History VideoGame / HelldiversII

* GameplayGrading: A much more complicated system than in ''VideoGame/{{Helldivers}}''; the total amount of stars it's possible to earn on a mission is now five instead of three, and in addition to rewarding the returning stipulations of having a low total death count and completing every objective, it now also rewards things like [[SpeedrunReward finishing the mission quickly]] and completing all side objectives. Since liberating planets is no longer two or three missions packaged together, this also means that Community Influence is no longer gained from getting a high grade (it only awards more EXP) and instead solely the difficulty of the mission is converted into a percentage of total Planet Liberation.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: ''Helldivers II'' is a bit more explicit about the satirical aspect of Super Earth and how it is [[SubvertedTrope pretty much just another shade of black]], likely to make sure the satire was more clear. Various in-game tool tips, notes, and so forth openly talk about many oppressive actions Super Earth takes on its own people and in the ways in which it actively endangers them for dubious benefit or are clearly designed to benefit a select few such as: employing child as young as 7 for the war effort, requiring government approval before any action that might result in a child, farming the terminds for resources (which, given the resultant E-710 comes spewing out of the ground like oil, implies raising the bugs, then mass slaughtering them before burying them in mass graves), utilizing front loading guns... on spaceships, any given Helldiver mission costing more than a Liberty-class cruiser (a bigger ship than the Super Destroyers the Helldivers use), and perhaps the most obvious, knowingly continuing the Helldiver program despite knowing that survival rates for Helldiver training are only around 20%, with the program lasting less than a day and taking in around 48,000 trainees a day, meaning an average of 38,000 people die each day in training alone. In addition, the Cyborgs have been replaced by their creations, the Automatons, and giving how their motive is [[UndyingLoyalty saving their creators by any means]], one could make an argument that ''they're'' the Grey in this, mainly failing to be considered the White because you can find things like the corpses of civilians locked in cages in their bases.

* The Element 710 which allows for Faster-Than-Light Travel. If [[CalculatorSpelling you rotate '710' 180 degrees, it looks like "OIL"]], which is exactly what it's an allegory for.
* Super Earth has declared the current conflict the "Galactic War on Tyranny" ([[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror GWOT]]).

* The entire game is one to the futility and impotence of American imperialism, but special mention goes to the [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777058473311625238 "Mission Accomplished" poster]] following the [[DontCelebrateJustYet alleged]] victory over the Automatons. The phrase used and how flagrantly it was [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777665666654306566 invalidated just two days later]] make it an obvious jab at the "Mission Accomplished" speech by George W. Bush during the Iraq War.
* After a series of failures to stop the Automatons and Terminids, Super Earth declared that they were declaring a [[PunnyName Galactic War on Tyranny]] ([[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror GWOT]]), and that all fighting up to this point had merely been a "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_conducting_a_special_military_operation special military operation]]."

* PunnyName: The Element 710 which allows for Faster-Than-Light Travel. If [[CalculatorSpelling you rotate '710' 180 degrees, it looks like "OIL"]], which is exactly what it's an allegory for.

* TakeThat: The entire game is one to the futility and impotence of American imperialism, but special mention goes to the [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777058473311625238 "Mission Accomplished" poster]] following the [[DontCelebrateJustYet alleged]] victory over the Automatons. The phrase used and how flagrantly it was [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777665666654306566 invalidated just two days later]] make it an obvious jab at the "Mission Accomplished" speech by George W. Bush during the Iraq War.

* TheTurretMaster: Players can ve this if they so choose once they've unlocked enough turret strategems to fill out their list. Each turret has its own cooldown time so they can be paced out or all in the same area. Despite this its not recommended to go all in on turrets without team coordination as support weapons and strikes can save a Helldiver a lot of bother if used right and enemies tend to piroitize turrets once close enough as well as turrets not caring who's in the way meaning if you're not extra careful its all too easy for Helldivers and friendly turrets to get shot by an abundance of turrets.

* TakeThat:
** The entire game is one to the futility and impotence of American imperialism, but special mention goes to the [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777058473311625238 "Mission Accomplished" poster]] following the [[DontCelebrateJustYet alleged]] victory over the Automatons. The phrase used and how flagrantly it was [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777665666654306566 invalidated just two days later]] make it an obvious jab at the "Mission Accomplished" speech by George W. Bush during the Iraq War.

* MiniMecha: The EXO-45 Patriot Suit. Slower than Helldivers on foot, but more heavily armored and equipped with ''much'' heavier firepower.
* LosingYourHead: Downplayed with some Terminids, which can still function for one [[LastBreathBullet last charge and attack]] even if their heads have been blown off, before dying shortly after.

** The primary colours of the SEAF are black and gold/yellow, which are also the colours of [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism anarchocapitalism]], an ultra-libertarian ideology advanced by political economists like Murray Rothbard. It's probably not a coincidence that the Federation represents what critics of anarchocapitalism tend to argue is its natural and inevitable failure-state - a spectacularly FascistButInefficient [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism corporatist]] dictatorship that uses 'freedom' and 'prosperity' as hollow bludgeons to attack its enemies.

