Helldivers 2 director says the new Illuminate update is for the most hardcore players: "You can’t match everyone’s needs"

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Casuals, watch out

Helldivers 2
(Image credit: Arrowhead)

Helldivers 2 just released its crushing new Omens of Tyranny update, and developer Arrowhead wants you to know that it isn't for the faint of heart. 

"This content is for the more hardcore players," production director Alex Bolle told GamesRadar+ in a recent interview. 

Omens of Tyranny introduces the impressively horrible, tentacled Helldivers 2 Illuminate faction with its menacing, high-powered technology, throwing in a monstrous Fast Recon combat vehicle for players crusading against them. 

While most people would rather not interact with any kind of octopus people, Helldivers 2 fans have been eager for the fabled Illuminate faction to make an appearance. And for cars in their third-person shooter, obviously. 

So the Omens of Tyranny update is a welcome acknowledgement of fans' desires in a year where Arrowhead was sometimes plagued with "low lows," as Bolle put it, like review bombs and a disillusioned playerbase.  

"Yeah, we've made mistakes. It's like trial and error," Bolle said. "Understanding the player has been something super fun and interesting."

"It's kind of finding the magic recipe to make the game we want and they want — but who [are] 'they'?" Bolle continued. "It's something we talk about: 'the potion that will match everyone's needs.' You can't match everyone's needs, but you can create different content, like we do. This update is pretty much that — it's content for a certain type of player." And if you like getting blown apart by alien sadists, then you're that type.

Now that the Illuminate faction's arrived, Helldivers 2 is "finally the three-front battle of the galactic war" fans have been "waiting for."

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.