The Latest Hell Divers 2 The update is the biggest yet, with fans unhappy with the balance changes and flamethrower nerfs that are intended to reduce the popularity of liberal employ of the cleansing flame. While many players are eagerly awaiting more buffs from Arrowhead, I’m excited for a completely different reason: There’s a giant Terminid spore cloud called Gloom, and I can’t wait to see what large, scary bugs emerge from the slowly unfolding Terminid Control System storyline.
You might say, “But Cass! Arrowhead just added new enemies like the Impaler! Doesn’t that scratch your itch for a giant bug storm?”
I like the Impaler. This large Charger-looking beast splits its faceplates, embedding them in the ground and spreading its tentacles everywhere you go. It’s pretty balanced; you can kill it with anything that would kill a Charger in one shot, or wait for it to open its face so you can shoot inside.
I like to imagine an alternate reality where I saw my first Impaler, thought, “Hmm, that Charger seems a little sluggish,” and then screamed as tentacles sprouted around me. But I had read about the Impaler and its sneaky tactics long beforehand, on a Sony blog, rather than encountering it in the wild.
Something I love about Hell Divers 2 is an unreliable point of view; all of our information comes from Super Earth, who is a textually bad guy. Other players are usually a much better source of information, giving updates from the battlefield. Seeing people posting clips of Automaton ships taking to the sky was terrifying and gave a real sense of escalation.
Moreover, the Super Earth would react to previous revelations by denying everything — No, there are no battleships or airborne Terminids.… — until they were forced to admit it due to the overwhelming presence of a recent enemy, in which case they would say that Always I’ve flown Terminids and huge bot ships, but it doesn’t matter because they’re tender and pathetic.
In previous patches, it was invigorating to see recent threats emerge organically on the battlefield. I hope we continue to see these kinds of slow-burn threats. It encourages a sense of community as players share threats with each other. Hell Divers 2 is also in a fairly unique position; since propaganda from our in-game superiors is such a significant part of the setting, it makes sense for the game to actively manipulate players by suggesting recent enemies and updates.
There’s still plenty of room for these types of surprises, given the black hole we’ve left on Meridia and the rumors of a third faction approaching. Hell Divers 2 to be continued, I hope Arrowhead doesn’t move on to sharing upcoming surprises in blog posts and promotional materials. I want to be absolutely shocked when these recent enemies show up and turn my needy Helldiver into a fat salsa; it keeps things fresh.
