Games

So, I think there's something weird about the nature of the satire in Helldivers 2 that might lead to some problems.

I don't feel like it's that controversial to say that the game is pretty obviously ripping off Starship Troopers. Like to a point that goes way beyond mere homage. Now I don't view this as an inherent problem, because I don't believe IP should be a thing, but this fact, combined with the way they've adapted it into a game leads to some issues.

The game basically has all the aesthetic elements of the satire of Starship Troopers: The over the top patriotism, nationalism, militarism, the devaluing of the individual and life, etc. On it's own, this is enough for people who have already become disillusioned with the US war machine to get what it's saying. However, to someone who's deep in the propaganda that America is a force for good in the world that is simply fighting evil enemies who hate freedom and democracy, there is no cognitive dissonance there. Of course we're gonna be all patriotic about fighting against some big bad enemy that's threatening us.

Not that people didn't also misunderstand Starship Troopers, but a key difference it has in driving it's point home is that moment at the end of the movie when they capture one of the bugs and learn it feels fear and then they all cheer. We see that no, the bugs aren't some unthinking monsters bent on destroying us, they're intelligent creatures and we're the invaders, but the people are so indoctrinated at this point that this fact doesn't even phase them.

Helldivers 2 doesn't really have that anywhere within the main "text" of the game. Sure, you can read some lore and get a bit of that from some conversations with NPCs on the ship, but that's not really how people interact with games, or at least a game like this. Most people are going to load into a lobby, pick a mission, maybe mess around with their loadout, then go jump into a game where the bugs ARE horrible unthinking monsters who represent an existential threat to humanity. In the ways the game lets you interact with it, there's no option where you make peace with the bugs or come to understand the horror of what you're doing. The bugs are just enemies and you have an assortment of guns and bombs to interact with them.

So since the mechanics of the game itself don't really mesh well with the message of the satire, what it relies on is either a) You already having seen Starship Troopers or b) You already understanding imperialism, fascism, and recognizing those traits in America's military culture.

It's kind of a weird place for a piece of media to be when it's message only makes sense in the context of another similar piece of media or when the player/reader/viewer already agrees with it's message.

It's not terribly surprising that it hasn't had any success breaking through to the people who need their minds changed.