Democracy dies in the shadows: The rise and fall of Helldivers 2

In 2011, a small, independent Swedish developer, Arrowhead Game Studios, released a game about a group of wizards going on an adventure together in a bizarre world full of fantasy stereotypes, called Magicka.

In this game, you combine different elements using your QWERTY keys to make different spells (for instance, combining water and fire makes steam, etc). Using these spells, players solved puzzles and fought their enemies. At the same time, the game did not shy away from friendly fire – there weren’t any safeguards to stop you from blasting your friends with eldritch if you weren’t careful. The game was a lot of fun.

In 2015, Arrowhead made a new game in a new setting, called Helldivers. It was a game about a fictional Super Earth that sent its brave soldiers, the titular Helldivers, to different planets to ‘liberate’ them and ‘spread democracy’ there. The game borrowed heavily from Starship Troopers, but cranked up the satire even higher. Gameplay was very reminiscent of Magicka – co-operative play, same top-down view, lots of accidental friendly fire. Some other Magicka DNA was also present – you used your arrow keys to input combinations mid-combat to call in resupplies or ordnance, while shooting down hordes of enemies for democracy. Helldivers became a niche hit among players, who praised its borderline ridiculous setting and its fun but challenging gameplay.

For their next game, Helldivers 2, Arrowhead decided to dial everything up to eleven. When it was released in February 2024, it was a bombshell and a cacophony of irony and testosterone. The game greeted players with an over-exaggerated propaganda intro that showed you why you need to enlist to protect Super Earth. The game’s setting, voice acting and general atmosphere is over-the-top; it was hilarious and at the same time reflective of the current American infatuation with war and conquest in the name of vaguely-defined ‘freedoms’ and preserving a ‘way of life’.

Helldivers 2 broke records when it launched. It sold 12 million copies during its first 12 weeks. The amount of players willing to play it at launch was so immense, the servers were overrun almost every day. Arrowhead even had to scramble all resources for additional capacity so they could accommodate everyone willing to fight for Super Earth. The hype was real, the games the people were playing generated amazing stories, – you could see the starships of other Helldivers on the planet you were in, in low orbit, blasting artillery barrages, there were enemies coming from every angle, you could be accidentally gunned down by your own squad-mates and immediately be respawned as another Helldiver (Super Earth’s defenders are as heroic as they are expendable). There were countless videos made by players, either highlights of their games, or beautiful works of propaganda art, praising Super Earth’s finest. The best thing that united players all around the world was the map of the Galactic War, with tens of planets with different climates, and a constant tug-of-war with developers, who basically wrote an in-world history based on the victories or losses on these planets. Players could lose an entire sector one day, and then completely take it back over the weekend. This lifelike sense of doing something on a grand scale created entire communities of players that devoted all of their playtime to a particular planet, refusing to move to another theater of war. This was truly peak community gaming – people coming together, creating amazing art, enjoying the game’s layered messaging, finding little easter eggs or in-jokes and living through unforgettable stories every day.

All that being said, the game was not ideal. There were extensive login times at launch. The game was buggy at times. The sheer amount of active players made it impossible to join other people’s missions. But still, people were giving Arrowhead time and waited patiently for the game to be polished.

Early May brought the first real blow to the Helldiver’s reputation. Arrowhead released a statement saying that by the end of the month you needed to add your Playstation Network account in order to play the game (Sony was the game’s publisher). The problem was that PSN is not available in 100+ countries in the world, where people have already bought and started playing the game. The rule would effectively lock them out and prevent them from playing any longer. Massive outrage followed, with concerns of blatant anti-consumer behavior and a fraudulent bait-and-switch voiced all over the Internet. The game’s Steam score plummeted after thousands of people left negative reviews. Arrowhead went on the defensive, claiming that they did it on orders from Sony. After several days of back and forth, Sony reversed its decision, but left the door open to implement it in the future. Crisis was averted, many (but not all) reviews were changed back to positive ones, and players celebrated completing what looked like another Helldiver mission in real life. Arrowhead even made a promise to create a cape in-game to reflect the drop in reviews as a badge of honor among its players, who were ready to go down with the ship rather than bend the knee to Sony.

During summer, all went well at first. Player numbers were not as high as at launch, but the game was settling into its comfort zone. The developers were releasing new missions, and patching the in-game balance of weapons and enemies. So then people started figuring out that these balance patches were making the game actively worse – weapons were made weaker, and enemies stronger. Helldivers 2 was already a challenging game. Any complaints and requests to explain these changes in a game where players do not compete against each other were left with unsatisfying replies. Players started leaving the game, as they found it no longer fun. This frustration led to the CEO of Arrowhead stepping down into another role within the studio so he could be more involved in the direction of the game’s development.

To this day, there is a feeling that Helldivers 2 missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This could have been another Fortnite, another Counter-Strike, but without any manipulative monetization or toxic player-vs-player gameplay. It raised themes that made people look into its literary and cinematic roots in Starship Troopers, as well as scrutinize state propaganda and the inhuman nature of the war machine.

The success of Helldivers was so unexpected and so massive that it became too big for its creators to handle. They accidentally raised the bar so high that they could not maintain it even for a year. On the surface they have it all – a universal setting that can appeal to anyone in the world, a loyal and creative fanbase, and amazing gameplay. Arrowhead can still turn this around and make it a steady niche hit that can last a decade. For democracy’s sake, they’d better do it.