Starship Troopers is a satirical movie (and less satirical book) that examines how fascist dictatorships drive young people into the meat grinder—waging pointless war across the galaxy, sending poor souls deep into the heart of an insectoid hive to meet a horrific death for basically zero reason. Helldivers 2 slightly undercuts this satire by making that experience kinda awesome.
I hopped into the new update, Into the Unjust, to see what the new “hive worlds” had to offer—and they’re just as revolutionary to the game as the city maps were. Typically, Helldivers 2 sees you fighting in sweeping combat zones where airborne bombardments are a constant threat, whether from your enemies or your squadmates.
Into the Unjust says screw that, let’s put you into a little corridor. And then let’s fill that corridor with bugs.
Typically, surviving in Helldivers 2 involves clever use of cover, a lot of diving around, and a smattering of eagle airstrikes. If you’re underground, however, everything from those aforementioned airstrikes to reinforcements simply aren’t an option.
This means a lot of weapons that usually wouldn’t shine quite so brightly, such as shotguns and napalm grenades have their day in the sun. Or you can be like me, and bring an Eruptor like a moron, and spend most of the mission flat on your butt because you purposefully stimmed up before pumping a fistful of shrapnel right into a charger’s face.
Helldivers 2 can get a little samey, but Arrowhead putting together entirely new map types is a great antidote to that problem. These missions completely change the feel of the game—and it helps that the hive worlds are rad as hell to look at, too. Thick, oppressive bug-smog crowds around giant rocky spires. Insect dung and bile collects in vile pools on the ground below. I’m there, spinning my revolver, adding to the ambience.
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The new dragon roach enemy’s a real fun addition, too—especially in a map type where you’re spending lots of your time underground. Finally done with a nest? Out of the frying pan, into the literal fire, as one of these tenacious bastards hucks up a gut full of napalm to ruin your day.
I also had a go on the new oil extraction mission, which sees you driving a clunky, mobile rig over these hell planets. I will be honest. This thing absolutely sucks to drive. It’s the size of a building, turns like a drunk pig, and it’s very easy to run over your squad mates with it—especially since they kept sprinting in front of me, for some unfathomable reason. But that’s almost part of the charm, and the fact it’s got a turret ready to blast those dragons out of the sky helps matters considerably.
All in all, Into the Unjust is a banger—it’s tough as nails, but that’s thematically appropriate for plunging into the heart of darkness and liberating these insects from their oil supplies, which they were absolutely putting to nefarious deeds, stop thinking about it.
It’s a real sign that Arrowhead’s going from strength to strength with Helldivers 2, and I can’t wait to see what something like an Automaton factory planet looks like in the developer’s sick, twisted imagination. Given the long and winding road it’s taken to get there, it’s great to see.
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