How in Sweet Liberty's name are you supposed to spread Managed Democracy across the stars without some epic tunes to back you up? The Helldivers series features a wealth of excellent triumphant military-esque orchestral music heavily inspired by the work of those such as Basil Poledouris (most obviously "Klendathu Drop") and Hans Zimmer.
Helldivers
- The title theme
feels like a perfect anthem for the perfect utopia that is Super Earth! - You and your squad are surrounded on all sides by those who would dare to oppose Super Earth and Managed Democracy. You only need to hold out for ninety seconds before the escape shuttle touches down. Get ready to Hold the Line as the extraction theme plays. It takes the original title theme and turns it into an epic last stand tune.
- Level 9+ Bug Missions get possibly the most intense and fear-inducing BGM in the entire game. The thunderous percussion and terrified, feverish melody transport you directly into the mind of a Helldiver surrounded on all sides by endlessly-spawning Brood Commanders and Behemoths. At a certain point it even incorporates Bug hissing into the track itself which totally sells the feeling that you're being entirely overwhelmed by Bugs. But then, just when hope is all but faded, the brass section comes in to deliver a rousing, uplifting feeling and fills you with the strength to say "NO!" and blow that swarm of Brood Commanders into chunky salsa.
- All the mixes of the Illuminate Battle Theme Music incorporate some level of eerie synthesizers, but the Level 9+ variant is where their use becomes truly pulse-pounding. The main Raygun Gothic-style, Mars Attacks!-y melodies combined with the violent, urgent strings and intense percussion track make fighting against the technologically super-advanced Illuminates feel even more daunting than it already is.
- The enemy master themes are slower, more intimidating and menacing variants of their respective faction's combat theme. It perfectly encapsulates the dangers that these massive threats to liberty are. The masters are Hive Lord for the Bugs, Siege Mech for the Cyborgs, and the Great Eye for the Illuminates.
Helldivers II
- A Cup Of Liber-Tea is basically asking new players "Are you ready to do your duty for democracy and Super Earth?", while telling veterans of the first game "Welcome back. Are you ready to take up arms once more?". Incorporating parts of the first game's theme, while also establishing its own identity, it sets the tone of what the game is about. It also plays every time the drop pod is launched to the planet you'll be in action, which never gets old.
- The extraction theme does the same for its main theme, and it's arguably MORE epic than the one from the first game!
- The sequel's Automaton Marching Cadence is an intimidating battle march, sounding like something that wouldn't be out of place in Medieval Europe, but being sung by dozens of giant war robots, leading to it being a major factor in terrifying players on the field when they hear the march approaching...or hearing it suddenly stop and realizing they've been spotted.
- The Super Earth Anthem is a rather fittingly bombastic tune for a militaristic dictatorship. Raising the Flag of Super Earth is an instrumental version that sounds like something straight out of the World War I and World War II era.
- Stratagem Hero uses segments of the original Helldivers' theme whenever the next round starts. Put them together, and you get a tribute to the original song.
