GamesHelldivers 2Helldivers 2 isn’t just good co-op, it’s a masterclass in designing comedy gamesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesHelldivers 2Helldivers 2 isn’t just good co-op, it’s a masterclass in designing comedy gamesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Sony)
But it’s deeper than the satirical propaganda and bellowed background dialogue from General Brasch. Helldivers 2 isn’t just a game that acts funny – itplaysfunny too. And that’s something you just don’t see very often these days.
Laughing from the sidelines
(Image credit: Sony)
It’s not rare to find games with jokes in them in the mainstream AAA space, but that’s not the same thing as being a comedy game. For example, Baldur’s Gate 3 has a lot of jokes, but they’re just one element of a broader whole, moments of levity to keep the tone balanced. Full-on comedy games are far rarer – and after the public drubbing given to dialogue in games like Forspoken, it’s not hard to see why studios are wary about going goofy. More often you’ll just have a comedycharacter,a comic relief figure held gently to one side – perhaps a quest-giver or merchant, maybe a voice on a radio – somebody who can crack wise while the main character frowns, rolls their eyes and focuses on other, more important things thanjoy.
Tips and tricks for Helldivers 2(Image credit: Sony)Want some advice worthy of Brasch himself? OurHelldivers 2 tipswill give you the edge, 100% guaranteed!**Not a guarantee
Tips and tricks for Helldivers 2
(Image credit: Sony)Want some advice worthy of Brasch himself? OurHelldivers 2 tipswill give you the edge, 100% guaranteed!**Not a guarantee
(Image credit: Sony)
Want some advice worthy of Brasch himself? OurHelldivers 2 tipswill give you the edge, 100% guaranteed!**Not a guarantee
True comedy gameplay mechanics – mechanics based around doing something silly, or generating silly results – are rare, but do exist. Octodad, Overcooked, and arguably the newer Hitman games fall under that bracket. But with Helldivers 2, now there’s another entrant – and it might be the slyest and most comprehensive comedy generation engine I’ve seen in years.
Private Jokes, General Hilarity and Major Chaos
(Image credit: Sony)
At a surface glance, there’s nothing overtly funny here – Helldivers 2 just looks like a well-made co-op shooter about space marines killing aliens and robots. Sure, the intro cinematic and dialogue is worth a chuckle, but then you drop into the map and it’s shotguns and airstrikes as normal, right?
The Helldivers are overconfident meatheads who all think they’re a hybrid of Masterchief, Captain America and John Wick.
The Helldivers are overconfident meatheads who all think they’re a hybrid of Masterchief, Captain America and John Wick.
Wrong. Helldivers 2 has made a lot of creative choices I’m convinced are made to result in absurd and hilarious results. Theragdoll animations, as many have mentioned recently, are superb, and the game is very eager to show them off. When aCharger in Helldivers 2barrels through your team, they’re sent flying like bowling pins, bouncing off the landscape and shrieking. Falling off a ledge causes them to flail ridiculously, and the game actively creates situations to encourage you to throw yourself around, using the dive to avoid explosions, rockets and being trampled, with mixed success.
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Tene cervisiam meam!
(Image credit: Sony)
Some might say this is playing badly, but I say it’s the whole point, the very experience that Helldivers 2 istryingto generate. The set-up is that the Helldivers are overconfident meatheads who all think they’re a hybrid of Masterchief, Captain America and John Wick.
But then the game hands you control and sends you into the battlefield with a merry slap on the backside, assuring you that you’ll totally do great out there, all the while sniggering behind its hand. The punchline, from that point on, will write itself.
Want to see us praise these gun-toting idiots even more? Check out ourHelldivers 2 review!
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