We Helldivers have been expecting the Illuminate to begin their invasion for months now. Pushed back by the end of the first galactic war, the threat from this race of squid-like aliens was suppressed, but never eliminated. Now they’re back for sure; however, I can’t exactly say that they’re back with a vengeance just yet.
The Illuminate invasion force, which we are in the process of decimating, was underwhelming, to say the least. While the force is large, it consists of little more than overseers (armoured infantry units), harvesters (tall and spindly three-legged machines with death rays), voteless (think zombies), and watchers (slow scout drones that aren’t much of a threat).
Tactics, or lack thereof
Tactically speaking, this makes the Illuminate the most boring of the three races currently attacking Super Earth (Terminids and Automatons being the other two). Up until the Illuminate invasion, helldives required loadouts built around dealing with three classes of enemies: lights, heavies, and tanks, with the occasional super tank being thrown in to the mix. This in turn required three classes of weaponry and strategems: light and medium pen weapons for lights and heavies, and anti-tank weapons for the up-armoured heavies and tanks. You also had aerial units requiring some form of anti-air – again, light or heavy depending on whether you were taking on shriekers or gunships.
There are more variation in this mix, but I won’t go into that here.
In addition, you had the option of taking heavy weapons like the autocannon or HMG to deal with everything, but you then had to deal with downsides like low ammo capacity, longer reload times, and a general lack of manoeuvrability. Generally, you’d need a well-balanced team that could handle the various enemy classes and their attack patterns. If you forgot anti-tank weapons or didn’t have a grenadier on a planet full of spewers, you were toast.
On top of this, you needed to plan around the race you’re facing. Terminids quickly swarm and overwhelm your position but are mostly melee fighters, requiring a high degree of mobility (lighter armour) and the use of area-of-effect weapons like flamethrowers and machine guns. Automatons, on the other hand, are slower but overwhelm with heavy firepower, requiring heavier armour and entrenched positions. You also required precision weaponry like snipers and rail guns because automatons tend to don much heavier armour (they’re robots, after all).
Where’s the cinema?
Enter the Illuminate. The bulk of the invasion force comprises slow zombies (voteless) and overseers (slow infantry), both of which can easily be handled by light and medium machine guns. The heaviest enemy is the harvester, which can also be handled by said machine guns owing to low armour and prominent weak spots. You can carry anti-tank weapons if you’d like to, but you’ll rarely get to use them.
Mobility isn’t critical, as the fastest Illuminates – the voteless – aren’t very fast or threatening. Neither are tactics, as a couple of machine gunners and/or turrets can hold off an entire army without breaking a sweat. You don’t necessarily need bombs or barrages or air strikes. The pace of the game feels slow, and while I averaged 550+ kills in the helldives I made, not once did I feel overwhelmed or challenged.
Helldivers 2 is meant to be a chaotic, cinematic, and yet tactical experience. Unfortunately, there’s none of that on the Illuminate front.
I hope this was just a probing force and that the dastardly Illuminate are holding back their best units for the true invasion that is to come later.
On the plus side, though, the new Urban Legends warbond has some fun toys.