* TakeThat: The entire game is one to the futility and impotence of American imperialism, but special mention goes to the [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777058473311625238 "Mission Accomplished" poster]] following the [[DontCelebrateJustYet alleged]] victory over the Automatons. The phrase used and how flagrantly it was [[https://twitter.com/helldivers2/status/1777665666654306566 invalidated just two days later]] make it an obvious jab at the "Mission Accomplished" speech by George W. Bush during the Iraq War.

** Averted, as your armour (but not your helmet or cape) now affects your Armour Rating, Move Speed, and Stamina Regeneration, along with carrying one of several Perks - such as Servo-Assisted, which increases your grenade & stratagem throw distance, and makes your limbs less likely to be wounded by attacks.
** Played straight, if unintentionally, by a bug affecting the earliest versions of the game that caused Armour Ratings to be ignored, meaning that all armour sets would take the same amount of damage regardless of weight class. Light Armour was thus the go-to for a while, since it gained all the speed benefits with none of the reduction in survivability it should have had.

* EarlyGameHell: At least, if you decide to start off fighting the Automatons rather than the Terminids. The Automatons are quite a large difficulty spike over the Terminids given their greater access to ranged weapons, heavy armor, and vehicles, and new Helldiver cadets don't have much access to armor piercing weapons that would be effective against them. Probably a big reason the initial campaign efforts focused on the Terminids, sidelining the war effort against the Automatons with comments about how the main Super Earth Armed Forces would be handling that front with limited deployment of the Helldivers essentially acting as special operations teams for critical objectives.

* HandCannon: Several sidearms count:
** The starting pistol, the P-2 Peacemaker, lives up to its namesake as a high damage, low rate of fire option
** The P-4 Senator available in the Steeled Veterans Premium Warbond leans even more heavily into this, being a [[RevolversAreJustBetter hugely damaging low capacity revolver]]
** The GP-31 Grenade Pistol is among the largest sidearms in the game, trading everything else for a single, high damage, grenade projectile.
** The P-113 Verdict has [[CompensatingForSomething the biggest caliber]] of any pistol. Unsurprisingly it is the game's obligatory Desert Eagle clone.

** The Orbital Railgun has a long recharge, 4 minutes, and only one shot on use that targets one enemy. That single shot, however, locks on to the tallest enemy near where the beacon landed and deals considerable damage with low risk of harming allies. Anything less than a bile spewer won't surivive, and even the superheavies will eat a chunk of damage. During normal play its great as a "get rid of hulk/charger free" card if you need the breathing room and very rarely misses the best target, although walkers might still be able trick to it, and it can hurt larger targets like spore spewers just as readily.

** The Orbital Railgun has a long recharge, 4 minutes, and only one shot on use that targets one enemy. That single shot, however, locks on to the tallest enemy near where the beacon landed and deals considerable damage with low risk of harming allies. Anything less than a bile spewer won't surivive, and even the superheavies will eat a chunk of damage. During normal play its great as a "get rid of hulk/charger free" card if you need the breathing room and very rarely misses the best target, although walkers might still be able trick it, and it can hurt larger targets like spore spewers just as readily.

* BadassFingerSnap: The Helldiver in the intro PropagandaPiece performs one, timed with a SmashCut with him going from civilian to Helldiver, and the music transitioning to the game's main theme.

* OneHitKill: The Spear is capable of downing a Bile Titan or Automaton tank in a singe hit, if the missile strikes the victim dead center.

* ShoutOut:
** There's a planet named "Klen Dahth II", a pun on "[[Franchise/StarshipTroopers Klendathu]]".
** You can actually name your Super Destroyer ''[[VideoGame/GearsOfWar The Hammer of Dawn]]''. Bonus points if you have the Orbital Laser stratagem to go with it.
** You can also name your Super Destroyer "[[Videogame/StarcraftIIWingsOfLiberty Wings of Liberty]]".
** The achievements in the sequel reference ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', ''Creator/MontyPython'', and ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' of all things.
** Inside the Lacaille and Kelvin Sectors are the planets [[VideoGame/AceCombat Lesath and Emeria]].
** One of the "reviews" that appears for items in the Acquisition Center is written by someone named [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Specctrei and reads as follows: "I'm [redacted] and this is my favorite product in the acquisition center!"]]
** Of course the AT-AT-esque Factory Striders were re-deployed en masse on [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack a snowy ice-planet]].
** The SC-30 Trailblazer Scout Armor has the Scout Armor chest piece from VideoGame/Halo3
** The SA-32 Dynamo Armor incorporates several elements of various Titan armors from {{VideoGame/Destiny}}
** The armors from the Polar Patriots Premium Warbond are all based on Star Wars designs. The Winter Warrior is a [[Film/RogueOne Shore Trooper]], the Kodiak is a [[Series/TheMandalorian Dark Trooper]], and the Arctic Ranger is a [[VideoGame/StarWarsKnightsOfTheOldRepublic Neo Crusader]]