Helldivers 2 has enjoyed highs and lows after launch, but a new trailer at The Game Awards is perhaps one of the most exciting post-launch developments yet. The new trailer shows a combo of exciting additions: one, the new enemy faction, the Illuminate, who originally appeared in the first game; two, vehicles that Helldivers can use to ride through battlefields; and three, combat in urban environments. These are all part of a new update, Omens of Tyranny, which looks like it’ll seriously change the pace of the online shooter’s galaxy-wide war.
Since launch, players have been embroiled in combat with two factions: the Terminids, a race of giant insect monsters, and the Automatons, an army of deadly robots. So far, the Helldivers have been engaged in a war on two fronts. We battled back the Terminids, only for them to create an impenetrable wall of spores in their regions of space. The Automatons have been a continual thorn in Super Earth’s side, and the Democracy Station that players worked together to build is deep in their territory.
A third faction is going to only complicate things further, especially since it looks like they use potent psychic powers to control the corpses of dead humans so they can use them as an army. The walker showcased at the end of the trailer looks particularly alarming, and I can’t wait to learn how to topple those beasts.
The end of the trailer says that the update is live now; upon logging into Helldivers 2 I received the following message from Super Earth:
EMERGENCY ALERT! — EMERGENCY ALERT! — EMERGENCY ALERT!
ALL UNITS
DISREGARD ALL PRIOR IORDERS
REPLACEMENT ORDERS TO FOLLOW THIS MESSAGE
REPLACEMENT ORDERS TO FOLLOW THIS MESSAGE
