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After a constant back and forth against the machines, the Helldivers 2 community was left in shambles after they discovered that Malevelon Creek was finally taken over by the Automatons.
The narrative unfolded overnight when the planet Malevelon Creek, often times dubbed ‘Space Vietnam’ by players, was found taken over by the Automatons with a ‘0% Liberated’ flag.
Worse of all, players were greeted with a ‘Planet Lost’ retreat order, which caused the planet to be inaccessible for a while, sending the community into a spiraling devastation knowing they had lost the war.
@valentivideos Remember the Creek. #rememberthecreek #maleveloncreek #helldivers2 #fyp #fypシ
Malevelon Creek fell… it was all for nothing… pic.twitter.com/YJxvE6jFZS
— B0l (@Bolverk15) February 28, 2024
Since the game’s explosive launch, the community has been immersed in the overexaggerated jingoistic themes of Helldivers – oftentimes role-playing as the soldiers to spread patriotism for their favorite fictional planet Super Earth online, forming an internet culture of sorts.
Playing into this is the meta-game of Helldivers 2, which encourages players to work towards a common objective of “liberating” a planet by completing missions on it and contributing a raise in small percentages throughout its duration.
Fittingly, Malevelon Creek, one of the planets in Helldivers 2, helps further the role-playing metanarrative with its brutality as players have been at constant war against endless waves of Automatons – evil Terminator-like army robots, for weeks now.
Having a backdrop with an atmosphere and environment that is reminiscent of Hollywood’s depiction of the Vietnam War and having some of the toughest missions in the game, it is easy to see why Malevelon Creek is such a harrowing planet among the players.
Sadly, despite fighting for weeks, the war has been lost and the community mourns for Malevelon Creek, spawning countless hilarious reactions and memes online.
// For Immediate Public Release
// 2/27/2024
[Unknown] on Malevelon Creek, having missed the last Pelican out after the planet fell, requesting the remaining Destroyers in the system glass his grid square before warping out.We will return. pic.twitter.com/pJvLAd5qq8
— Shadz (@Shadzey1) February 28, 2024
To fight the Automatons we must understand the Automatons. We can ill afford another Malevelon Creek. pic.twitter.com/lb52LsLvAq
— LA\/ENDER (@LavenderGhast) February 28, 2024
“Was extracting from a Op on Mantes when I heard Malevelon Creek fell… knew a guy from basic that was stationed there, even while we were dealing with the bugs during Vaillant Enclosure he was fighting bots. Heroes, everyone of them.” pic.twitter.com/H4KJJ2uTdG
— Krieg (@Krieger_983) February 28, 2024
We lost it…#HelldiversII #helldivers pic.twitter.com/1EO20QZNm4
— Helldivers Alerts (@HelldiversAlert) February 28, 2024
It truly is the saddest of days #HelldiversII #HELLDIVER2 pic.twitter.com/IUf8sRkugu
— Helldivers Alerts (@HelldiversAlert) February 28, 2024
While the loss of Malevelon Creek was dispiriting, the fightback had already begun as the planet became accessible once again, with a small percentage of liberation gained from players working tirelessly to regain freedom from the Automatons.
Despite not having any meaningful rewards directly tied to the liberation system, players did not care and continued to role-play their favorite expandable soldiers in the fight for freedom for fun, which goes to show the beautifully active community that the game has gathered.
As mentioned earlier, Helldivers 2 was a massive success since its launch with its concurrent player peak surpassing the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Destiny 2 on Steam, and causing server capacity issues until the developers recently increased its cap to house 800,000 users.
