#67 - HELLDIVERS II

Greetings, fellow Helldivers!

Do you love Democracy? Freedom? Liberty? Are you willing to do your part in the service of Super Earth? Then join the Helldivers today! And let FREEDOM "rain" from above!

...Would you like to know more?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. The game franchise HELLDIVERS takes the campy pro-military satire from the film Starship Troopers (1997) and cranks it up to 11. That film, interestingly enough, was based on a book of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, which was actual pro-military propaganda.

Heinlein published his science fiction book in 1959, in the early days of the Cold War, and it was meant to reinforce the fascist idea that aggressive and proactive military strength and dominance is the only way a society can thrive. He was very critical of how soft the US was against the communist China and the USSR in those days. The '90s film took his propaganda piece and turned it into over-the-top pro-military satire, which I personally think makes it much better. And this is coming from a guy who served for 20 years in the US military.

In the HELLDIVERS games, you play an expendable recruit of Super Earth, defending your home world at the center of the known galaxy from any outside threats. And you do this by invading their home worlds and "bringing Democracy" to their doorstep. A good defense is a strong offense, am I right?

Why am I focusing on HELLDIVERS II specifically? Because it's exactly the same as the first game, except it's a third-person shooter instead of the top-down shooter of the first game. It's a lot more immersive to be in the thick of battle, covered in blood, alien bug guts, and rag-dolled across the map by explosions and rockets and friendly fire from your teammates. In the first game, you just control a small figure from above the map. I might as well be playing Age of Empires at that point.

The game starts with you going through Helldiver Training, a sort of boot camp to qualify you to be a Helldiver for Super Earth. A shuttle drops you at a remote landing pad outside the training facility, where a sign encourages you to use your embedded map display to find the facility.

Finding your way across the terrain, you reach the training facility, where General Brasch invites you in for your formal training. Boy, this takes me back to my own military training back in the day...

Although unlike my real-world military training, this one includes live-fire exercises. You're trained to dive to the ground (with the Alt button) to avoid deadly fire.

During your gameplay, you'll take significantly less damage if you're hit while diving to the ground, so dive for cover often! Sometimes it's the best way to survive being overrun by enemies. Hit the dirt!

General Brasch instructs you to use a battlefield injury simulator. I wonder how this works...

OUCH! DAMMIT! Right in the sternum!

Quick, use a stim (V key) before you bleed out! This is how you'll heal yourself on the battlefield. Although I can't help but notice it's not a "health" product, but a "stimulant" product. Meaning you're likely just stabbing yourself with a syringe of pure adrenaline. Why do I get the feeling that health plans are non-existent for Helldivers...?

Finally, you come across your first alien bug. Known as Terminids, this ruthless species will hunt you down and slice you up before you can draw your weapon. One is released from the tunnel in front of you and you're encouraged to take it out with a handgun provided on the range.

You will also be given grenades and encouraged to throw one down the tube to close it. In battle, you'll find tunnels to underground bug nests all over the map. If you want to stop the infinite swarm of bugs, you need to throw a grenade down those tunnels and seal them off.

On the next range, you're introduced to the Super Destroyer, a massive spaceship in low orbit that will provide supporting stratagems for you to use. This Super Destroyer is also your transportation across the galaxy on your way to various missions.

If you hold Ctrl, it will open your stratagems menu in the top left of your screen. Each stratagem has a series of arrows next to them pointing up, down, left, and/or right. While holding Ctrl, press your WASD keys in the order the arrows designate and if you accomplish it successfully, the Super Destroyer will deploy that specific stratagem to the location you designate. In this case, I requested an orbital precision strike and threw the marker into the middle of a group of Terminids:

The only good bug is a dead bug!

Stratagems can also be used to call in advanced weapons or equipment for use in the field, resupplies of ammo and stims, and even reinforcements when your team members die on the battlefield.

Oh yeah, when you die (and you will die a lot), the Helldivers will just send more bodies to replace you. Canonically, you die and a new Helldiver takes your place in the field. But you continue to play that replacement, and they happen to have the same equipment loadout and gear as you did. So you're not removed from the gameplay because of a simple thing like death. As long as there are reinforcements (and your teammates remember to call them in), you get to stay in the action!

