The entire Helldivers 2 community is eager for success in its next Major Order to prevent Super Earth citizens from suffering with more procreation limitations.
Live service games generally don’t have the most in-depth stories. Usually, there’s a core campaign for players to work through, but then players are left to work out the lore of the game’s universe through Grimoire entries, item descriptions, and the structures in the environments.
Helldivers 2 is doing things very differently, and it’s working on multiple levels. The story is unfolding through Major Orders. While these are nothing more than textboxes explaining where players need to target next in their campaign to kill every Terminid and Automaton in the galaxy, it’s the flavor of this text that’s painting the wider picture.
Failure is not an option
Earlier this week, the player base failed a Major Order that tasked them with clearing two sectors of Terminid space. The game immediately gave us a new Major Order to tackle four planets where Terminid biomass is now being extracted, but it also sent a dispatch that rocked the community.
This dispatch explained how, due to the failure of Helldivers 2 players to complete a Major Order, Super Earth citizens were being restricted on how much they could procreate.
This message is hilarious but also shows how much control Super Earth government has over its people. They’re being treated as numbers as they move across giant balls that represent planets. It’s a game of infrastructure and growth, except now that growth is being restricted. Far be it from Super Earth to offer contraception until more planets open up, the government is just denying applications in some sort of cruel, potentially indefinite, and twisted form of voluntary sacrifice.
So why are players desperate for victory in the next Major Order? Well, it’s because they don’t want to feel as bad as they do now about the fact that they’re forcing millions, potentially billions of fictional people in a fictional universe from sleeping together. They feel guilty because of the impact they’ve had on a galaxy based on our own, but is very much made up.
This is a testament to Helldivers 2‘s storytelling and Arrowhead Games Studio’s dedication to the satirical universe it’s created. I was initially confused when logging in to see this message in-game, of which the procreation denial is a footnote because there was some debate over whether we’d won or lost the Major Order. To be honest, I’m pleased we lost because we wouldn’t have seen this colossal outpouring of effort in the current Major Order had players not been told the consequences of their failure.
I’m seeing more and more people, especially those who don’t play, discuss how much they love the minimalistic yet effective story delivery in Helldivers 2. Of course, huge, well-told narratives and cinematic epics, like those that Hideo Kojima produces, have their place. But this game thrives on the lack of showy cutscenes and detailed lore explainers. It simply exists and evolves as you play, and you’re invested because you want so desperately to see the most positive story arc for the invisible people you’re fighting for. Unfortunately, I think Game Master Joel has other ideas.
