Great Designs in Helldivers 2

Spacedock delves into the great designs of Helldivers 2 #helldivers2

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[kongilian]

The satire works because everyone and everything in universe is taken seriously. It's only those with an outside frame of reference that can see the absurdity.

[mitwhitgaming]

I always love how the turrets actually have spinning sensors. Makes them feel like real peices of hardware rather than a standard videogame turret.

[Sovreign]

What makes HD2 special is that as satirical as it gets, it NEVER laughs at its own jokes.

Good satire sounds like someone saying something stupid with comolete sincerity, like Leslie Nielsen. Not being sarcastic about it.

[davidromeroblaya]

The armor of Super-Earth's starships is made with a compound of the two hardests substances known in the universe: freedom and democracy.

[APGfuntimesandlols]

"Remember to fill out a C-01 Form before engaging in any acts that could result in a child." The satire of Helldivers 2 is truly unrivalled.

[NecronPhobos]

Remember if you choose to reload before your current mag is empty those bullets end up wasted on the ground, instead of buried in the beating hearts of our enemies! BRASCH TACTICS

[dadab]

The thing that makes the Helldiver's dialog work so well is that it is absolutely goofy...unless the helldiver is injured. Or if a helldiver recently died. Then it turns from "Democracy has landed!" and "Have a taste of democracy!" to "LIBERTY SAVE ME!" and "CALLING REINFORCEMENTS!" The helldivers are full to the brim with overconfidence, but when they get shaken, they sound terrified and desperate.

[weldonwin]

"How does the pilot get into the Eagle?" Bold of you to assume that Eagle-1 ever gets OUT of the cockpit and doesn't just permanently live in there, ready to roll and dispense Democracy at an instants notice!

[openthinker]

The ship upgrades are also quite hilarious to read about. Some of my favorites include:
- Adding in small batches of drugs into the diet of the loading crew to speed up reloading
- Flooding the Eagle's cockpit with a special fluid that allows them to pull off more aggressive turns without too much effects from G-Force
- Upgrade to the ordinance pods where you reload them from the back instead of the front
- literally a subscription to a weather service site to better help targeting crew

[Mandemon]

One thing that makes plasma weapon seem more plausible is that they have this consistent design. They use similar magazines and have lots of common points, so when you look between them you can see basic logic on "how" the weapons work.

[theishiopian]

I love the mechs so much. They shouldn't feel as believable as they do, but they just do. They really sell the idea of a semi-disposable one man fire support platform, despite the dubious realism of the idea.

[PsychoRooster]

4:25 The caps are a design hold over from the first game, where the top down nature made it hard to tell where your character was faceing in high intensity scenarios. The caps flowing made almost an arrow silhouette that also didnt effect your hit box

[Iviring]

Low orbit ships made to just glass the surface with hundreds of guns on the bottom makes 100% sense.

[rustyshackleford]

The thing about the Eagle's design, is that downward facing fin *does* serve a purpose. An Eagle pilot has to be back on target within a few seconds of dropping ordinance, and one of the upgrades is filling their cockpit with breathable liquid so they can tank more G's in a hard turn. The fin is a control surface to allow them to whip around in seconds and attack from a new angle, or circle around and make a second run at the Helldiver's request.

[peterbui]

Helldivers don't rest in peace, they rest in patriotism!

[francesco]

Behind all the satire and hilarious gameplay moments Helldivers has a serious foundation that it's closer to realistic shooters like Arma or Squad than to more arcade shooter like Halo or COD.

[gdray]

One small correction: The ship is not for a single Helldiver. I don't know how many Helldivers it is for but my guess would be somewhere in the platoon to company range, plus their attached Eagle and Pelican personnel. They're all in cryo until needed. When you play Helldivers you're roll playing as the ship/platoon not an individual Helldiver. Every time you die you're playing as a new Helldiver, not a persistent character. Unless you are really good chances are most Helldivers die on their first mission, which may be the same mission from your perspective. From the Helldiver's perspective the last thing they probably remember before getting defrosted for the mission briefing or being dropped as a reinforcement is getting in the pod at the end of basic training (at the end of the tutorial). When you get upgrades or change loadouts you're changing the platoon's loadouts and upgrading their gear. The Helldivers belong to the ship, not the other way around.

[JTelli]

Was discussing this ship design months ago. I'm glad you quickly mention the fact that all weapons are under the ship, meaning that this is a siege ship rather than a proper combat ship. It's glorified close air support. It's a good principal but I think it would fall flat on its face in a space combat scenario.

[AF-tvuf]

LOVE the realism (I said it) of the lenses on the lasers. A lot of sci-fi writers forego that because they don't think the weapon can 'look cool' and still have that. Kudos to the Helldivers creators for breaking that ceiling and others. This was obviously a labor of love for sci-fi nerds.

[sirilluminarthevaliant]

About the cape capes actually serve several purposes. It protects the rear joins of the armor. It breaks up the silhouette making it harder to identify a man shaped object at distance. (Most of them are black or grey making them a multipurpose low-end ghillie suit) and it serves as a identification making