Helldivers 2 creative director says it's a better, sillier world when physics bugs can kill players for jumping past the wrong lamppost: 'Realism can suck it'

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

The Helldivers face an overwhelmingly hostile galaxy. Each deployment means risking mortal peril, whether by way of armor-shredding Terminid talons or the steel onslaught of the Automaton menace. Some of Super Earth's soldiers, however, fall prey to a more subtle killer: the physics glitch, a merciless enemy that's happy to pulverize a Helldiver as punishment for tripping over the wrong bit of terrain. It's an insidious foe, but it also happens to be very funny—funny enough that Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt thinks it's probably a net positive for everyone if it's left unaddressed.

Earlier this week, redditor 0_2AL uploaded a clip from Helldivers 2 showing the spectacular failure of their attempt at navigating level geometry (via GamesRadar). While trying to run through a trench, their helldiver gets snagged on a bit of invisible terrain at the foot of a lamppost, leading them to try to dive forwards to free themself.

Ok now this one is just ridiculous from r/Helldivers

The lamppost had other ideas. The player's helldiver lands prone after leaping out of the trench, only to suddenly ragdoll as they're yanked backwards by an invisible, vengeful spirit, colliding with the lamppost with enough force to kill them on impact. A tragic loss, but also a silly one.

As you'd expect, the comments contain a lot of lighthearted jeering at the fallen helldiver, as well as some gentle ribbing at Arrowhead's expense. "Actually it's realistic because you had a stroke and hitting the floor moved the blood clot to your brain," one commenter wrote. In reply, Pilestedt entered the comments with a philosophy we should all share when a videogame guy gets imploded because the ground decided to be weird: Sure, it's unrealistic, but it rules, so who cares?

"The balance/realism can suck it. This is a perfect storm of unfortunate physics jitters and impact calculations," Pilsetedt said. "While a bug, IDK if worth fixing due to how hilarious it is." I should also note that, on the realism front, this is a videogame where every infantryman is assigned their own interstellar space cruiser with infinite ordnance.

Obviously, it can be frustrating when a geometry glitch unceremoniously murders your guy, especially if it means a mission failure or lost progress. Helldivers 2's slapstick antics, even when they're accidental, remind us not to take all the giant bugs and killer robots so seriously. Even if videogames could achieve a perfect simulation of reality, freak accidents are unavoidable. A car drove directly into my apartment a few months ago! Shit happens! At least in games, it usually means you get to watch someone fall down all weird.

This unfortunate ragdolling incident wasn't a disaster for everyone involved, however. I'm pleased to report that, courtesy of redditor sketch_56, in honor of its service, the lamppost has been named a hero of the automaton collective:

Comment from r/Helldivers

Lincoln has been writing about games for 11 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.