There are a limited number of reinforcements in each mission, so don't get yourself killed too often. But the game revels in the concept that Helldivers are just bodies to throw into battle until Super Earth wins. You are literally cannon fodder, a nameless body chucked haphazardously at the enemy for the Greater Good. So do your best to stay alive as long as possible!

Finally, you approach a terminal where you will input a command to free the Super Earth Flag and ceremoniously plant it in the ground. You will approach these terminals in the field quite a lot, so this is practice for booting it up and inputting commands. Which, again, are pretty much just WASD directions. They keep it so simple, any Helldiver can do it!

You've planted the Super Earth flag and saluted it, but two tunnels opened up and allowed Terminids into the area! Defend the flag and kill those bugs!

Finally, you've completed your graduation requirements! You enter the Graduation Chamber, which also has your Contract of Employment etched into stone on either side. Give it a read if you have a moment; it's quite ridiculous what you're agreeing to.

Or if you're anxious to start your enlistment, skip the fine print and go don your official cape! It's on display at the other end of the chamber. You can't call yourself a super hero of Super Earth without a cape, right?

Now quickly, go out the back door and jump into a cryogenic pod so you can be delivered to your first Super Destroyer. There's an active war going on and you're needed on the front lines!

Boy, that was a quick basic training! Only took maybe 15-20 minutes and you're already off to battle. I joined the US Air Force back in the day, which has the shortest basic training of all our branches of the military, and I still needed 6-1/2 weeks of training before I graduated! (With honors, I might add.)

You will get the opportunity to name your Super Destroyer in the format of "SES [blank] of [blank]." Fill in the two blanks from a long list of names. It doesn't really do anything, it's just a cool immersive feature. It will be printed on the side of your Super Destroyer, which you will see every time there's a cutscene of your ship from the outside. You can change its name at any time. Here's mine in the foreground; my teammates' ships in the background.

Once you're on board, you will have the option to purchase more advanced capabilities and resources of your Super Destroyer, spending Requisition Slips earned from completed missions, and "samples" you find on planet surfaces. There's a terminal off to one side for this.

In the narrow walkway leading to the bridge, you'll find several terminals where you can customize your character. Custom Helldiver uniforms, basic weapon loadouts, titles, emotes, etc. You can also buy upgrades for your basic weapons as you level them up from use on the battlefield.

To start a mission, run up to the bridge and select the giant map in the middle of the room. There are currently three major threats to Super Earth in the galaxy: the Terminids (alien bug race), Automatons (cyborg race), and the Illuminate (squid-like alien humanoid race).

Every player in the world is contributing toward the same in-game objectives, so every mission you complete moves humanity slightly closer to total domination over the galaxy. The numbers to the left of the galaxy map are actual live gamer statistics. Pick a sector infested by your chosen enemy, then select a planet in that region to find missions to complete.

Don't forget to select a difficulty at the bottom of the map. There are currently 10 difficulty levels, and you need to complete each level in order to unlock the next one.

Extreme (#6) is my preferred difficulty at the moment, and the first level that grants you access to all three types of samples you can find on planets. You won't be able to continue upgrading your Super Destroyer unless you can collect all three types of samples, so get out there and tough it out!

You can also hit Tab to find ongoing missions. These are teams of Helldivers (i.e. real players) actively in missions that you can join. You can play co-op with up to 4 people on a team. I highly recommend playing with others; it's extremely difficult to complete missions solo, especially in higher difficulty levels.

You will earn medals for successful completion of each mission. The number of medals (and the number of missions per region) go up with your difficulty level.

Medals are another currency you can spend for new uniforms, weapons, etc. in your Acquisitions menu (R button). You can only hold 250 medals at a time, so spend those awards!

Once you have a team and the team leader has picked a mission, everyone needs to report to a hellpod at the bow of the ship. These are bullet-shaped pods which will be launched at the planet surface, safely and effectively deploying you into the combat zone in mere seconds.

Once inside the hellpods, your team leader needs to select a landing zone on the map, and then everyone can select their individual stratagem loadouts for this particular mission. Once everyone is ready, your team will be launched.

I love that the Helldiver way of deploying troops into battle is to literally shoot them in human-sized bullets at the planet. It's very symbolic of the finesse at which Super Earth approaches Democracy across the galaxy.

Enjoy the random tips and trivia that pop up during this loading screen. And also rock out to that patriotic orchestral music! Nothing gets me more hyped for battle than the soundtrack for this game! This loading screen music is called "A Cup of Liber-tea" by Wilbert Roget, II.

