A bold team member from Helldivers 2 secretly films Joel as he fights against Over-Earth with a robot. Then the Game Master shows that he is really evil.
Who is Joel?
- Joel’s full name is Joel Hakalax and he is a Swedish employee of the developer studio Arrowhead Game Studios.
- In Helldivers 2, Joel works as a so-called Game Master (GM). These are employees who either create in-game events, help with problems, punish misconduct, or resolve disputes.
- In Helldivers 2, Joel’s tasks primarily involve deciding which daily orders are active and where the enemies attack.
In the Helldivers 2 community, the name “Joel” is well known. Myths say he has superhuman powers. A newly posted video from Arrowhead shows: they are right.
In August, Helldivers will receive the largest update for the game so far. Here you can see the trailer for “Escalation of Freedom”:
Joel is evil and has a special power
What kind of video is this? Arrowhead posted a video on X.com that is supposed to show the Game Master Joel. They wrote about the video: “Did a brave member of our video team just manage to capture some rare footage of the elusive J.O.E.L?”
In the video, there is a person in a black hoodie sitting in front of several monitors. This person is supposed to be Joel. On the monitors, Helldivers 2 is running and we see that Joel is actually taking control of an enemy robot (a Hulk) and fights against a Helldiver. Additionally, there appears an option allowing Joel to fire a blue laser (Blue Beam) when he presses “Yes.”
Soon after, the cameraman had to cough, which made Joel discover him. Then the Game Master lets out an inhuman scream that sends the cameraman flying through the studio’s office. The video ends.
Here you can see the post on x.com including the video:
The video is clearly not meant to be serious, but definitely a funny way for the developer studio to engage with the community and utilize the saga of Joel. The players think so too.
What does the community say about the video? Some players celebrate the video for being a fun way to interact with the community. Others react in typical Helldivers fashion:
- “Little things like this make you appreciate the team behind this game. Stay strong, remain as you are, some of the other AAA studios can’t hold a candle to you. Thank you for your dedication.” (via X.com).
- “Holy shit, that was funny! If I were the CEO of Arrowhead, I would definitely allocate development time for a tool that lets me take control of random enemies on the battlefield to troll players.” (via Reddit)
- “I think it’s clear that Joel is not a person, but an entity.” (via Reddit)
However, some players also believe that the option to fire a blue laser shown in the video could be a reference to the Illuminated. This is an enemy faction from Helldivers 1. As early as March, part of the community thought the blue lasers in the sky were evidence of the new enemies’ appearance.
