GAMES HELLDIVERS 2

Boom raiders…

★★★★★ OUT NOW PC, PS5

DAEDALIC, DIGITAL ECLIPSE, SONY

Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers has been a pervasive influence on video games for a quarter of a century, though none of the film’s various adaptations has yet managed to recapture its heady blend of militaristic satire and spectacular alien-blasting action. This explosive sequel to Arrowhead Game Studios’ likeable but little-discussed 2015 squad-based shooter gets about as close as any game has. You’re part of the eponymous group, sent by the Federation of Super Earth to spread ‘managed democracy’ throughout the galaxy – with, as an introductory video puts it, ‘the gentle touch of an iron fist’. Perhaps mindful of the early reactions to Verhoeven’s film, it’s clear from the outset that Helldivers 2 is taking no chances with its satire. The action is similarly heavy-handed by design: the camera may have shifted from the original’s bird’s-eye view to a more conventional thirdperson perspective but it otherwise retains the same rhythm, heft and purposeful frictions. You can’t jump, for example, but you can dive, and there’s no automatic reload.

Friendly fire, meanwhile, is as deadly a threat as any of your opponents, forcing your group to coordinate their movements carefully – far from easy in the thick of Helldivers 2’s breathless action. Taking careful aim at an enemy’s weak point, you’re no more likely to land a clean shot than to watch in horror as your bullet unerringly finds the head of Taking on giant alien bugs while spreading ‘managed democracy’ in Helldivers 2 a teammate running backwards to escape the clutches of an outsized alien bug.

The Federation might have hoped to send Earth’s best and brightest, but what follows often suggests your team of expendables are the planet’s worst and dimmest. Devastating ‘stratagems’ - which involve pulling off deliberately complex input commands in the heat of the moment - often go horribly wrong. You might be flattened by the robot you’ve just blown up as it topples forward onto you, or even crushed by a squadmate’s drop pod. That baked-in clumsiness naturally produces a slew of hilarious anecdotes. Yet the catastrophes make the victories feel all the more triumphant – when you somehow stumble back to the extraction point, bloodied but still alive, even a low mission rating can do nothing to diminish the high.

Little wonder so many players have already signed up for the cause. Assuming Arrowhead can iron out the connection problems of Helldivers 2’s early weeks (an inevitable by-product of its surprise success), this sensational shooter could be the year’s most unlikely awards contender.