Once you land on the surface, you'll have a limited amount of time to complete your chosen mission. Most missions are a max of 40 minutes, but you'll occasionally find a brief 12 or 15 minute mission. Hustle toward your objectives! Those 40 minutes will pass quickly if you're distracted with the infinite waves of enemies patrolling for you.

Once your mission timeline ends, your Super Destroyer will leave the region without you, leaving you stranded on the planet with no stratagems to back you up. That means no more resupplies, no more advanced weapons, and no more heavy strikes from low orbit.

You can stay as long as you like, but you will quickly start running out of supplies as the hordes of enemies close in on you. So hurry up and finish the mission! A shuttle will come pick you up from an extraction point when you're done and ready to evacuate.

Remember to have fun out there! Take advantage of explosives and end threats quickly and efficiently from afar.

Do whatever it takes to complete your mission, regardless of the odds stacked against you! Come on, you apes! You wanna live forever?!

If you happen to find SEAF soldiers running around a battlefield (usually only found in Mega Cities), throw them a salute (B button) and they'll return it, then follow you and provide cover fire. Form your own NPC battalion!

Note: They are extremely expendable and will go down in a hit or two. You will also lose Requisition Slips for every SEAF casualty under your command. So carefully consider... are their lives worth the potential loss in pay?

When you return from a successful mission, you'll get mission stats to compare between players. Categories marked in yellow are the (subjectively) best scores amongst the team.

How the hell did Pink get 5,000 friendly fire damage against the team?! I've never seen that number so high! That would explain the number of deaths throughout this mission...

So enlist today! Join the Helldivers and save Super Earth from the oppressive forces of the Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminate! Service guarantees citizenship.

#59 - Far Cry 5

Welcome back! For my next screenshot-laden game discussion, I'm going to be talking about my favorite of the Far Cry series, Far Cry 5.

The original Far Cry was released in 2004 by Crytek to demonstrate the expansive capabilities of their brand-new CryEngine. As such, it was more of a tech demo than a solid video game title. Sure, it had a story and missions to complete, but it was mainly focused on showing off long-distance outdoors scenery, something that was difficult to render in those days. The game took place on a lush green tropical island and pushed computer hardware of the time to the limits of their functionality.

Ubisoft quickly bought up the Far Cry franchise from Crytek and proceeded to remake the original game, including several direct spin-offs/sequels of it, all for consoles. These were severely limited due to console hardware at the time, so they were far more linear and lower quality than the original open world PC game.

Crytek, meanwhile, made a deal with EA to develop a whole new game called Crysis, which would become famous for having realistic physics rendering and graphics far beyond consumer PCs' capabilities. Crysis would become the benchmark for high-end computers for many years afterward. But that's a game discussion for another time...

When it came time to make a true numerical sequel to Far Cry, Ubisoft decided they needed to get away from the tropical jungle setting. A lot of games at the time were focusing on that setting, including the new Crysis franchise. Plus, they felt like the main character from Far Cry just wasn't interesting enough to become the face of the franchise. So Far Cry 2 was actually a completely new game, with a new story, a new protagonist, and set in an unnamed African nation.

And thus began Ubisoft's trend of resetting the whole franchise with each new title. So jumping to the 2018 title Far Cry 5 isn't skipping any important story or background; it's an original standalone game. Although Far Cry: New Dawn is a direct sequel to this game; don't play it unless you want spoilers to the ending of Far Cry 5.

If you want a cool intro to Far Cry 5, Steam has a free 30-minute video called Far Cry 5: Inside Eden's Gate. It's a live-action prologue, following three people (one of which is a vlogger) who attempt to infiltrate the Eden's Gate cult. They meet with a local man who claims his sister just abandoned her home and joined the cult. She's changed, dedicating her whole life to the cult's religious beliefs, and refuses to come home. This video shows how people are brainwashed into joining Eden's Gate, as well as how news of the cult spread outside of Hope County, Montana, which brings us to the intro of the game.

Far Cry 5 begins with clips of a documentary talking about Eden's Gate, a dangerous cult in the fictional Hope County, Montana. They discuss how the cult started buying up land, then the local radio station, then even the cops. Before the locals realized it, Eden's Gate was in control of all of Hope County. They're a militant religious doomsday cult, preparing for the End Times, which they believe is coming soon. Their leader, Joseph Seed, is worshiped by the cult followers as a prophet. He's also known as "The Father."

