Helldivers 2 has had a somewhat rough trot as of late. Between terrifying corporate mandates, review bombings and then some abrasive changes to fan-favourite weapons leading to the CEO stepping away from his desk and back into the development cycle, you’d be forgiven for being out of the loop on the larger galactic narrative.
But that narrative has marched on all the same – the efforts to quash the Terminds via industrial strength mega-insecticide has seemingly gone badly, to the degree that a key distribution planet of the bug spray turned into a super colony of the fiends. Many players expected that we’d likely just end up meat-grinding our way through the awful landscape to reclaim the planet, but in a shocking twist our military leaders admitted that the entire planet had to go.
All of it.
So players were tasked with dropping to the surface, and deploying unique drilling rigs to deposit experimental ‘Dark Fluid’ into the planets core. Enemy resistance was high (initially too high, to be honest) and eventually, the mission progress hit 100% for players.
What happened next was slightly more cinematic than what most expected – because Meridia was disposed of in fairly epic fashion:
VICTORY. Helldivers, thanks to your valiant efforts the Terminid Supercolony on Meridia has been eradicated.
— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) June 2, 2024
All it took was courage, determination, and the total collapse of the planet into a black hole. A brave sacrifice that has not seen any unforeseeable consequences. pic.twitter.com/STfTDHA8AO
Meridia did not quietly cease to exist, instead the Dark Fluid did it’s terrifying work and the bug super colony was gravitationally obliterated, leaving a terrifying void in its wake.
And that void is a stark reminder of what Super Earth is capable of if. Really puts the galactic war into perspective, when you consider the man power that goes into waging it – when there is every capability to wipe out a problematic planet.
As with all great major order outcomes however, there is a deep marbling of concern amongst the player base as to what will happen next. If Meridia simply ceased to be, most would laugh it off and move on – but the screaming void feels a little too obvious. It can’t be that simple. What could happened next?
Maybe we should have nuked the entire thing from orbit. Surely.
Do you have a similar feeling of unease that this is the start of something concerning? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
