Over the weekend, Helldivers 2 players have successfully destroyed their first enemy combatant. For the first time since the game launched, the Automaton menace has been wiped off the galactic map.
We thought this might be coming — the US team wrote about the commencement of the new major order, Operation Swift Disassembly, on Saturday morning (their Friday). Even then, it seemed entirely possible that the Helldivers could finish the bots off before the weekend was out.
And then, at 5:38 AM AEDT, the news came through: the bots were done.
“Mission accomplished,” reads the missive from Super Earth. The galaxy is free! Job done! (The job is nowhere near done.)
An entire galaxy of Helldivers now turns its attention to the insect-like Terminids. The bugs have been held at bay the last few weeks but, with Super Earth’s forces now left with nothing better to do, their time may be up as well.
As the US team pointed out in their piece, this is not the first time the Helldivers series has allowed players to wipe an enemy faction out. The original game was happy to let players have a win. The galactic map would usually be reset several weeks later, all factions would be back on the table, and the battle for the galaxy would begin again.
But before Helldivers 2 players celebrate too hard, the worst may be yet to come. The fall of the Automatons likely means that the Illuminate, the third enemy faction from the original, are ready to take the stage. Weeks of rumours and purported evidence suggest that the Illuminate have been here the whole time, watching, waiting for their moment to strike. What better time than in the glow of a decisive victory over a vicious opponent?
Keep an out over the next few days, Helldivers 2 players. If the Illuminate are coming, shit might be about to get incredibly real, incredibly fast.
Image: Arrowhead Game Studio, AP, Kotaku Australia
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