We cut to you riding in a helicopter over Hope County. You play a rookie deputy to the local sheriff's department, accompanying a U.S. Marshal. You, the Hope County Sheriff, and another local deputy, are escorting the U.S. Marshal to an Eden's Gate compound. The sheriff keeps mentioning "Peggies," which he explains is what they call the cult followers here.

Your helicopter lands in the compound and you find yourself in a tense situation. Peggies are everywhere and not happy at your presence. The four of you nervously walk up to the church in the compound and let yourselves in, approaching Joseph Seed at the altar as he gives his congregation a dangerous sermon.

Despite the sheriff trying to keep the situation calm, the hot-headed U.S. Marshal walks up to Joseph and thrusts a warrant for his arrest in his face, demanding he turn himself in. The crowd gets agitated and you suddenly find yourself surrounded by angry, armed Peggies... until Joseph himself calms them down. He tells them that it's all right, they planned for this, and he will NOT be taken. He then offers himself up for capture.

Now, here's an opportunity to play a secret (and quick) ending to this game. You can choose not to cuff Joseph at this point and instead walk away. If you do, the sheriff will comment that it's best to leave the cult alone and that the team would likely die if they attempted to arrest Joseph anyway.

But then we wouldn't have a game to play, so... you cuff Joseph and escort him back to the helicopter. The Peggies outside are highly agitated at this turn of events and the closer to the helicopter you get, the more tense the situation gets.

You strap Joseph into the helicopter and are prepared for takeoff, but the Peggies don't want you to leave with him. They start jumping on the helicopter and the team is forced to fight them off as they lift off into the air. One climbs over the windshield and into the blades, causing the helicopter to come crashing down!

You awake to find Joseph recovering from the crash. He calls off support over the radio, then tells you, "I told you God wouldn't let you take me." He gives you a grave warning:

Peggies gather around Joseph as he rallies them toward action. Which begins by taking you and your team captive.

The Peggies manage to grab the deputy, but a burst of flames from the helicopter holds them back long enough for you to unhook yourself and bolt into the woods. You run from shouting and gunfire, quickly learning how to hide in the foliage and silently pick off stragglers.

Arming yourself, you meet up with the U.S. Marshal in a trailer house, where you have a stand-off with a wave of Peggies. Hopelessly outnumbered, the U.S. Marshal jumps into a pickup truck and instructs you to ride shotgun and keep the Peggies off your tail. Thus ensues an action-packed car chase, through blockades, gunning down trucks and ATVs filled with Peggies, and even an airplane armed to the teeth!

Despite your best efforts, the U.S. Marshal ends up crashing the truck into a river. He's captured by Peggies, but some stranger fishes you out of the river downstream. You wake up in a bunker, facing an older guy who calls himself Dutch.

He explains that your coming was prophesied by Eden's Gate and it's set off "The Collapse." Basically, they think society is on the brink of destruction now, so they're leaning hardcore into their plans to secure Hope County. All roads are blocked, all signals in and out of the valley are cut. We're completely isolated out here. And now they're going to force all the locals to "save themselves" and convert to their cult... or die.

Dutch tells you to change clothes so he can burn your uniform. It's just going to make you a target from now on, so best to get rid of it. This is your first opportunity to customize your character's appearance and clothing outside of just picking a gender.

When you find Dutch, he's hanging out in a sort of war room of the bunker, with an information board on the wall showcasing the four leaders of Eden's Gate. You can read the bios on all four of them at this point. There are the three brothers: Joseph, Jacob, and John Seed. Then the "sister" Faith, a woman who mysteriously showed up one day to join their family. Joseph is leader over all of Eden's Gate, while each sibling controls a region of Hope County.

Dutch's bunker is on an island between all three regions of the map. He sends you out to help him clear Peggies off his island before you set off to build a resistance and liberate all three regions of Hope County. Every mission you complete, whether it's part of the main story or side missions, helps to free more citizens in a region and build a stronger resistance against the Eden's Gate leader in that region.

Once you clear the island, you're free to go anywhere on the map you desire. There are three main quest lines for you to follow, one per region. They will eventually lead to toppling the leader of that region, which you have to accomplish before you can go after Joseph himself. Or you can just explore anywhere and knock out any side quests or other objectives you come across. You can also rescue and hire resistance members to follow you and help out.

