What is Helldivers 2, fundamentally? It would probably be fun to play a co-op action shooter where you’re put in the shoes of the evil side grunts of pop culture," Pilestedt said. "We asked ourselves, could we brainwash an entire community to fight for a fascist state? Would they? Would we be okay with that? And turns out, yeah, actually."
"We do it all in fun and good spirits, and we actually try to get people to recognise the science of what is a totalitarian state," he said. "If you start wearing the same uniform as everybody else and do salutes constantly, you might be in a totalitarian regime." Pilestedt also told his GDC audience to stop nattering while he was making important points about capes, otherwise he'd get his best mates the UN to come down and sort them out. At least, that's what I imagine happened. "Actually, we got a message from the UN asking if we want to talk, in some form, about psychological defense against manipulation". He didn't elaborate on whether anything actually came of this, however.
Pilestedt went on to say that they pulled aesthetics from the US, the EU, and the UN, alongside "mantras of regimes” like Nazi Germany and North Korea. “It creates pleasing aesthetics,” said Pilestedt, "because there’s something totalitarian regimes are really good at: pleasing aesthetics."
PC Gamer's own use of the words "prevent Helldivers 2 from getting too depressing" in regards to these uniforms is really insightful here, I think - drab deeds in shiny boots being one of fascism's calling cards.
