It’s interesting to think about Arrowhead’s “Hell Divers II” a third person action shooter multiplayer arena game does one thing right. Inspire. As youtuber Tragidee, stated that his own friends, “who hasn’t played with since Gears of War” are now playing Hell Divers 2. As of March 3rd 2024, the game has over “750,000” players from both PlayStation and PC players combined. I had been keeping an eye on the game, since I’m a big Starship Troopers and Robert Heinlein fan, makes me remember what it’s all about. Gameplay, Interaction, and Cooperative teammates.
Story
As the story itself, is not the complicated. You’re a Hell Diver, sent to fight in the name of “democracy” and Super Earth in order to stop an alien bug race and Automatons, huge Terminator like robots, where a variety of tasks exist. From reconnecting fuel pumps, rescuing civilians through the battlefield, and putting up Super Earth flags, in the name of Democracy. It’s almost a joke at some point where your character’s dialogue ranges from “Here’s a cup of Liber-tea” to “Pain, what pain.”
There are no cutscenes, except for the intro scene, where a man on Super Earth witnesses his wife and child’s death so he joins the Super Marines, in order to fight for “democracy.” There’s no cutscenes, except for the intro, and it feels like a riff on Starship Troopers, but at least Arrowhead understood Heinlein far more than Paul Vanhooven’s Starship Troopers film did. And each character isn’t special, nor does each Hell Diver become James Bondified, or over powered, by each level progression. And becomes more like an homage to all of science fiction, as this game proves that gameplay, and living the best Hell Diver life, is about combat, or gameplay.