For my entire life as a gamer, I have always seen the power of video games as a cinematic world. Movies once used to hold this golden ticket for me, and however I pushed the idea of “gameplay” away from my vernacular, the truth is simple. Video games should have gameplay in it. No matter if it’s in Resident Evil or in the Last of Us, video games are now what movies can’t be. An Experience. Personal, and shared across the Internet, too.
But one game, in my opinion, hasn’t made me want to experience online play more so than Hell Divers 2. Released on February 8th, 2024, for PlayStation 5 and Steam, a sequel to a top down bug killer game on a distant planet, a reminder of Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” the reality is simple. You get to be a marine, with no special powers, maybe your own ship, with every gun imaginable, and then get to kill every last bug you see. There’s literally no story to be had. As of February 25th, 2024, the game’s all-time peak players are 458,709. As an online service, this does make the gaming industry scratch their heads, when it was right in front of their nose the entire time.
The gameplay is frenetic, third person shooter, where the characters swan diving bullet time extravaganza, almost too coma inducing for most cinematic gamers. The characters’s proscribed insults against the bugs are “come get a taste of democracy.” But playing a game can be fun, and no matter if there’s a story, either. Doom (1993) got by on gameplay alone, where you play as a lone space marine on Mars blowing demons away with every gun possible. The story itself got by on title cards at the end of each mission.
The outcome is that gameplay, itself can matter. Even last of us part 2 released a rogue like, where players can take control of each character on a arcade like mission, staying alive until each mission is complete. Even bringing Joel, who was viciously killed in the story campaign, back from the grave. The outcome is that arcade gameplay can be part of the core element of video games, and as the examples of Doom (1993) and Last of Us Part II’s (2024) rogue-like sensation, is that gameplay matters, and Hell Divers 2, with its early player achievement and influences from sci-fi’s greatest hits, can make the world unite in a world against bugs and “democracy.”
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 21 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One, City of Sand: Book 1: The Holy Terror, and The Voices Are Alive, and The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His newest books, The City of Sand: Book 3: America the Free, is out now.