After much teasing, the evil tyrants at Arrowhead Games and their noxious puppets, the “Democratic Government” of Super Earth, have announced the first-ever Helldivers 2-licensed crossover. In another hollow show of solidarity and “Liber-tea”, they have teamed up with the disgusting fascists of Killzone, the older shooter series from Sony and Guerrilla Games.
Starting today, you can buy weapons, armor and cosmetics from Killzone’s despicable stormtroopers in the Helldivers Superstore, and there’s the suggestion of an additional Killzone-themed reward depending on the fate of the so-called Galactic War, a xenocidal war. carnage conceived as an exercise in bringing ‘freedom’ to the sincere socialist Automatons, the immaculate nature of the Tyranids, and the Wellsian cosplayers of the recently added Enlightenment faction.
We here at Rock Paper Shotgun stand against the wanton aggression of Super Earth and Arrowhead, which is definitely not some big satirical joke based on some Verhoeven film or something else. Anyway, those capes. Below you will find an image and further details.
If you haven’t played Killzone yet, it was Sony’s silver bullet in the battle against Halo, Gears and Call of Duty for control of the shooter game. It’s a natural choice as a licensing partner for Helldivers, as it’s a series about a pseudo-World War I clash between intergalactic space empires, one of which was briefly ruled by Logan Roy.
I loved Killzone 2, which came out in 2009 and was one of the first “big” games I ever reviewed. It was infamous for its E3 2005 trailer featuring pre-rendered footage that looked like real-time gameplay. In practice, it turned out to be a great FPS with thunderous, grim set dressing and a slightly confusing first-person cover system. Key sequels Killzone 3 and Shadowfall are clear examples of the law of diminishing returns, with spin-offs Mercenary and Liberation being respectable handheld shooters. They’re all exclusive to Sony consoles, so this Helldivers 2 crossover is, I think, Killzone’s formal debut on PC. Hmm, I should put that in the headline.
The Helldivers There has been some backlash from the diving community over both the price and the fact that primary weapons are being sold as DLC. The second part of the crossover deal arrives on December 23, and then there are the hints the Steam announcement blog about “an additional Killzone 2 reward for all Helldivers depending on your success in the Galactic War”.
Arrowhead has some crossover collaborations in mind for Helldivers 2. For a while, they envisioned a system that would allow individual Helldivers to effectively hallucinate licensed worlds, with card cosmetics invisible to their non-buyers. I’m not super excited to see Killzone’s militaristic trappings in action again, but one Killgadget I’d like to see implemented in Helldivers 2 is Killzone 2’s open-topped infantry dropships. Check them out below at the aforementioned E3 2005 -trailer. Now imagine driving one of those to the surface of Vindemaitarix Prime.