It's time to dive back into the fray, "Helldivers 2" fans. Managed Democracy has a slew of new threats — and our big-brained bug experts have got the lowdown on the top of the alien food chain!
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00:00It's time to dive back into the fray, Helldivers 2 fans. Managed Democracy has a slew of new
00:06threats, and our big-brained bug experts have got the lowdown on the top of the alien food chain.
00:12"...where we're gonna expand the game in big, meaningful ways."
00:16On August 6th, PlayStation and Arrowhead Game Studios will drop a massive expansion for
00:20Helldivers 2, and we've already gotten a peek at tons of new content coming to the game.
00:25This update to Escalation of Freedom aims to both improve and diversify the content of
00:30Helldivers 2, to keep the experience fresh. While fans have been excited to dig into several
00:36aspects of the new expansion, such as an additional difficulty rank for missions or
00:40the various quality-of-life improvements, the new enemies are clearly the highlight
00:44of the announcement. Helldivers 2 already has a wide variety of foes to give players
00:49a unique challenge during every mission. However, even this gallery of creepy-crawlies
00:54has become a bit mundane. Arrowhead needed to switch things up after Helldivers 2
00:58lost a chunk of its player base, resulting in the biggest overhaul so far.
01:03To kick off the big announcement, Arrowhead CCO Johann Peilestad and Design Director
01:09Niklas Malmborg revealed an enemy that veteran fans of the Helldivers franchise should recognize.
01:14Joining the insectoid legions of the Terminids is the Impaler. This dangerous enemy is both
01:19massive and heavily armored, providing a difficult challenge for even the most stalwart
01:24Helldivers.
01:25"...they will maybe cut off your escape route, and then you will probably have to stay and fight."
01:29Unlike other Terminids, the Impaler will root itself into the ground,
01:32spawning tentacles that can attack the player even over a large distance.
01:36Simply running away and keeping a safe distance has largely been a go-to strategy when dealing
01:41with Terminids, but the Impaler is set to shake things up a little,
01:45using its long-range appendages to arc various escape routes.
01:49Next, we have the Spore Charger, bringing a new twist to the enemy's straightforward tactics.
01:54Chargers generally act exactly as their name suggests, dealing huge amounts of damage by
01:59ramming and trampling Helldivers who get too close. However, their large size also means
02:04that players usually get a heads-up when they're attacking, allowing players to react appropriately.
02:09This all changes with the Spore Charger, which is masked by a dense fog at all times.
02:14Players caught in the fog will have no idea when or where this massive enemy is coming from
02:19until they're right up on them. While some fans are eager for this new enemy to join the ranks,
02:24many are more concerned that these new abilities will worsen some of the current issues posed by
02:28the baseline Chargers. One fan on the announcement video joked about the idea of, quote,
02:33"...adding fog to Chargers to make them scary,
02:36as if them spawning out of thin air every four seconds wasn't enough."
02:40For the last of the new Terminated enemies coming to Helldivers 2,
02:44Escalation of Freedom that we know of at least, we have a new version of the Brood Commanders.
02:49Apparently, the Alpha Commander is set to be a much larger and deadlier variant.
02:54As most players already know, the Brood Commanders are already tricky,
02:57since they have the ability to summon swarms of allies to protect them.
03:01The new Alpha Commander will function very similarly,
03:04although it can apparently take way more punishment than the regular Brood Commanders,
03:07and so can their backup swarms, which will be different… somehow. We'll see.
03:12"...the allies that it spawns will not be the ones that you're used to."
03:16Out of any of the new enemies, fans had the least to say about the new Alpha Commanders.
03:20While many of the other enemies bring about flashy new mechanics or interesting gimmicks,
03:24the Alpha Commander is more of a straightforward upgrade to a pre-existing enemy.
03:29Hopefully, players will start to feel a little more excited for the new
03:32Commander variant when more information is released.
03:35The Terminids aren't the only enemies getting a refresh. The Automatons are also receiving
03:41new artillery when Escalation of Freedom drops, in the form of Rocket Tanks. As the name suggests,
03:46these are massive vehicles that can fire long-range rockets to hit Helldivers from far away.
03:51Thankfully, the tanks fire in a large arcing pattern, presumably giving players plenty of
03:56time to react to the missiles as they rain from the sky. Players will no longer be able to camp
04:01and take out Automatons from afar, or else they risk sitting in range of the Rocket Tank's barrage.
04:06Fans have seemed to latch onto the Rocket Tank more than any of the other dangers announced so
04:10far. Something about the visual of multiple missiles raining on an unsuspecting group
04:15of Helldivers has tickled the fancy of the community as a whole.
04:18"...we've really ramped it up."
04:20Finally, a PlayStation blog post and clips from the announcement video
04:23also hint at many other bot surprises joining the game. Although they don't
04:28provide any specific information beyond the Rocket Tank, this suggests the game
04:32could receive some new Automaton types in the near future. Specifically, in the announcement
04:36video, when mentioning new enemies, the video shows off what appears to be a slightly more
04:41advanced variant of the Scout Strider, complete with additional weapons. However, nothing has
04:46been confirmed. Fans will just have to wait until August 6th to find out.
04:52After the announcement of Helldivers 2 Escalation of Freedom, hype for the game is at an all-time
04:57high. The reaction to the new content announced, especially the new enemies,
05:01seems to be mostly positive, showing that there's still a lot of love for the embattled co-op
05:05shooter. One fan referenced how naturally the universe of Helldivers 2 evolves and grows
05:10exponentially with every new update. They wrote,
05:14"...these guys struck gold by turning the universe into a constantly changing
05:18and evolving conflict, and not just a snapshot of a conflict."
05:21Another fan quipped, quote,
05:23"...we're so democratically back," which garnered over 4,000 likes with just one simple line.
05:29Even Helldivers who took a break from the game are impressed by the care going into the new update,
05:34with one commenter stating, quote,
05:36"...wow, this will actually make me go back into Helldivers. This looks great."