There is currently a very funny, kind of sad dust-up over Helldivers 2, in which self-proclaimed “anti-woke” gamers have previously heralded it as a rare game where they believe “politics” does not play a factor. Their faith was been shaken by an Arrowhead community manager they believed they found to be (gasp) progressive who was then subsequently harassed, but their head-scratching reading of Helldivers 2 as a “non-political” game is worth examining.
The only thing that makes sense is that these players have the shallowest of surface-level readings of the game. You are a patriotic soldier serving Super Earth. You must kill bugs and evil robots trying to hurt your brothers-in-arms and innocent citizens. There are no storylines to insert progressive causes into, everyone wears helmets so no “forced diversity.” Therefore, no politics.
Of course, this is…wildly off the mark, as Helldivers 2 is about the most blatantly obvious satire of militaristic fascism since the film that inspired it, Starship Troopers.
Eh, in Fallout 3 and 4 Bethesda diverted the canon a bit too much for me. It never seemed like they understood the universe. In 1 and 2, the BoS was, if not good, at least lawful neutral, and quite helpful, despite isolationist. I haven’t played New Vegas yet.
I mean, they send a random stranger who wants to join them to die in a radioactive hole for fun. They are just kinda there in the originals until something bigger shows up.
Yep, that’s lawful neutral for you. They safeguard and preserve technology while biding their time, but they don’t share it with those in need. I’m sure lots of people bother them, and they send them all over to get rid of them. They’re not really good guys, but they’re also not bad guys. I like them well enough.
Yeah, I can see that.
I think Bethesda made them too much of the good guys in Fallout 3 and overcorrected in Fallout 4.