Sit down. I’ve got bad news. Helldivers 2’s most recent Major Order, the one about collecting plastic so you could unleash some napalm barrages, well, folks have come up short in it. As they now get started on the fresh mission Arrowhead’s just put in motion, some members of the player base have been busy dicussing why they think the quest to set stuff on fire from orbit ended in defeat.
The main conclusion they’ve come to so far? Well, aside from the long-established pet peeve of some players refusing to deviate from battling the bugs to take on an Automaton front MO with their brethren, the big reasons being cited probably won’t be a surprise if you’ve been keeping up with the community over the last little while.
In addition to plenty of players arguining that they’d started to see the napalm barrages as a lost cause long before it officially failed, despite the collective effort still managing to get decently close to completing it, looking through someReddit threads discussing the defeat, you’ll find lots of players pointing to the ongoing unhappiness about the Escalation of Freedom update’s nerfs and generally lower player numbers due to “general frustrations”.
While there are a fair amount folks simply admitting that they didn’t get time to jump on this weekend and help out due to, you know, having stuff to do in real life, some of the hardcores reckon Arrowhead and J.O.E.L should have done a better job of taking the game’s current relationship with its community into account when deciding to deploy this particular MO.
“Can’t convince my friends to play,” one player simply declared, “Morale is low.” Another went a little bit more in depth with their assement, arguing: “They could have released this stratagem for free with the update to better coincide with the fire warbond, but they didn’t. The GM, and by extension Arrowhead, should really learn to ‘read the room,’ or I doubt they will be able to win back the crowd, especially with some major releases of other games around the corner.”
Regardless of the reasons behind it, the next MO Arrowhead’s since deployed suggests players might well get another crack at unlocking the barrages further down the line. “Despite heroic conservation efforts, and millions of Automaton militants recycled into useful scrap metals, the Helldivers were unable to secure sufficient resources to rectify supply shortages, its blurb reads, Fleetwide distribution of the Orbital Napalm Barrage will be delayed.
“Alas, the Galactic War does not pause, and a massive Terminid outbreak has erupted out of the Gloom into the Jin Xi sector. Colonies in the sector are only weeks old, but millions of families are trapped within, awaiting emergency evacuation.” To do that, folks’ll need to weather the storm of four bug attacks, and be in control of Phact Bay, Gar Haren, and Gatria when the MO concludes.
How do you feel about that last MO ending in defeat, and about the prospects for success in this next one? Let us know below!
