In Helldivers 2: Omens of Tyranny, a new faction takes up arms – and absolutely crushes us in the first few rounds.
Their return was long considered an open secret in the community. Now it’s finally official: the update Omens of Tyranny
brings the alien species known as the Illuminate to the galactic campaign of
Even before the reveal, we were already taking on the new faction as the top-secret advance guard of the super-Earth. After just two hours, one thing is clear: Helldivers 2 is going to have to change fundamentally!
New threat, new tactics
The Illuminate are opening up a third theater of war next to bots and bugsin the southern part of the star map and are threatening to advance from there to the center.
As with the other alien races, we park our destroyer in orbit of a corresponding planet and jump into the fray against the “Squids”, as the Illuminates are disparagingly named by the forces of Super-Earth.
Once on the battlefield, however, we quickly realize: we need completely new tactics against this new threat!
Because the Illuminati not only send hordes of zombie space colonists, who have been turned into mindless cannon fodder through mind control, after us, but also elite troops that are almost impossible to crack.
Watch our bitter fight for survival here:
What makes the Illuminate so tough?
To put it briefly: the Illuminate gave us a mighty beating! Even on the medium difficulty level 5, which is actually not a big problem for more experienced Helldivers, we were forced into desperate rearguard actions faster than we could say “controlled democracy”.
Many of the new opponents (and their vehicles) have powerful energy shields that we cannot easily penetrate with most conventional weapons. Only with heavy orbital weapons such as railguns or lasers (or with long continuous fire from some hand weapons) can the defenses be brought to their knees – but only briefly!
If we don’t exploit the gap in time and immediately blow up the weakened enemies, the shield will reappear and we’ll be back to square one. This costs valuable ammunition and time!
This puts a much stronger focus on teamwork and the combination of different stratagems and makes soloing more difficult than against bots and bugs.
The following new archetypes gave us particular trouble:
- Watcher: These nimble beasts are the Illuminate’s flying eyes – if they spot us, they call for reinforcements and also annoy with electric shocks.
- Harvester: These slow-moving Tripods fire a devastating energy beam from their eye and have powerful shields.
- Illuminate Ship:These stationary UFOs constantly spawn zombie hordes and their extra-thick shields can withstand multiple spear hits.
- Cognitive Disruptor:The radiation from this nasty obelisk messes with our HUD and changes stratagem codes. Annoying and dangerous!
We’re going to town (finally)!
The new aliens are forcing even well-rehearsed teams to rethink. But the colony cities, which we find on many of the planets threatened by the Illuminati, provide a completely new feeling. Mikael Eriksson, Game Director of Helldivers 2, explains:
For the first time, there are real settlements that stand in stark contrast to the more natural landscapes we’ve seen so far. Here we see how the settlers live in the colonies of Super Earth. And it gives the threat a new dimension – after all, the Illuminati turn the people there into zombies!
But that also means, of course, that urban warfare is finally making an appearance in Helldivers 2! The street fighting between office buildings and parking lots provides a whole new feel and also takes the physical destruction to a whole new level.
When we take down an Illuminati UFO with a rocket launcher and it crashes, spectacularly reducing an entire row of houses to ashes and rubble, our jaws drop briefly. The entire effects bombast of Helldivers 2 reaches a whole new dimension in the colonies.
“Laughs per minute” as currency
Speaking of street fighting: Of course, there is also new equipment to deal with the new alien threat. The matching Warbond “Urban Legends”, for example, includes an anti-tank gun and an electric shock baton as a melee weapon.
In addition, the M-102 Recon Vehicle allows us to bring the first new ground vehicle to the battlefield since the mechs. The buggy offers space for an entire squad and a gunner position at the MG. Fully occupied, it gives you that real battlefield feeling!
None of the new tools in the arsenal feels overwhelmingly powerful right away. On the contrary: the jeep is only lightly armored and tends to lose a tire quickly under fire – and then the already challenging controls quickly become super tricky.
“New elements shouldn’t just be powerful. They should be challenging, raise the skill level and open up new approaches,” Mikael Eriksson makes clear. “We measure , and that’s an important metric for us. If everyone is just playing quietly and intently, we haven’t done our job properly.”
So even with Omens of Tyranny, Helldivers 2 remains true to its principle that not everything has to be perfectly balanced, as in a competitive PvP shooter. Instead, it’s about fulfilling a “power fantasy,” inspired by role models like Starship Troopers, Alien, or Star Wars.
The Editors’ Verdict
For me as a Helldivers fan, Omens of Tyranny delivers everything I’ve dreamed of in a new faction. It’s not a simple reskin of bugs or bots, nor is it a straightforward port of the Illuminate from the first game. Instead, it presents us with a completely new challenge – in my opinion, these tough aliens represent the endgame of Helldivers 2!
The fact that tried and tested strategies suddenly no longer work and teamwork is now more important than ever makes this update all the more exciting. A whole new meta will develop from weapons, stratagems and tactics as we, as a community, work together to uncover the hidden weaknesses of these new adversaries. Did you know that hitting a harvester’s shield generator instantly disables the shield?
Helldivers 2 has always been a sandbox where crazy and unexpected things happen. And that sandbox just got so much bigger.
