It’s been a funny few weeks for Helldivers 2; one day it was riding high on its well-deserved success, the next it was being reviewed bombed into oblivion after Sony decided to foist mandatory PSN accounts on PC players. But now that drama is starting to subside following a dramatic U-turn, all thoughts have turned to one thing: was the review bomb cape developer Arrowhead’s CEO Johan Pilestedt previously hinted at real? It would certain seem so.
Talk of a review-bomb-inspired Helldivers 2 cape, if you’re a little behind on events, first surfaced as fans celebrated Sony’s U-turn on Tuesday – an unexpected reversal that followed one hell of a weekend for Helldivers 2, in which Arrowhead’s was unusually, publicly frank about its frustration with Sony and its handling of the PSN situation, and in which over 200,000 negative Steam reviews, mass refunds, and an absolute mess of a situation in territories where PSN was unavailable finally forced Sony’s hand.
As the drama began to subside, Pilestedt took to social media to share a community created cape design – featuring four red vertical lines mirroring those of Helldivers 2’s Steam review sentiment graph during the review bombing – offhandedly remarking when asked if it would become “a thing”, that, “The team is talking about a good name for it right now.” It just wasn’t entirely clear to what degree he was joking. And it turns out he (probably) wasn’t joking at all.
Over the weekend, Pilestedt posted a cropped image seemingly teasing an official new Helldivers 2 cape design, which notably included three red lines bearing a suspicious resemblance to Helldivers 2’s now legendary Steam review slump graph. And if that wasn’t enough to convince that Arrowhead really is readying to commemorate the community’s monumental collaborative achievement, Helldivers 2 community manager Twinbeard (thanks PC Gamer) also popped up on the game’s official Discord server to say, “We already have a name, should there ever hypothetically be a cape, that is.”
There’s no indication of when – if – such a thing might eventually make it in-game but it’ll give the Helldivers 2 community something to look forward to while Operation Clean-up, which has so far successfully managed to reverse around half of those negative Steam reviews, continues.
