History VideoGame / Helldivers

''Helldivers'' is a top down shooter game developed by Arrowhead Game Studios, the creators of ''VideoGame/{{Magicka}}''. In ''Helldivers'', the players need to learn to coordinate their actions during chaotic combat game play, to succeed in combat and to avoid friendly fire casualties.

The dystopian universe of ''Helldivers'' has mankind ruled by a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy managed democracy]] where the outcome of elections are more predictable. The improved democracy has become more than a way of electing a government, it has become a creed which the brainwashed inhabitants fight for - without fully acknowledging what it means. In the year 2084, the capital of this new society, Super Earth, is beset on all sides by the Bugs, Cyborgs and the Illuminates, three hostile enemy races that, according to the government, need to be exterminated if humanity's "peaceful" democracy could ever hope to prosper. The three

The dystopian universe of ''Helldivers'' has mankind ruled by a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy managed democracy]] where the outcome of elections are more predictable. The improved democracy has become more than a way of electing a government, it has become a creed which the brainwashed inhabitants fight for - without fully acknowledging what it means. In the year 2084, the capital of this new society, Super Earth, is beset on all sides by three hostile enemy races that, according to the government, need to be exterminated if humanity's "peaceful" democracy could ever hope to prosper.

* MiniMecha: The EXO-44 Walker mech, along with its variants the EXO-48 Obsidian and EXO-51 Lumberer. Slower than Helldivers on foot, but more heavily armored and equipped with ''much'' heavier firepower.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The Illuminates are described in their Encylopedia entries as originally being an aquatic race. Their homeworld, Squ'bai Shrine, isn't a planet which is one gigantic ocean like [[Franchise/StarWars Kamino]] as one might be lead to expect--it's just a normal forest planet with some movement-obstructing marshes.

* {{BFG}}: The AC-22 "Dum-Dum" Autocannon is a 20mm gun so big you have to mount it on your ''shoulder'' while standing completely still in order to even aim and fire it, and its armory description mentions that it's normally intended to be mounted on an APC or other vehicle. It cuts through medium-armored enemies like a knife through butter, and also happens to be one of the precious few non-AT weapons capable of doing discernable damage to Enemy Masters.

* LoadingScreen: In-Game justification type. When loading a mission, the [[DropPod Hellpods]] are shown leaving the ship, and the loading time is presumably the time it takes to make planetfall. [[note]]"Did you know that tips are shown on loading screens?" [[/note]]

* MarathonLevel: Retaliation missions can take upwards of 30 minutes despite their only objective being "Kill X number of enemies" due to just how ''many'' enemies you need to kill, and part of the mission type's challenge is the endurance and persistence required to carry your squad through an unrelenting half hour of non-stop combat.

** The Illuminate is a highly advanced alien species that had, supposedly, great weapons of mass destruction that Super Earth wanted and, [[RunningGag sensing a pattern here]], used it as pretext for war. The Illuminate are intellectual-based SocialDarwinists that are all too happy to use those WMD's against Super Earth for doing this.

* ThrowAwayGuns: Both games feature the EAT-17 Expendable Anti-Tank stratagem. It calls down two rocket launchers pre-loaded with a single rocket powerful enough to punch through tank grade armor and deliver a OneHitKill to anything that isn't an [[BossBattle enemy master]] or Bile Titan. After shooting off the rocket, Helldivers will immediately toss the used up EAT onto the ground, letting them pick up the other one, or use a different support weapon. The first game also received the [=MGX-42=] fairly late in the release cycle, a 300-round machinegun operating off the 'metal storm' principle of stacked, electronically-fired caseless ammunition in an array of barrels.

* AmmunitionBackpack: The RL-112 Recoilless Rifle and the MLS-4X 'Commando' are shoulder fired launchers that come with an ammunition backpack that is required to reload them, which takes a while... unless the backpack is carried by somebody other than the shooter, who can reload the weapon ''much'' faster than the user would. The sequel expands this with the Autocannon and Spear Anti-Tank Missile Launcher.
** Honorable mention to the Resupply Pack, which is a backpack holding ammunition for use by the wearer's teammates. In ''II'', it's up to the user to give out the charges instead (and they can use them themselves).

** The R-112 Recoilless Rifle. Sure, it's nothing fancy like some of the DLC AT weapons, but it's still a big-ass reusable bazooka that can OneHitKill any HeavilyArmoredMook it needs to, and sometimes that's all that's required.

* {{BFG}}: The AC-22 "Dum-Dum" Autocannon is a gun so big you have to mount it on your ''shoulder'' while standing completely still in order to even aim and fire it, and its armory description mentions that it's normally intended to be mounted on an APC or other vehicle. It cuts through medium-armored enemies like a knife through butter, and also happens to be one of the precious few non-AT weapons capable of doing discernable damage to Enemy Masters.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Aside from the Illuminate, who at worst lean towards "survival of the smartest" if their enemy bio is true, the enemy factions spell out grim consequences for all organic life. The Cyborgs genuinely seem to think nothing of getting their members to rip off loads of their flesh for progressions in their ranks, and the Bugs... Well, they're the Swarm, and they clearly do spread like wildfire. Sure, Super Earth might be full of brainwashed masses, but it's a hell of a lot better than most of the other alternatives.

* BoringButPractical: The game gives you more than a dozen perks to customize your character with. The most practical, given how helpful it is in avoiding friendly fire incidents, is the LaserSight you start out with - enough so that it's become a default feature for most primary weapons in the sequel.

* EmergentGameplay: Invoked by the developers. One of the ''Helldivers'' series' defining attributes is its Galactic Campaign system, which encourages but does not force players to complete specific objectives on specific planets for the chance to temporarily knock an enemy faction out of the war, [[AndYourRewardIsClothes rewarding everyone who participated with unique cosmetics]]. This is intentionally done as a way of creating player-lead "stories" that drive the game's overall narrative.