Helldivers' creative boss doesn't want to 'dilute' it with crossovers, but his list of dream choices has some real deep cuts

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You'd probably love at least one of his ideas.

The Helldivers 2 spokesperson wears a cheesy grin, about to be wiped off his face when a Terminid invades but - hey, can't win 'em all.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Games / Sony)

The creative director of Helldivers 2 doesn't want to do too many crossovers with their wildly successful co-op shooter—it already has enough character and flair for itself and has barely started to retread the cool stuff from the first game. That said, CCO Johan Pilestedt does have a big ol' nerd laundry list of his favorite things he'd be open to doing a crossover with if the vibe was right.

Pilestedt's tweet came in a response to a story noting a crossover desire he'd floated late last week with tabletop game setting Trench Crusade. He was clear that he'd like to avoid an excess of crossovers, and noted that "these are just musings, if we were to do all of them, it would dilute the IP and make it a 'not Helldivers' experience."

  • Aliens
  • Starship Troopers
  • Terminator
  • Predator
  • Star Wars
  • Fifth Element
  • Blade Runner
  • Warhammer 40k
  • Trench Crusade
  • Mutant Chronicles
  • Dropzone Commander

It's quite the list, starting with the usual laundry list of '80s and '90s sci-fi favorites like Aliens and Star Wars—and you might argue that it already had a Predator crossover in the very-much-an-homage Viper Commandos warbond—but takes a pretty hard left turn into tabletop nerd stuff for those last four. That's not too surprising from Arrowhead, which hasn't been shy about their love for tabletop roleplaying and wargames. They even went so far as to have Helldivers 2's story campaign overseen by a game master whose job is to make the overall narrative more sophisticated over time.

Anyway, those four tabletop choices for crossovers are pretty neat ones. Warhammer 40k is pretty familiar to PC gamers these days, but the others probably aren't. Mutant Chronicles is a far-future tabletop setting of disastrous megacorporations battling for resources against existential evil in the ruins of our solar system. Dropzone Commander is a small-miniatures skirmish game focused on troops and tanks who get thrown into combat via fast-deploying dropships, which probably sounds familiar if you've played Helldivers.

The last one, and the crossover idea that prompted PIlestedt's spiel, is concept art world turned tabletop game Trench Crusade. It's a very horror-inflected World War 1 where an actual portal to Hell that opened during the Crusades has stagnated the continent of Eurasia in endless, terrifying industrial warfare for eight hundred years. The designs are some sublimely inspired stuff.

Pilestedt was also clear that these aren't crossovers he thinks are particularly or specifically suited to and compatible with Helldivers: "Just my personal preference and joys in life :)."

For other recent joys in the life of Helldivers 2, check out that deliberately awful, crusty rifle from 1903 that players love because they can bayonet charge bugs like sci-fi Waterloo.

Jonathan Bolding
Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.