The Illuminate threat has spend the last few days on a collision course with Super Earth, and now the planet is under siege as players face the extraction shooter’s biggest challenge yet. A new Heart of Democracy update ups the stakes and adds urban warfare, as Helldivers 2' player count once again surges. It’s basically War of the Worlds meets Halo 3: ODST out there right now.
The invasion will task players with activating cannons to take out the Illuminate ships and team up with AI-controlled ally troops patrolling the local Mega City streets. There will also be citizen NPCs running for their lives. Players will have to protect that lot as well, and will be punished for any friendly fire accidents.
Here’s the Heart of Democracy trailer:
Helldivers 2 has been in a bit of a lull for the last few months, but last week’s massive patch got many fans to dust off their drop pods and log back on with the addition of weapon customization, new melee armaments, and lots of arsenal re-balancing. The game’s concurrent player count is now headed back well beyond 100,000 on Steam where most of the game’s hardcore community plays.
The AI-controlled ally SEAF trooper squads are the biggest draw so far. While players have spent over a year of Helldivers 2 fighting again massive alien armies alone or with three other teammates, the Super Earth battlefields are full of NPCs to aid them as part of the planet’s defenses. That includes shooting at giant Illuminate tripod units, but also things as simple as pushing buttons to unlock weapon cashes and saluting as you run by. They are meant to be expendable, but players are protecting them like all of their Super Samples depend on it.
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