After much teasing, the cruel tyrants at Arrowhead Games and their harmful puppets, the “democratic government” of Super Earth, have announced the first licensed crossover Helldivers 2. In another empty show of solidarity, and “Liber-tea” have joined forces with the disgusting fascists of Killzone, the older shooter series from Sony and Guerrilla Games.
Starting today, the Helldivers Superstore will be offering weapons, armor and cosmetic items belonging to the villainous Killzone stormtroopers, and is also hinting at an additional Killzone-themed reward depending on the fate of the so-called Galactic War, a xenocidal slaughter presented as an exercise in securing “freedom”. the leading socialist Automatons, impeccable Tyranid wildlife, and Wellsian cosplayers from the recently added Faction Illuminati.
We here at Rock Paper Shotgun oppose the mindless aggression of Super Earth and Arrowhead, which is absolutely not a substantial satirical joke based on some Verhoeven movie or another. Those capes, anyway. Below you will find a photo and further details.
If you haven’t played Killzone, it was Sony’s silver bullet in the fight against Halo, Gears and Call of Duty for control of the shooter. It’s a natural choice as a licensing partner for Helldivers, being a series about a pseudo-war showdown between intergalactic space empires, one of which was briefly ruled by Logan Roy.
I went crazy for Killzone 2, which came out in 2009 and was one of the first “big” games I ever reviewed. The E3 2005 trailer famously featured pre-rendered footage that looked like real-time gameplay. In practice, it turned out to be a pretty OK FPS with a thunderous Grimdark setting and a slightly confusing first-person cover system. The main sequels Killzone 3 and Shadowfall are straight examples of the law of diminishing returns, and the spin-offs Mercenary and Liberation are respectable handheld shooters. They’re all exclusives to Sony consoles, so the Helldivers 2 crossover is, I believe, the official debut of Killzone on PC. Hmm, I should have put that in the headline.
Helldivers X Killzone Giveaways Create a “New Level of Special Premium Content” on Superstore. The diving community reacted negatively to both the price and the fact that the primary weapon was sold as DLC. The second part of the crossover deal will arrive on December 23, and clues will be released then Steam classifieds blog about “an additional reward in Killzone 2 for all Helldivers, dependent on your success in Galactic War.”
Arrowhead has any number of crossover collaborations in mind for Helldivers 2. For some time, they had been planning a system that would effectively allow individual Helldivers to hallucinate in licensed worlds, with map cosmetics imperceptible to their non-purchasing companions. I’m not too excited about seeing Killzone’s militaristic trappings in action again, but one Killgadget I’d like to see implemented in Helldivers 2 is the open-top infantry ships in Killzone 2. Check them out in the aforementioned E3 2005 trailer below. Now imagine that you will ride one of them to the surface of Vindemaitarix Prime.
