Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Games has announced that mechs will soon be landing in a planetary system near you. The hit multiplayer shooter has taken the gaming world by storm, in no small part thanks to its Starship Troopers inspirations, PlayStation cheat code-esque supply drop mechanic, and co-operative teammates who are willing to die for the cause. We’re all doing this for democracy, so why would we turn on each other?

Now I’ve played a little of the game already – it’s a new, multiplayer shooter, how could I avoid it? – but none of my friends joined the fight, so I went back to Apex, our comfort game, pretty quickly. I enjoyed what I played of Helldivers 2, but the addition of mechs has brought me right back in. I must see the mechs, I must call the mechs, I must die under the feet of the mechs.

To understand this, you need to know a little bit about me. I love mechs. That’s pretty much it. I have an army of Space Marine Dreadnoughts, albeit at 6mm scale. I firmly believe that Titanfall 2 is the best first-person shooter ever made. The science fiction novel I’ve been slowly writing is about the abject horror of piloting a mech and losing your humanity. I love mechs.

Putting mechs in any game is enough to get me to try it out. Sometimes it works out perfectly, like with indie game Can Androids Pray? Other times you get burned, like with Hawken Reborn, which lost everything that made the original so good. But it’s worth suffering through the bad mech games to get the good.

If putting mechs in a game is enough to get me to try it out, then what does putting mechs in a game I already enjoy do? Yeah, I’m not going to be playing anything else for the foreseeable. Sorry Balatro, sorry Infinite Wealth. Dragon’s Dogma, what’s that? Call it Dragon’s Mecha and maybe I’d give a damn.

However, there’s more to it than that. There’s something about Helldivers 2 that few other shooters really grasp, the real feeling of danger and that you’re living through a hellish warzone. It’s not realism, per se, but it’s a genuine feeling of fear, and I think the game’s mechs will capitalise on that feeling in the perfect way.

Take friendly fire, for instance. Most games toggle this off, usually to prevent griefing. But I’ve killed myself and my teammates by holding onto a grenade for too long or calling down an orbital bombardment at the wrong time, and felt awful about it afterwards. This is the real consequences of being in a warzone: you mess up, you get hurt. You input the wrong coordinates for your giant space laser, your friend’s head explodes instead of the giant bug next to him.

Helldivers 2 is a game with consequences. Mechs have consequences. Even if they’re on your side. I can’t wait to scurry around the stamping feet of an allied mech, dodging out of the way of its pummelling weaponry as I try to do my bit by its side. One wrong step could see me crushed beneath its feet.

via Arrowhead

I doubt Helldivers 2 would let us pilot mechs, it doesn’t fit with the gameplay loop at all, but vehicles are firmly in the game’s future. I think it would nail both. There’s an inherent danger of driving a car. I bought my first car in January, a decade after I passed my driving test. My first motorway experience was terrifying. I noticed every bump in the road, the rumble of the engine, and knew the consequences if I made an error. I’m more than comfortable driving around the suburbs where I live, casual even, but I had both hands gripped on the steering wheel on the motorway. I’m sure it’ll get easier, I’ll become accustomed to it, but there’s a tangible fear that you’re hurtling 70mph alongside dozens of other vehicles doing the same.

Helldivers 2 developers have confirmed that you’ll have to manually change gears on your vehicles. This is exactly the kind of granular gameplay that would make piloting mechs so exciting and dangerous.

Now imagine doing that in a warzone. Imagine doing it when your limbs are surgically attached to those of your vehicle. Imagine doing it when any damage to your mech inflicts physical pain on yourself. Every bullet into its armour feels like you’ve been shot. Every bug biting your toes feels like an amputation. I don’t know the lore behind Helldivers 2’s mechs, but I can’t wait to know more.

Mechs and Helldivers 2 are brothers in arms. They’re like Ash and Pikachu, bangers and mash, or blue cheese and mince pies (trust me). They feel like they’re meant to be together, and I’m ready to do my part and jump back in.

Next: Apex Legends Season 20 Has Finally Started Rewarding Teamwork