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"It's the law."
Image Credits: Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2
Nearly two months after its launch, Helldivers 2 continues to see incredible success and has become the breakout game of 2024. Despite the initial issues, it continues to gain popularity, attracting new players. The developer Arrowhead keeps working on updates, constantly providing fans with new content, such as the recent addition of mechs which has gained mixed reception with fans quickly coming up with solutions for a fix and a better upgrade system.
Communication between the community and the developers is a big part of the Helldivers 2 phenomenon, as Arrowhead's CEO, Johan Pilestedt, often personally engages in online discussions and replies to fans' thoughts and opinions.
Recently, Helldivers 2 players have taken to Reddit to discuss how fun the friendly fire mechanic is and hope it remains part of the game. It's one of the most famous Helldivers 2 features, allowing players to kill their teammates which adds realism and a dark comedy feeling to it, in a classic gamer culture fashion. There's also an element of strategy, as you have to be very careful with bullets and explosions.
When asked about it directly by a Helldivers 2 player, Johan Pilestedt confirmed, that this mechanic "will never change", as if they turned off friendly fire they would also have to turn off bullet damage against enemies as well:
Image Credits: Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2
A while ago, Johan Pilestedt also brought up the friendly fire mechanic discussion in an interview with PlayStation and explained the reasoning behind it. In his opinion, friendly fire is a necessary part of inherently systematic rules in a world where you kill enemies but also allows a playfulness only a video game is capable of providing due to its virtual nature:
"The most important thing when we make games is believability. Things should be consistent in the game world and therefore, we must have friendly fire. If your bullets can kill enemies, and the enemies can kill you, then logic dictates that your bullets must also be able to kill your friends. This kind of design is inherently systematic, where we create a rule set that applies to everything in the game world, with minor exceptions.
What this does, and maybe most clearly noted by friendly fire, is create a complexity to the gameplay where players have to actively think during combat sequences – not in a 'solve the puzzle' way but instead in a very primal creative problem-solving way. Also, the chuckles that happen when you accidentally carpet bomb your friends allow for a playfulness that in reality would be a tragedy – but within the self-bounds of games we can explore the dark humor of these situations. And finally, the friendly fire element makes the players a true interactable part of the game world that plays a great part in positioning and helps with team play."
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