The last one Helldivers 2 The update is the biggest yet, and fans aren’t happy about the balance changes and flamethrower nerfs designed to make the game’s liberal application of cleansing flames less overwhelmingly popular. While many players are eagerly anticipating more buffs to Arrowhead, I’m excited for an entirely different reason: there’s a big cloud of Terminid spores called the Gloom, and I can’t wait to see what big scary bugs come out of the slowly evolving Terminid Control System storyline.
You might say, “But Cass! Arrowhead just added new enemies, like the Impaler! Doesn’t that give you butterflies in your stomach for some major insect mayhem?”
I like the Impaler. This big, Charger-like beast splits its face plates open, burrows them into the ground, and leaves tentacles everywhere you go. It’s fairly balanced; you can kill it with anything that would kill a Charger in one shot, or wait for its face to open up so you can shoot it.
I like to imagine an alternate reality where I saw my first Impaler, thought, “Huh, that Charger seems a little lackluster,” and then started screaming as it sprouted tentacles around me. But I read about the Impaler and its tricky tactics well in advance, on a Sony blog , rather than actually encountering one in the wild.
Something I like about Helldivers 2 is the unreliable point of view; all of our information comes from Super Earth, who are textually the bad guys. Other players are generally a much better source of information, providing updates from the battlefield. It was chilling to see people posting clips of Automaton ships taking to the skies, and it gave a real sense of escalation.
Even better would be if Super Earth responded to earlier revelations by denying everything — No, there are no gunboats or air-Terminids… — until they were forced to admit it by the overwhelming presence of the new enemy, in which case they would say that there always They’ve flown Terminid and big bone ships, and it doesn’t even matter because they’re so weak and pathetic.
In previous patches, it was a thrill to see new threats organically appear on the battlefield. I hope we continue to see these types of slowly emerging threats. It fosters a sense of community as players share threats with each other. Helldivers 2 is also in a somewhat unique situation. Since propaganda from our superiors in the game is such a big part of the setting, it makes sense that the game would actively manipulate players about new enemies and updates.
There’s still plenty of room for these kinds of surprises, given the black hole we’ve left on Meridia and the rumors of an impending third faction. Helldivers 2 continues, I hope Arrowhead doesn’t switch to sharing upcoming surprises in blog posts and promo material. I definitely want to be shocked when these new enemies show up and turn my poor Helldiver into a thick salsa; it keeps things fresh.