Helldivers 2’s latest Major Order was (mostly) a narrative success

polygon.com:

I keep returning to Helldivers 2, not because I’m interested in trying out new weapons or conquering the highest difficulty, but because I’m totally invested in the current story playing out. As Helldivers, the players are following orders from Super Earth — including the ones that are obviously doomed. Previously, we sprayed Termicide all over planets in order to thwart the voracious Terminid hordes. The Termicide technically backfired, causing hideous mutations and the development of a super colony on Meridia.

Over the weekend, Helldivers descended on Meridia, using Dark Fluid in order to extinguish the super colony. The mysterious experiment required the brave sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Helldivers… and fans think that the most recent operation may have triggered the arrival of a third enemy faction.

Meridia was once a peaceful swamp planet, but the Terminid Control System — meaning, players spraying Termicide everywhere — hit it particularly hard. By the time Meridia had developed into a super colony, the planet was an utter nightmare, crusted over with Terminids and chitin that developed into terrifying towers. Spore towers, which act as an optional objective that players can destroy in some missions, spotted the terrain everywhere. Massive pits yawned open across the surface of the planet. Spawn nests were absolutely ubiquitous; no matter how many I plugged up with my handy grenade launcher, there were always more dotting the terrain.

Things only escalated once we completed our assigned mission on Meridia. Even on the lowest difficulty possible, finishing the mission triggered an eruption of an endless swarm of flying bugs, flocking towards the delicious Helldivers on the surface. This was a suicide mission in all but name, except command kept sending down Helldivers until we ran out of reinforcements. Meridia was a meat grinder, and I absolutely loved the wild challenge.

That’s not to say that the Meridia major order went off flawlessly. There were