a approach 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 shortly it got here, does type of lay out how consequential some selections in Helldivers 2 actually are, and it’s just a little deflating.
The introduction of the selection just some weeks in the past felt like an important pivot to make after months of uniting the neighborhood behind one trigger at a time. Gamers had been legitimately divided, even when issues in the end swung in favor of the large gun, as I predicted they might. People 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 powerful to think about the staff extrapolating it to bigger selections in regards to the destiny of entire planets or the tide of the struggle. I used to be wanting ahead to seeing how Arrowhead may 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 attention-grabbing to observe a bunch weigh a number of components and are available to a consensus (or lack thereof) after which stay with it. Internally, I wager it was additionally a really useful approach to informally ballot Helldivers 2 gamers about what they want 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, of us are going to be savvy sufficient to know that it most likely 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 neighborhood to recreation the following time it rolls round. I’m certain most folk are fully unbothered by this, and are in reality 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.