Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios is celebrating almost a full year’s worth of success for the game with a new video that highlights some of the best moments of its Galactic War metanarrative. Hosted by Game Master J.O.E.L., the video focuses on some of the best actions that were taken by the game’s community as a whole as they responded to threats from multiple fronts by Automatons, the Terminate swarm, and the Illuminate.
“Over the course of the last year of the Galactic War, we have, on numerous occasions, been positively surprised by the actions and choices that the community have taken,” says Joel. “Choices that are now canon, that are now part of Helldivers lore for all time.”
The number one moment pointed out by the game master was the Defense of Mort, which took place near the very beginning of the Galactic War back when Helldivers 2 came out last year. While players were working on liberating Heath and Angel’s Venture, they were caught blindsided by the Automaton legion starting its own offensives in the south-eastern part of the galaxy.
The key location in this event was the planet Mort; players had to defend the planet from the Automaton hordes through defense missions for more than 48 hours. Ultimately, it came down to the last few minutes, prompting the player base to rally around defending the planet till the very end.
Going by the title of the video – Chronicles of J.O.E.L. – it is likely that we’ll be seeing more from Joel about his favourite moments from the Galactic War in future videos.
For those that may not know, the Galactic War is a big narrative feature of Helldivers 2 where a game master from Arrowhead Game Studios decides which planets will be targets for the game’s various enemy factions. Players then have to respond to these threats by doing missions on the right planets, which in turn leads to a giant storyline where the players’ actions have long-term consequences for the galaxy’s story.
The game’s creative director, Johan Pilestedt, also recently announced that he would be taking a break from game development after having worked on the Helldivers franchise in some form or another since 2013. One of his first actions after announcing his sabbatical was to take part in a game jam with friends from the studio.
While Pilestedt is taking his break, the studio itself has announced that it will continue to work on Helldivers 2. In an interview last month, studio CEO Shams Jorjani revealed that the studio is ready to work on the title for ten years if there is still player demand for it. Jorjani did credit Pilestedt for being important in key creative areas of the development of Helldivers and its sequel, however.
Helldivers 2 is available on PC and PS5. For more details on the co-op shooter, check out our review. In the meantime, also check out the new Servants of Freedom Premium Warbond, which came out earlier this week and features the Portable Hellbomb. The game has also been quite popular, getting more than 15 million players in its first year.
