Helldivers 2 adds flying bugs — or is it propaganda?

polygon.com:

Just as Helldivers 2 tweaked the spawn rates for the game’s super-armored Terminids, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has added a new threat — flying bugs. Arrowhead did not mention the Terminids with wings in the patch notes from Tuesday, but players on social media and forums reported spotting the creatures in-game. The new Terminids are called Shriekers, and are quite terrifying as they dive and attack.

Arrowhead warned in Tuesday’s patch notes that the changed Chargers and Bile Titans weren’t lowering difficulty. But players were unprepared for exactly what we were in for.

Keeping in line with Helldivers 2 lore, Arrowhead is denying the existence of the bugs: “Everyone knows that ‘Bugs can’t fly,’” CEO Johan Pilestedt posted to X, formerly Twitter. “And I’m not alone in thinking this. The Ministry of Truth agrees that this is propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash good people. #Lies”

This update — or propaganda, depending on who you ask — is part of Helldivers 2’s evolving story. Though the game doesn’t have a campaign, the storytelling is everywhere: Starting from the intro and tutorial, Helldivers 2 sets up a world of propaganda and unabashed patriotism. The government is not fascist! It’s pushing for freedom! As Polygon’s Cass Marshal put it, “We know exactly what kind of war this is, and how each individual Helldiver is doomed to get dissolved by bile or exploded by a robot,” they wrote. “But they don’t know that, and by the time the revelation wears off, the entire thing becomes a wonderfully dark comedy.”

Flying bugs and the denial of it all is just another piece of the Helldivers 2 story. You may remember a similar situation with the addition of mechs over the past week.