Oh jeez, they weren't kidding, Helldivers 2's Illuminate are terrifying—and the best/worst of both worlds

In case you've committed undemocratic heresy and had your Super Earth broadcasts turned off, let me illuminate (heh) the situation for you—the Illuminate are here in Helldivers 2, and boy howdy are they pissed off. In a recent interview with us here at PC Gamer, Arrowhead Games' CCO Johan Pilestedt promised that the Illuminate would prove a challenge even for seasoned players.

I, like a fool, like an utter clown, brushed this off as mere braggadocio. It's like he says—developers often tend to underestimate players, right? There's absolutely no way the Illuminate can be as harrowing as he's implying, correct? Incorrect, as it turns out. The design of these buggers is utterly devilish. An unholy marriage between the Terminids and the Automatons, forged into something far scarier.

Let me explain what I mean by that: Typically speaking, the Terminids of Helldivers 2 are a threat that's all about spacing. You need to make sure you aren't getting overwhelmed, but doing so usually involves standing in front of the horde and mowing them down with an eye on the horizon. It's a very reactive playstyle: see bug, shoot bug.

The Automatons, meanwhile, are all about finding solid cover or terrain—almost every unit has some kind of ranged capability, meaning you're often angling for ways to thin the herd without standing in the middle of an eminently glassable field. That is until a hulk rocks up and tries to melt you, but that's sort of the point: You've got to be proactive about taking out major threats before the rare melee unit threatens whatever safety bubble you've obtained.

The Illuminate, with my admittedly limited experience, mix up both of these playstyles. The zombies—hilariously called the 'Voteless'—are a threat that slowly grows on the ground level. Just like any good zombie, they're absolute chump fodder on their own, but when you're getting swarmed by them? They're area denial on two legs. Which is a problem because, well, the rest of the Illuminate is trying to glass you from above.

There are a few tankier ground units, but the main Illuminate threat are its jetpack boys and striders—evasive and shielded ranged bastards with complete air superiority. This throws any prospective diver into an immediate Catch-22: Either you focus on the airborne troops, and risk the zombies and soldiers on the ground surrounding you, or you focus on the ground level, and risk getting slowly overwhelmed by the alien equivalent of hornets (if hornets also had plasma rifles, and hated you for breathing. More than hornets already hate you, I mean).

There are a few saving graces here. Already, my crossbow primary is serving me well, since Illuminates will always drop in as conveniently-grouped clusters thanks to the limited scope of their ships' tractor beams. Meanwhile, you can tear through those jetpack boys if your aim's good enough, and a strong enough hit to their backpacks'll blow them right up.

Otherwise, though, the Illuminate are already horrifying—and you know what? Good. I've been in full support of the recent updates Arrowhead's been making to its game, but I get what our own Morgan Park said in the aftermath of those buffs. The game has, in a sense, become easier. However, while it might just be a case of adjusting and gitting gud—I've only tango'd with these freaks for a couple of hours at the time of writing—the Illuminate are shaping up to be a severe threat to the free galaxy.