How do you guys not see this game's political angle

[The Pants]

MODS: Close this, everyone's just crazy in it now and most people didn't even read what I said in the first place

Like, straight up, since this is now the most popular shooter on steam there's a bunch of you brigading and botting to go "DON'T ADD THE GAY STUFF, KEEP THIS GAME POLITICS FREE AND NEUTRAL" and like... how do you not see it? I suppose you are all 13, which might explain some things.

This game completely takes the tone of Verhoven's Starship Troopers, which was an extrapolation of Reagan/Bush ur-fascism into a full on fascist state. Super Earth is confident in its superiority and corny in its optimism and enthusiasm. It fights for freedom, not just for itself, but for the whole galaxy. It's a force for good! But its clearly not. It says it cares for its people, but it throws them into meat grinders. It says it cares about democracy, but it's MANAGED democracy where certain groups of people are able to vote between certain options. It talks about its superior technology, but we can see that the Eagle doesn't look like a fancy sci-fi ship at all, our laser guns are full of tubes and circuits, and our turrets can't even track targets and differentiate between friend and foe.

The first Helldivers was far more clear about this, with it clear that the bugs weren't any threat to us before we started killing them because they could be ground up into oil, the automatons being people augmenting themselves rather than straight the ♥♥♥♥ up terminators, and a faction of cool nanomagic aliens who had just started to work their way into space until Super Earth decided to declare war on them to stop them and take their tech. So I suppose I have two advantages, being old enough to have a functioning brain during the years of 2001-2015 and playing the first one, but it's not exactly hidden.

There's some fascinating things at play that obscure it, mostly that now that we HAVE full on fascist movements, they don't look or sound anything like their ur-fascist predecessors, but the excellent enemy re-imagining and design play a part too. Helldivers 1 was uncomfortable, but Helldivers 2 full on sells the idea of being part of this cheesy world where it's actually a good idea to fight for liberty and justice against robots who chop people up and put their skulls on them as trophies. But there is a very very clear political bent to it.

And it's against the guys who are mad about the potential for any sort of symbolism that would make gay/bi/trans people feel accepted. At this point, even Super Earth wouldn't have you. It's a tolerant society where a mixed race couple is shown as the victims of a sudden bug attack.

[FurryFailure]

That's a weird way to say Liberty, Freedom, and Democracy, Soldier, where's your gun? you're needed on Mantes.

[Land]

Just going to state that "This game completely takes the tone of Verhoven's Starship Troopers, which was an extrapolation of Reagan/Bush ur-fascism into a full on fascist state. "
You're wrong. The novel "Starship Troopers" of which the movie is based on was written in 1959. Reagan and Bush were not a thing when it was written so...

[Harry.Taco]

Definitely a MAGA game. Cheers :D

[Silverlight]

Twitter is all on about this rn.

Basically you can't play Helldivers 2 because it's anti Palestine or smth.

This mental angle can be safely ignored.

[The Pants]

Originally posted by vishuspuss:

just wanted to say bush/reagan era? the story was written... 1959 i believe?

Starship Troopers, the novel, was written in 1959. But Verhoven's adaptation, which was not an adaptation because he didn't even read the thing, was released in 1997, after Reagan and Bush 1. Operation Desert Storm whipped war fever into the US like never before, partially because we had just changed the way people had thought war could go by utterly obliterating the Iraqi army, but partially as a result of deliberate media hype and top-down jingoism. There was a military parade, the first one since WWII and the last one since, called the National Victory Celebration.

Verhoven's Starship Troopers came from looking at that. It has basically nothing to do with the book, which is very vital to understand whenever you're looking at it as a piece of media. Rather than being a critique of Heinline's work, it instead serves as a critique of media war fervor.

[Proxy]

I think 2 things:

1) You have no idea what fascism is

and

2) Shut up and play the game

[FurryFailure]

Originally posted by Land:

Just going to state that "This game completely takes the tone of Verhoven's Starship Troopers, which was an extrapolation of Reagan/Bush ur-fascism into a full on fascist state. "
You're wrong. The novel "Starship Troopers" of which the movie is based on was written in 1959. Reagan and Bush were not a thing when it was written so...

The Movies were parody's of the Books, they're not the same tone.

[Kalenath]

Um... satire?

Oh wait, my bad. Steam forums. Anything about about a 50 IQ is too complicated for this place so, um...

NOT REAL

[Qui Qui]

Originally posted by Sofia:

Originally posted by Seraphiel:

I support LGBTQ rights but it would still be obnoxious for them to add LGBTQ flags into the game. I don't see why every game has to explicitly cater to someone's sexuality.

The only people asking for LGBTQ content in this game are trolls trying to upset people. Real LGBTQ people have way too much ♥♥♥♥ going on in their lives to fight so the stupid Right-wing parody game adds rainbow capes. I wouldn't MIND if they added rainbow capes, but I can think of much better ways to spend my energy than to ask for that. And if I WAS going to ask for it, I would do it through official means (feedback forms), not the Steam forums.

i would like them to add a german accent voice pack and a cool hugo boss-esque uniform with some red and white trim.

[The Pants]

Originally posted by Proxy:

I think 2 things:

1) You have no idea what fascism is

and

2) Shut up and play the game

1: I do
2: I ♥♥♥♥♥♥' CAN'T DUDE

[Aradia Megido]

this is 100% c0rrect

[Mad Hatter]

Originally posted by The Pants:

Originally posted by vishuspuss:

just wanted to say bush/reagan era? the story was written... 1959 i believe?

Starship Troopers, the novel, was written in 1959. But Verhoven's adaptation, which was not an adaptation because he didn't even read the thing, was released in 1997, after Reagan and Bush 1. Operation Desert Storm whipped war fever into the US like never before, partially because we had just changed the way people had thought war could go by utterly obliterating the Iraqi army, but partially as a result of deliberate media hype and top-down jingoism. There was a military parade, the first one since WWII and the last one since, called the National Victory Celebration.

Verhoven's Starship Troopers came from looking at that. It has basically nothing to do with the book, which is very vital to understand whenever you're looking at it as a piece of media. Rather than being a critique of Heinline's work, it instead serves as a critique of media war fervor.

2nding this; came to post the same, but you beat me to it.

[Lich Lord]

IF you have problems with a game I can't imagine the literal hell you live in your real life.
Step out of the car and show me your I.D sir/ma'am/it/thing.

[Shrapnel]

I'd rather this political angle than being a strong independent waminz dat dont need no manz like I've been playing for the past 10 years. Tired of it already.

[Sgt.Timmen]

An opinion. It may as well be antiwoke, pro-whatever and so on. Polarizing games is for me at least not interesting at all. I get that crap all day and night anyway. I like the game, thats it. No need to analize it ;)