History VideoGame / Helldivers

** No actual in-game mention is made of the [[AppliedPhlebotinum E-710 substance that the Bugs produce upon death and is crucial to FTL travel]], when [[NoBloodForPhlebotinum the fact that their Terminid descendants produce the stuff]] is the main reason the Bugs were domesticated in the first place and one of the biggest satirical aspects of ''II''. The Bugs are instead presented as a more straightforward HordeOfAlienLocusts, and E-710 is brought up only very briefly upon defeating them in the Galactic War, where it is outright called "oil" instead.

The Helldivers, a galactic combat unit, must fight three different enemy species to ensure the survival of Super Earth. The gameplay takes place on one of several procedurally-generated open missions where players must accomplish a series of objectives. Before missions the players select from a wide variety of weapons, perks and stratagems to accomplish their objectives. The game's most unique feature is, much like ''Magicka'', the fact that friendly fire cannot be turned off, meaning it's incredibly easy to die by your own teammate's hands if you fail to cooperate with them. The game also has a macrogame known as the "War Front", where all players cooperate to assist with the eradication of the three alien species, in doing so obtaining powerful bonuses and rewards. The game was released for the Platform/{{PlayStation 3}}, Platform/{{PlayStation 4}} and Platform/{{PlayStation Vita}}. A version for Microsoft Windows was released via Steam on December 7, 2015.

* JokeItem: The M2016 "Constitution" is outright said in its Armory description to be largely ineffective in battle and primarily a ceremonial weapon. It's basically just a 20th-century battle rifle; it has a slow rate of fire, each shot has to be loaded manually because it has an internal magazine, its magazine isn't even that big to begin with, it has zero capacity to take out heavier-armored enemies and the only upgrade you can give it is to [[BayonetYa put a bayonet on it]]. You'll start running into problems using this weapon very quickly on any difficulty above 5.

* JokeItem: The M2016 "Constitution" is outright said in its Armory description to be largely ineffective in battle and primarily a ceremonial weapon. it has a slow rate of fire, each shot has to be loaded manually because it has an internal magazine, its magazine isn't even that big to begin with, it has zero capacity to take out heavy enemies and the only upgrade you can give it is to [[BayonetYa put a bayonet on it]]. You'll start running into problems using this weapon very quickly on any difficulty above 5.

* IwoJimaPose: Parodied in the [[PropagandaPiece Helldiver recruitment video]], where several divers [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impale a bug]] with a flagpole bearing Super Earth flag and enthusiastically celebrate with a chest bump.

* PunnyName: The Element 710 which allows for Faster-Than-Light Travel. If you rotate '710' 180 degrees, it looks like "OIL", which is exactly what it's an allegory for.

* SpaceSector: Each war front has a great number of named sectors between Super Earth and each respective enemy faction's homeworld (while [[RiskStyleMap each sector is uniquely shaped]], they more or less for a straight line outward). Only the sectors themselves and their capital cities aren't randomly generated, but all the other planets within them are.

** No actual in-game mention is made of the [[AppliedPhlebotinum E-710 substance that the Bugs produce upon death and is crucial to FTL travel]], when [[NoBloodForPhlebotinum the fact that their Terminid descendants produce the stuff]] is the main reason the Bugs were domesticated in the first place and one of the biggest satirical aspects of ''II''. The Bugs are instead presented as a more straightforward HordeOfAlienLocusts, and E-710 is brought up only very briefly upon beating them, where it is outright called "oil" instead.

** No actual in-game mention is made of the [[AppliedPhlebotinum E-710 substance that the Bugs produce upon death and is crucial to FTL travel]], when [[NoBloodForPhlebotinum the fact that their Terminid descendants produce the stuff]] is the main reason the Bugs were domesticated in the first place and one of the biggest satirical aspects of ''II''. The Bugs are instead presented as a more straightforward HordeOfAlienLocusts.

* {{Satire}}: The game is a heavy-handed satire of American neoconservatism and War on Terror politics. The Helldivers are the forces of a dystopian Super Earth fighting offensive wars against various alien races in the name of "freedom and democracy", but of course Super Earth is ''really'' just a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny that is not so different. They don't even practice genuine democracy on Super Earth, as elections are tightly regulated and implied to be a sham.