Key Takeaways
- Helldivers 2’s success and social media presence has been unexpected, and it has me wondering why.
- It might be the third-person view and the overall insanity of the game. But it could also be because of Joel, the Helldivers 2’s game master, who influences player engagement by modifying in-game difficulty and events.
- The concept of D&D-style game masters, like Joel, may be a more common element in future game design — not unlike how Fortnite made battle royale modes a thing in several games, including in Call of Duty: Warzone.
Seven years ago, PUBG: Battlegrounds and Fortnite debuted, prompting a rush among gaming studios to replicate their success. This resulted in excellent titles, like the Call of Duty spin-off Warzone, as well as poor imitations. Even unexpected games like Civilization 6 introduced their own Fortnite-inspired battle royale modes, featuring shrinking safe zones for players.
10 best shooters on PS5: Helldivers 2 and more games to try
We’ve played the very best PS5 shooters, including FPS, TPS, and Battle Royale games. Here’s our pick of the top 10.
Elements of popular video games have been copied from ages, like when Dr. Mario replaced Tetris’ blocks with colorful little pills. Arrowhead Games’ Helldivers 2 could be up next to inspire imitations, given its unexpected success. The game’s sales have steadily increased, with more and more players sucked into the Galactic War. This has me wondering what makes Helldivers 2 stand out and which aspects other studios might seek to adapt from the sci-fi shooter.
Helldivers 2
- Developer(s)
- Arrowhead Game Studios AB
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter , co-op
Helldivers 2 is viral video gold
Smash hit on Steam and social media
Arrowhead Games was caught off guard by Helldivers 2’s initial success, overwhelming its servers with a peak of over 458,000 concurrent players on Steam just two weeks after launch. Despite maintaining strong player numbers, exceeding those of Call of Duty and Fortnite, it pales in comparison to Palworld, 2024’s other viral video game. It briefly soared to over 2 million concurrent players on Steam, before plummeting to fewer than 100,000.
Helldivers 2’s third-person view makes the game more exciting and allows players to see the action from their own angle, which is a big reason why so many people are talking about it and sharing clips online.
Helldivers 2 is still so successful because it’s all over social media. Imagine this: Super Earth, a place that’s supposed to be a utopia, but oops — it’s actually an over-the-top fascist society, and players are the unsuspecting gears in a giant, absurd war machine, duking it out with bugs and robots in a conflict that makes you ask, “What are we fighting for?” Gamers are here for it, turning their wild in-game antics into viral video gold. Helldivers 2’s third-person view makes the game exciting and allows players to see the action from their own angle, which is a big reason why so many people are talking about it and sharing clips online.
Helldivers 2 has a D&D-style GM
Joel is an actual person pulling the strings
Arrowhead Games
Helldivers 2 is a PvE third-person online shooter that pits players against a common enemy. There are multiple enemy types and varied environments for fighting on multiple planets. This also happens to describe about a thousand other games. Why, then, is Helldivers 2 doing so well? I’ve played the game for dozens of hours, and I believe it comes down to how fun the Galactic War is and because of an Arrowhead Games employee, Joel, who is the game master.
Every player in the game works toward the shared goal of winning the Galactic War for Super Earth. This objective is depicted on a map that’s accessible to players on their Destroyer starships. The map features Super Earth at its center, encircled by various sectors. Within these sectors are planets where the players, as Helldivers, are actively engaged in battles. Each planet displays liberation percentages, which are influenced by the players’ successes and failures.
This is where Joel comes into play. He’s an actual Arrowhead Games employee. Johan Pilestedt, the CEO of Arrowhead Games, recently revealed Joel’s existence in an interview, highlighting the significant power he holds to modify the difficulty of individual games. Although this impacts players on a small scale in their personal games, it contributes to the broader narrative unfolding within Helldivers 2.
For instance, a planet named Malevelon Creek became popular soon after the game’s release, with players nicknaming it Robot Vietnam. Joel played a crucial role in ensuring that players eventually lost the battle on this planet — by increasing the game’s difficulty level there. As a result, Robot Vietnam is now dominated by androids, and players were no longer able to play on that planet until they could liberate other planets.
Additionally, Joel can maintain player interest and drive engagement. Recently, the game introduced a new strategem item called the Patriot Exosuit. It’s a giant suit of armor — but it wasn’t typically added, like most other games add new items. Instead, to access the new stratagem, players had to band together to quickly liberate Tien Quan (a key planet that produces the exosuits) from Automaton attacks. Plenty of games give their player base goals, but I’m not aware of a game in recent memory that could get nearly its entire player base working toward a singular goal like that at the same time.
Helldivers 2 made me fire up my PS5 again
After a long break from PS5 games, I got Helldivers 2 because it’s been all over the internet. I’m happy to say, it’s worth the hype.
Helldivers 2 copycats are coming
Get those game master resumes ready
Brian Mcgowan / Unsplash
If you’re curious about which universes are ripe for a game similar to Helldivers 2, I have some thoughts, and so do others. Star Wars is the most obvious option, as mentioned by fans on Reddit, with the Empire and Stormtroopers being ideal stand-ins for Super Earth and Helldivers, respectively. I personally wouldn’t mind playing a Marvel version of Helldivers 2, with players facing off against the MCU’s worst as faceless Shield soldiers.
These games might find it challenging to recreate the satire-filled success of Helldivers 2 with their IP-driven money grabs, however.
One Helldivers 2 element very likely to be copied in the future is the use of Dungeons and Dragons-style game masters. These are suitable for games similar to Helldivers 2 and for any other game that could benefit from having an individual manage the narrative in which thousands of players are concurrently engaged. It has been a key factor in making Helldivers 2 more enjoyable and the universe more fun for me.
8 battle-tested Helldivers 2 tips and tricks from a Galactic War veteran
From the weapons you need to get first to advice for staying alive, here’s a Galactic War veteran’s top Helldivers 2 tips and tricks.
Game masters could enhance nearly every game, honestly, so while Fortnite spawned countless versions of Battle Royale games, the enduring influence of Helldivers 2 might be Game masters. It could encourage designers for new games to hire individuals whose sole responsibility is to enhance the player experience. Game masters can prevent games from becoming monotonous — by adjusting the in-game narrative to what is currently interesting for players. They can create a significant storytelling moment. Joel from Helldivers 2 has even leveraged events to maintain the game’s popularity on social media.
We may look back at Helldivers 2 as the game that made game masters a thing.
Trending Products
