At The Game Awards, Arrowhead Game Studios surprised everyone by revealing that the Illuminate, thought to be gone forever, are back in Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 players faced the Illuminate, who had been quietly plotting against Super Earth for over 100 years, but players managed to stop them within a week. PC Gamer reported that more than 100,000 gamers joined the fight in a single day, the highest turnout since April. The Illuminate, once feared, are now just a punchline among players. The battle on Calypso was one of the most intense and bloody encounters ever seen in the game.
Fans sometimes wish they could join such epic battles in real life.
The meme community highlights how narrowly victory was achieved, emphasizing that the sheer number of active players was crucial. If the Illuminate come back for round two, it might not be as easy if the players can’t gather their forces again. Earlier in the year, Arrowhead unveiled a plan to tackle some of the game’s problems over 60 days, and a significant update in September fixed many of these issues. Even though there’s no story mode planned, Helldivers 2 became a record-breaking PlayStation hit and snagged a spot on GameSpot’s Best Games of 2024 list.
