Helldivers 2 is a Pulp Masterpiece

Pulp, you see, never really died. It simply evaporated to condense in entirely new climates and biomes. We are experiencing a roaring revival of the gutsy, masculine genre, but it's always been lurking in the disused and disreputable alleys of modern media. Do you want see the future of pulp entertainment? It looks a lot like the past. Where the first generations of pulp teemed behind the splashy painted covers of cheap paperbacks, this generation riots across the small screens. Time to learn some lessons from the glorious revival of the Pulp spirit.

Come on, you apes! You wanta live forever?

~ Unknown platoon sergeant, 1918

The pitch for Helldivers, a PS5 and PC gaming phenomenon currently militarizing the evenings of suburban dads across cyberspace, is as simple as it is compelling.

Do you want to be this guy?

How about him?

Or them?

Well, the good news is, you can feel like them for only forty sharply inflated United States dollars, the experience pitch perfectly captured in a co-op shooter. Helldivers 2 is as close to a perfect marriage of game and narrative as this suburban dad has experienced. From the pre-mission loading screen onward, this is an expertly tailored cocktail of pure Pulp.

You load into your Hellpod (yeah that's right), cracking jokes and crosstalking with the rest of your fireteam. Pretty soon, the player with the most veterancy usually assumes unofficial command. "Ok guys, we're about to drop on a Bot (or Bug) stronghold. (Yep, the two currently available enemy factions are loving renditions of humanity's twin age-old science fiction opponents). We'll need heavy support weapons and orbital strikes for this one. And whoever’s on the grenade launcher, watch yourself this time." (That’s right, this is a co-op shooter where friendly fire is always on. Brilliant). The briefing screen glitters as you quickly sandtable a route through the combat zone. Weapons selected, the last trooper readies and then all four fire through the belly of your starcruiser in roaring reentry fireballs, a perfectly-timed clarion of martial adrenaline soundtrack blaring through your TV speakers.

Real ones can hear this image

The second you touch down, you're firing your primary weapon. 10-40 minutes of nonstop violent adventure later, you fight your way to an arial extraction zone, complete a desperate last stand, and return to the cruiser, another tiny patch of freedom secured for Super-Earth. Rinse and repeat until well past midnight.

We're almost done with the pure video game review segment, I promise. But before we identify some of the ways that Helldivers is great Pulp, it must be said that this is an incredible game. The scene I just narrated perfectly blends the game's narrative framing (you are a soldier in endless war) with emergent play (you and your buddies fighting and dying, often hilariously), making every action feel immersive. Tiny details shine: when you team up with random players in Helldivers, you often join them mid-mission, slamming onto their planet and joining the firefight in progress like an avenging metal angel. The game narrative and real life collide as you're plunged into another faceless hero's final stand, ready to fight and fly off into the sunset after victory. They've made even queuing into quickplay feel iconic.

Ok enough with the gaming commercial. Why is it Pulp, though? I'll tell you, in a few simple bullet points. Imagine me here setting down my helmet and cherished Recoilless Rifle and walking over to a blackboard, this-guy style:

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1. First off, Pulp as a genre is all about fantasy. No, not like that. Well, not exactly like that, anyways. We're talking about wish-fulfillment, about making daydreams feel real, about vicariously living through your heroes. Just like the dimestore paperbacks of our past, Helldivers uses genre tropes to tap directly into the hard-wired needs of the audience. Combat against unyielding merciless foes? Check. Veterancy developed through experience, the thrill of competency? Check. Comradeship against impossible odds? Check. Righteous causes and evil enemies? Check. Rather than subverting or ignoring these intrinsic desires, Pulp respects and even exaggerates them, all in a spirit of fun.

(Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to give me a Media Literacy crash course in the comments. I understand and even enjoy the role of satire in Helldivers and the media it draws on. That in itself does nothing to change the aspirational pulpy nature of all these artistic pieces. Take it from me, Suburban dads aren't watching Starship Troopers, etc. to archly snicker at how foolish male responsibility and military heroism are. Don't @ me).

2. If all of this is sounding a bit exclusively masculine, well, that's Pulp for you! Like it's feminine counterpart Romance, Pulp by and large existed and exists as a space for storytelling through a male lens. (Whoo boy, REALLY don't @ me). Notice that I said through a masculine lens, not "only by and for men." Pulp provides a space for muscular and aggressive entertainment that can be enjoyed by all but appeals uniquely to men. And that's a necessary component of the literary or media landscape. Just as we would be poorer without the relatable human drama of When Harry Met Sally, we are left with an incomplete media diet sans Indiana Jones. But I don't have to convince you, you're a reader of the premiere genre magazine at the vanguard of the Pulp Revival. Helldivers keeps the hard edge honed on military scifi, with all its guts and glory. The first time you kinetically dismember a monstrous insect or machine with controlled bursts of heavy MG fire, while coordinating artillery strikes with your fireteam and defending the all important Geological Survey objective, you'll have an unsuppressed grin plastered across your face. And the five hundredth time, too.

3. Speaking of Indiana Jones, Helldivers masters a final piece of the Pulp arsenal: adventure. The genre is designed to lean towards romance over realism, tailormade for stiff tastes of foreign lands salted liberally with action-packed deeds. There’s always space for sedate experiences in fiction, film and gaming. But Pulp isn’t one of them. Helldivers feels like a game that read Lester Dent’s short story rules and applied them studiously. It’s difficult to spend 15 seconds in-game without Something Happening. Dashing for defilade behind a rock outcrop so that the oncoming Annihilator Tank can’t spill your patriotic innards across the landscape. Catching a glimpse of beautiful vistas teeming with deadly foes. Picking up scientific samples. Ok, maybe forget that last bit.

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I don’t have to spell out the takeaways here but this is my classroom and I’ll surrender the bully pulpit to nobody. The Age of Pulp is returning and that means using the “limitations” of today’s forms to create artistic leverage, just like your creator forbears did. You know who else used to complain about shortened attention spans, economic woes, and pedestrian tastes Destroying Art? The publishers and editors who wouldn’t stoop to legitimizing the likes of Heinlein, Asimov, Howard, Leiber and more. Time to buck up and type. Strip the fat away from your work, hone your edge, and make something Happen in that story. Grab ‘em by the collar and don’t let go. Entertain your reader, and they’ll forgive much. Overlook the new forms and fashions at your peril, cause that’s where the next innovators will be found.

Lock and load.