While approaching enemies, it's best to first look at them down your sights or through binoculars to tag them, so you can follow them no matter where they go in the area. You can even tag objectives in an area, to help you plan your strategy accordingly.

You get bonus points for clearing missions undetected, so I highly recommend the stealth approach. You can sneak up and break enemies' necks or use silenced weapons from afar. My preferred weapon of choice is the bow and arrow. No one ever hears it coming! Just remember to hide bodies, because roaming patrols will alert a whole compound if they find a body. And some compounds have alarms that will draw in reinforcements. Make sure to disable the alarms before assaulting a compound, or take out anyone running to set off the alarm.

This game also includes hunting and fishing, as you need supplies to trade, barter, and survive in the wild. The wildlife in this game is very diverse, and some deadly if you're not careful. I've been bitten by several snakes and my only warning was a rattling sound just before they struck. The sound effects are not just ambient noise! Pay attention to them!

If you lose all your health, you pass out and get a cutscene of being captured by the leader of whatever region you're in. They go over how they're going to "free you of sin" in their own sick twisted way, before you're shipped off to a detention center.

But your prisoner transport is ambushed by the local resistance and you manage to escape! Then you have to fight through the internment camp, clear it of Peggies, then survive wave after wave of Peggies before a rescue helicopter comes for you. Only then can you go back to exploring the map. So losing all your health (without a resistance member nearby to quickly revive you) is kind of an ordeal.

I really like that they include this gameplay in the game. It allows the story to continue, so there's no actual death of the player. And it ties into the lore of the game while making you work to get back on track with your mission; a sort of entertaining punishment for failing to survive. It's much more creative than just showing a "Game Over" screen and then resetting you at your last save point, and it gives you motivation to stay alive and not just accept a quick defeat.

These same prison vans can be found driving all over the map and you can assault them and free the captive locals inside. After being captured once yourself, you'll likely feel the need to chase after every prison van you see afterward. No one should be subjected to that torture!

I absolutely love the visuals in this game! The forested mountainous region of Montana is absolutely gorgeous and they do an excellent job showcasing it, especially if you have a computer than can max out this game's graphics. Here are a few screenshots of my actual gameplay in the world, no cutscenes involved. Open them in a new window to enjoy their full 4K quality:

I guess this game resonates with me because I used to be extremely religious in my youth. I even carried a pocket Bible with me everywhere I went and would quote scriptures as I felt they applied to situations. My friends all voted me most likely to become a pastor one day.

But I was also a very curious person who loved to learn and study new things. I wanted to understand the Bible as much as I could. And when I started to find contradictions and inconsistencies in my Bible, I turned to my pastor and congregation for answers. But I received a resounding "have faith; don't question the Lord" dismissal, from pretty much everyone. The more I looked into it, the more problems I found, and the less friendly my religious community got about helping me resolve it.

After giving the Bible a full read from cover to cover, I discovered that it was an awful book full of glorified rape, torture, infanticide, bestiality, war, incest, as well as plenty of other horrifying topics, all sanctioned by God. It's no wonder we cherry-pick passages every Sunday! There are too many stories that aren't church-friendly in that book. You can't do a straight reading of the Bible without losing your congregation. I turned atheist pretty quick and learned to apply critical thinking and logic in the future instead of blindly trusting something to be true.

This game is all about the extreme end of that religious faith. Joseph Seed is considered a prophet, supposedly given direct communications from God about an upcoming apocalypse and how His chosen few can survive. Joseph's methods are based on the concept of "the ends justify the means." He will do whatever it takes to save "his people," even if it means violently kidnapping, torturing, and brainwashing them.

Even worse, the way the four Seed siblings preach to their congregation, the serene country/gospel music, even the way cult members worship, all remind me of my church-going days. Which were very happy, nostalgic days for me. So I personally feel this nostalgic pull toward this very evil cult and I have to remind myself that this cult is doing an excellent job in making it seem so appealing.

Joseph Seed is what happens when a cult is designed to dominate a culture and indoctrinate all its citizens, and this game is a good look at this kind of world from an outsider, trapped within it. It is a terrifying concept, but all the more fun to play a protagonist who is able to resist and fight back against this fascist takeover of an indoctrinated region. Which seems rather relevant in today's world.

If/when you find Boomer, make sure to give him lots of pets! He's a very good boy.