Things have been somewhat quiet on the Helldivers 2 front. With the slowing of content releases (again, due to popular demand) and a small hiatus for the devs to actually catch their breath following the meteoric release, people had almost started to feel comfortable in their unending war against the enemies of democracy.
But clearly this just will not do, because the kind folk at Arrowhead Game Studios have unleashed a look at the next phase of the game – turning the dial up to eleven with all manner of new enemies, new environmental threats and even a brand new difficulty designed to really show you the face of war.
It will all manifest in an update titled Escalation of Freedom, with a chunky 4 minute trailer detailing the pain and glory that awaits you:
Kicking off with an old face becoming a new threat, the dreaded Impaler returns to bolster the forces of the Terminds. An infamous enemy from the original Helldivers, the Impaler served as a ranged threat that would attack Helldivers with its burrowing tentacles. Many thought the transition of the game to being a third-person shooter would render the Impaler extinct, because surely the developers wouldn’t translate the offscreen danger of the original enemy into a freakish game of cat and mouse – scanning the tree line to figure out where your tentacle-tickle buddy might be hiding.
How wrong they were.
The developers also highlighted some new enemy variants that are coming to the game, with particular attention given to the Spore Charger and ‘Deadlier Brood Commanders’. The Spore Charger leans into other spore mechanics in the game, generating its own fog of smoky garbage around it – meaning you’ll likely encounter it when you are already half blind. As for the new Brood Commander, they mention that its quirk is summoning allies that aren’t the ones you are used to. Magnificent.
While not mentioned directly, the footage also shows one of the goofy Strider enemies – a bipedal Automaton walker – with an upgraded armoured canopy. I can imagine players all let out a unified groan, because the beauty of these baddies was the fact that the pilot was exposed and supremely easy to dispatch. Clearly, the robots are learning – because they have also deployed a massive missile tank to rain thunder on us all.
The trailer also spotlights some new environments, and environmental effects – the most interesting being the amended ‘Acid Rain’ modifier. This effect will now reduce the armour of enemies AND Helldivers when in effect, meaning your fire fights will now be a race to see who blasts who first.
Finally, the biggest feature on display is the introduction of a new difficulty level – going beyond the existing level 9 “Helldive”, this difficultly levels promises more enemies and even new outpost layouts to create giant sprawling enemy bases. It is clear to see why the update has the word ‘escalation’ in the title, because the entire update is a shift upwards on the crazy scale.
The one interesting omission from this girthy trailer is any mention of new guns or stratagems for the Helldivers – the entire video is based around new things to kill, but no new toys to do so. So my question is – will we see a new Warbond to offer some tools to deal with these new threats? Perhaps a personal nuke launcher to get rid of Impalers?
As for the release date, well it isn’t that far off – August 6, 2024. This is likely August 7 for us Aussies, so if you are keen to get your boots on the ground, now is a great time to shake off your ‘Diver rust and get yourself fighting fit.
Are you excited to assemble your squad and see stunning new locations and stunning new foes? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games