Helldivers 2 released a huge milestone update today—a battle for Super Earth, and the inclusion of City Maps. I got my boots on the ground right away, dropping into a smoke-filled ruin of a city named Eagleopolis, the thrum of distant Illuminate ships and the warble of cruel, unflinching overseers flooding my senses.
Our mission? To protect a missile silo from the alien advance. We set up our defences, dropped our sentries, placed our gun encampments, and rested our weary fingers on the triggers of our Eruptors and HMGs. And then this happened:
I did not survive the Illuminate rave.
Ostensibly, the efforts of Super Earth’s finest during the prior major order reduced the Illuminate forces by around 20%. You wouldn’t know it, though. While I did eventually manage to get into a groove, these defence missions are flooded wall-to-wall with ultraviolent aliens keen on dismantling you (and democracy) piece-by-piece.
I’d say it helps that the new cities are gorgeous. Arrowhead’s mastery over atmospheric fog, weather, and lighting is now met with towering skyscrapers flush with neon signs. Each mission start is a tense deployment into a clean urban dystopia, with only a matter of seconds to collect yourself before hell breaks loose.
Without fail, things get considerably less clean the longer we’re there. Obviously we can’t just let the Illuminate run roughshod over Super Earth, but I can’t help wondering if my teammate’s hoo-rahs and 500kg bombs are causing more infrastructural damage than a few plasma rifles would.
The seasoning on this hellscape steak, though, is absolutely the inclusion of civilians and SEAF troops. Helldivers 2 missions do feel like a warzone, but they feel like one you’ve been sent into. A madcap guerilla strike on enemy lines, where the chaos feels appropriate to the ill-advised deployment from your Super Earth masters.
The claustrophobic architecture and the—sometimes literal—fog of war make for a perfect theatre for all these civilians and SEAF redshirts to occupy. Civilians who will sometimes yelp something about how adversity is an honour of citizenship, and SEAF soldiers who will follow you around like lost ducklings if you salute at them enough. For the first time, I feel like I’m fighting a proper conflict.
Which made me feel a little bad when, peering through a heavy veil of mist (and carcinogenic building materials, no doubt) I saw what I’d assumed was a civilian running away from some shambling Illuminate voteless—zombies already under the thrall of the hivemind. I lined up the shot from my trusty Eruptor, said a quick oath to the Super Earth flag, and pulled the trigger.
Cue the ‘you just killed civilians’ punishment noise. I turn around. My teammate stares at me through the sights of his gun. I turn away. I turn back. He hasn’t stopped keeping me in his crosshairs. A bead of sweat starts to form on my brow. I nod, vigorously, as if to communicate that I’d understood the full weight of what I’d done. That seemed to get him to relax, and we shared a quiet, shame-filled extraction in the pelican.
All in all, these city maps are claustrophobic, hectic, uncompromising, and as dense as your average helldiver’s skull. In other words, Arrowhead’s got the vibe exactly right—and I can’t wait to get stuck back in, saving the cities of super earth with poor trigger discipline and enough ordinance to convince the Illuminate that we’re probably not worth it, honestly.
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