It should speak volumes about Helldivers 2 that it's one of the best, most creative co-op games we've ever played, and yet the part where you shoot stuff is only the second most impressive aspect of it. What really kept our eyes glued to Super Earth command this past year was the galactic war, an ongoing war simulation that allows the community to steer the direction of a meta narrative by following major orders and capturing enemy-owned planets.
The galactic war metagame has proven so compelling that some hardcore players have made a habit of finding weak points on the enemy frontlines that, if exploited by capturing a specific planet, present an opportunity to liberate multiple planets at once. The community has dubbed these opportunities "gambits," and Arrowhead chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt absolutely loves them.
"When the community manages to [pull off] gambits, that's where the galactic war shines," Pilestedt told PC Gamer in an interview. "And it's something that we want to keep investing in."
Arrowhead has actually been supporting gambits behind the scenes for a while now. Back in April, game master Joel shocked the helldiving world when he struck a deal with the community: Pull off the Martale Gambit and he'd personally liberate two planets for the price of one. That effort failed, but several similar gambits have since succeeded.
At the time, convincing enough players to attack the correct planet was an almost impossible task—most divers don't check Discord or Reddit and just head to whatever planet Super Earth's official order calls for. But Pilestedt wants to put more power in the player's hand to direct war strategy.
"When we started developing Helldivers 2, we wanted to create a true galaxy at war, and that's something that we're going to continue working on over the next couple of years," Pilestedt said. "We're trying to build more and more systems that allow more agency for the community, more challenges that we can provide for the community, but also generally increase the experiences that you can have within the game."
More agency in the war is coming slowly but surely. August's Escalation of Freedom update finally made supply routes visible on the galaxy map, a crucial mechanic of the war game that was previously inaccessible to players without a third-party website. The community also recently unlocked the Democracy Space Station, a megabase that players can vote to move toward certain planets and donate Req points to activate powerful buffs. Not only can the DSS speed up efforts to capture or defend planets, it can also serve as a beacon for other divers that says "go here and fight," something that could've made a difference for the Martale Gambit all those months ago.
And we might need to build a few more space stations to take on The Illuminates, Helldivers 2's long-awaited third faction that began its surprise invasion tonight during The Game Awards. Flying saucers, "Voteless" zombies, floating aliens with scepters—a new batch of undemocratic scum, as well as our very first vehicle, is here in the Omens of Tyranny update.
