Helldivers 2 players return to site of their greatest defeat, as a new Major Order demands the liberation of Malevelon Creek

In late February, Helldivers 2 players suffered their greatest defeat so far in the game's simulated Galactic War, as the community's favourite planet Malevelon Creek fell to synthetic armies of the Automaton faction. Now, players are flocking back to the celestial heart of the game, as a new Major Order demands democracy be returned to the steamy, perpetually twilit jungle world.

"Several weeks ago, our citizens watched in horror as Malevelon Creek fell to the Automatons," begins the order, before honouring the "millions of valiant heroes" who perished attempting to defend, and scorning the Automatons who have since been plundering the planet's "exceptionally rich" rhodium deposits. "This travesty will be allowed to continue no longer," the order continues. "Take vengeance for the fallen. Honour our heroes. End the theft of valuable minerals. Liberate Malevelon.

Malevelon has been the community's favourite planet pretty much since Helldivers 2 launched, quickly garnering affection for its dusky 'Nam vibes. Players who fought on Malevelon even gained their own moniker, referred to by the rest of the community as 'Creek Crawlers'. After the planet's defence mission failed, with the war's focus shifting elsewhere, Creek Crawlers doggedly kept fighting, aiming to retake control of the world from the robot menace.

Now, it appears the Creek Crawlers' faith has been rewarded. When I started writing this, Malevelon Creek stood at. at 90.8% liberated. When I finished, it was at 91.2%, which is impressively fast by Helldivers 2 standards. Having just failed to liberate another Automaton-controlled planet—Tibit—seizing the Creek would be just the morale boost Super Earth needs.

The fervour over Malevelon Creek is a testament to how exciting Helldivers 2's approach to live-service gaming is. Indeed, barely a day goes by without something fascinating happening in the game at the moment. Developer Arrowhead recently introduced Mechs, Quasar Cannons and Heavy Machineguns to players' already extensive roster of weapons, while bug forces have been bolstered by flying Terminids and rumours are swirling about aerial Automaton gunships and snipers from an as-yet unencountered alien race. Moreover, after discovering the game's Galactic War is DM'd by a single guy called Joel, a fake Joel began hacking the game to assist players by dropping unreleased vehicles from the sky.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.