Helldiverse 2 is a cooperative shooter. It is also collaborative, in the sense that the players stand together against invasions. But it’s not the game system that manages everything. They are partly oriented by a single person.
In Helldiverse 2, it’s galactic war. You don’t necessarily realize it during the first games, but each small victory won by your squad contributes to an overall effort. The result is a dynamic conflict, shared by the entire community, facing two other factions (insects and robots) controlled by artificial intelligence. Well, not quite: they are also controlled by a human brain or, rather, we should say, assisted by a human brain.
This anecdote was shared by Johan Pilestedt, the boss of Arrowhead Game Studios, in the columns of PC Gamer on February 28. Within the studio, someone is responsible for overseeing the conflict going on in Helldiverse 2. This is a sort of artisanal balancing, to prevent players from gaining the upper hand over the enemy too quickly – and vice versa. His name is Joel and he officially holds the position of Game Master, or game master — a position inspired by the world of role-playing gamesDungeons & Dragons.
We know why robots Helldiverse 2 are so strong
Joel’s mission therefore consists of adjusting certain parameters of the overall conflict in real time to ensure the best possible balance. Do you think robots are too strong? It’s entirely his fault, as Johan Pilestedt recounts: “ There were a few sudden moments where a planet might have been too easy or too difficult [à capturer]and Joel had to get up in the middle of the night to give the Automatons a boost so players couldn’t take over the planet too quickly. » Holy Joel.
This manual steering is sometimes necessary, because Arrowhead Game Studios, although capable of predicting certain outcomes of the war, can hardly anticipate the triumph of the community. “ We have many systems in the game to allow the Game Master to have control over the gaming experience. This is something that we will continually evolve depending on what happens in the game », confides the CEO. Suffice it to say that Joel cannot rest on his laurels and must constantly adapt to everyone’s victories and defeats.
Arrowhead has plenty of time to create pivotal moments to shake up the balance of Helldiverse 2, which allows the game to do without a classic narration. In this sense, it is the players who create their own stories, as we saw recently after the – painful – loss of a planet at the hands of the Automatons. “ The attachment to the planets is significant… Internally, we look at how we could reconsider the planets as real characters in the future », Slips Johan Pilestedt. Not content with experiencing deserved success and having gotten rid of his connection concerns, Helldiverse 2 could become even more ambitious.
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