At this point, Helldivers 2 will actually get its long-rumored third faction – the Illuminate from the first game – it feels like we’ve been talking about this for years. But now there’s fresh hope in the form of a game update from Steam Magazine that’s literally titled, um, “gameplay_illuminates.”
No, I’m not teasing you. It seems that Arrowhead for some reason decided to go with something as potentially literal as Democracy Space Station in their name because of what they did with the game today, naturally sparking speculation about the guys we all thought might show up again in Galactic War around the time Meridia fell into spaghetti, and several times after.
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As astute subreddit user Helldivers 2 Dangerous-Return5937 pointed out, according to SteamDBHelldivers 2 received a magazine update today that was literally called “gameplay_illuminates.” There is no further information on what this update actually means – whether it heralds the coming of the Illuminati, as its title suggests, or when they might be introduced in the game.
Just a name in a place where anyone with an internet connection can find it, which means it’s not technically even a leak, depending on how you classify such things. Of course, players are divided on what to think about this. Those who want to believe are excited, while others prefer to wait and see, and some are simply confused.
As some in the latter camp have pointed out, it seems odd that – if it is the Illuminati – the Arrowhead would choose to give it such an obvious name. While it has added other recent updates to titles like “studio_playtest” and “gameplay_worlds,” it has also rolled out a few updates under names like “mimosa,” “orion,” and “wushu” that are much less likely to spark potentially unnecessary player speculation.
As one moderator of the HD2 subreddit put it: “If anything, Arrowhead is kind of asking for it by giving the magazine update this title.” Either way, some people are still convinced that the studio will turn out to be trolling them rather than making a mistake. “I can’t wait until there’s a lighting update in gameplay and everyone gets cheated,” one of them wrote.
For now, it seems prudent not to make too much noise considering that even when it comes to the Illuminati, there’s no guarantee they’ll arrive properly any time soon, but definitely let us know what you think of this weirdness below!
