u/Hanzo187

This post is long, so I apologize for that, but this was on my mind off and on for a while and I wanted to put this into writing.

Grunt fantasy seems to be defined as playing an expendable soldier against overwhelming odds. On the surface, Helldivers 2 seems that way, but on a deeper dive, that doesn't strike accurate with me.

This might seem silly to a lot of folks, but bear with me, and take this with a grain of salt: if grunt fantasy were the aim, we should be playing run of the mill soldiers with standard equipment, whatever the brass issues us, and dropping us into a meat grinder. Grunts don't choose their kit. They get what's issued. No more, no less, just like in most modern militaries.

We may be expendable, but we're not grunts. The Helldivers look more like the equivalent of Super Earth special forces, pulled from the Super Earth Armed Forces (SEAF). The satire shows training a Helldiver is hot garbage, but hey, still a step up from SEAF.

Why make this conclusion? Simple. We have a ship loaded with overwhelming firepower, a smaller craft for precise airstrikes, our pick of armor and weaponry, as well as vehicles, turrets, and mechs at our disposal. We can call this equipment to the ground at any time, and we can bring any weapon we want, so long as we paid the credits for delivery. No way in hell a standard grunt is going to have access to this kind of kit.

Additionally, we don't fight as part of a regiment under a colonel's orders and open fire only when ordered. We choose where we go and handle the mission as we see fit, with a few other Helldivers, if possible. Use of small squads on or for high value targets is clearly special forces. Also, Commando missions. Need I say more?

This leads me to believe Helldivers, lore wise, should be closer to a force multiplier able to complete dangerous missions and destroy higher counts of enemies with a better chance of success than a standard military force. Yeah, we're replaceable, but we take way more enemies with us before we go down.

Helldivers is a fun game. Seven hundred hours sunk in. Don't regret it. I probably will come back, but Arrowhead's way of engaging with the player base isn't all that professional. The Coyote shadow nerf patch came off that way, even if that wasn't the intent, and the fact enemies can clip through destructible terrain (but we can't) is inconsistent (what works for one should for the other), while some of the comments by certain devs seem like trolling (IYKYK). Again, my perception, but not good optics if realism is the goal.

That said, the game doesn't come off like grunt fantasy, and definitely not power fantasy. Seems like a middle ground. I'd call it "special forces fantasy". You play a well equipped soldier taking down high value targets behind enemy lines using really cool weapons, in small squads, with limited reinforcements for backup. Oh, and we get way better drip than the grunts.

Maybe I'm way off on the interpretation of grunt fantasy, maybe I'm too literal on the definition, or maybe I'm reading too much into this. This is only one viewpoint, but for a studio wanting grunt fantasy, this game doesn't look it.

TL:DR If Arrowhead wanted to lean into grunt fantasy, we should be more like SEAF and less like Helldivers. Helldivers look closer to special forces than a standard soldier.