Posted by Helldivers 2 recently received its brand new “Devoid of Liberty” major update that takes us inside the mysterious Void as we fight the Illuminate and try to shut down the unnatural corruption of our space. I’ve heard people online decry the update as “Devoid of Content.” Let’s talk about it.
“Devoid of Liberty” completes the trifecta of major updates focused on enemy home world type territory begun with “Into the Unjust.” However, it is worth noting that “Devoid of Liberty” differs noticeably from the last two updates. “Into the Unjust” introduced the Rupture Strain, Dragonroaches, and Hive Lords. While the bugs aren’t necessarily a hierarchical faction, it felt like fighting the new enemies, and especially the Hive Lords, was an escalation of the conflict as we now faced something stronger than we have before. “Machinery of Oppression” was even more obvious as we fought the new Cyborg enemies who were touted as the puppeteers controlling the Automaton masses. “Devoid of Liberty” introduces two new enemies: Crushers and Wretches. Wretches are another chaff enemy that overwhelms you with high numbers. Honestly, they remind me a lot of Terminind Hunters from how they stick in packs of three, move horizontally, and do annoying damage. I have a mixed view of the Wretches. I don’t think that they’re bad enemies, but they can be really frustrating. They tend to travel in large groups so when you see one, you’re not just facing one. They have a jump attack with insane range and feels really hard to dodge (think Rupture strain emerging from the ground pre-nerf). Every attack also does about half of your health and will injure a limb. They can feel really frustrating to fight sometimes. Next up is the Crusher. The Crusher is a new heavy enemy, and I think that they’re one of the best designed enemies in the game. Crushers will one-shot you. However, they’re very slow. You can kill them by wailing on their unprotected legs, or knocking their heavy helmets off and destroying their squishy heads. They do regenerate health, so you have to deal with them quickly, but I really like how they have a clear way of fighting and countering them that feels rewarding to do that isn’t just “throw anti-tank at it.”
These two enemies are added into the new Vote-Snatchers sub-faction. The only other enemies in this sub-faction are Voteless and Fleshmobs. That’s kind of a disappointment. It feels like Mindless Masses 2 with minimal changes. And herein lies the big issue with the Illuminate, and the biggest issue with this update: the Illuminate roster is (still) way too small. They needed a lot more new enemies added this update, not just two. And while I understand that these enemies are directly related to the Void corruption, they don’t carry the same gravitas that the previous major update enemies did, if that makes sense. Maybe it’s because the Illuminate faction is more invasive than the other factions, so us taking the fight to them is more us going deep into the enemy lines to worlds that were once ours before they were stolen as opposed to pushing into the enemy home worlds. Regardless, the distinction I’m trying to get at is that when we fought the new additions to the other factions, it felt like we had moved up to fight a new opponent with a real connection to the enemy home worlds. The new Illuminate units feel like additions to pad the roster rather than elevate it. And again, this just loops back to the problem of the Illuminate having too limited of a roster. Chopping their already limited roster up into three sub-factions just to match the other factions feels like a mistake. There are 13 enemies in the Illuminate roster post-update (14 if you count Leviathans, but I find it hard to do so seeing as they’re limited to difficulty 8 and up and are tied to specific modifiers). Now compare that to the 23 Automaton units, which then jumps up to 37 once I account for each sub-faction. The Terminid roster contains 21 units before sub-factions, and then 30 enemies after. That’s a really big difference in numbers, especially when you can fight all 21-23 enemies plus relevant sub-faction enemies during a given operation whereas the baseline for Illuminate becomes MAYBE seven at most, and that’s with pretty liberal estimates. The Illuminate roster is bad, and this update does little to fix it, but instead just dilutes it more while strangely trying to keep pace with the other factions.
“Devoid of Liberty” also introduces the Void biomes. They’re fine. The biomes have an eery dark blueness to them where it always feels like nighttime. There’s nothing particularly egregious about them, but the converse is that there’s nothing standout about them. They’re perfectly adequate. They do introduce some new weather in the form of the tornado. The tornado sucks. It ragdolls you and instakills you if you touch it. I did only encounter it on the planet adjacent to the Void, but yeah it wasn’t fun.
There are also a handful of new mission objectives, and a new mission type. The mission type is called Repel Invasion Fleet, and it tasks you with running around a map and destroying Illuminate Warp Ships as they land. I really appreciate having more variety for missions on the shorter side. These ones can be tough, especially if you aren’t keeping pace with the ships spawning, but if you are, it’s not too bad. According to the wiki, there’s also a new Blitz to Suppress Toxic Pollination and destroy Void Blossoms, but I actually haven’t seen this one in-game yet (I think). Destroying Void Blossoms does appear as a new main objective as part of the introduced Infiltrate Illuminate Lair missions. These missions include a combination of new objectives: Destroy Void Blossoms, Destroy Gazer Spire, Cleanse Foul Shrine, and Condemn Illicit Experiments. Variety is good; I like variety. Gazer Spires are big towers that laser you and need to be blown up. Void Blossoms are little flower clusters that need to be blown up (similar to destroying Terminid egg nests). Their gas can also invert your controls temporarily, so that’s fun. Condemning Illicit Experiments requires you to call down a camera and record a few points of interest before dumping the camera back inside a container. This one is probably the most different and interesting of the new missions and objectives. Cleanse Foul Shrine might be the worst of the objectives because it requires you to call down a drill, defend it while it drills, then detonate a big gas explosion. Defending the drill can really suck, especially because it can get damaged, which resets the timer to either the beginning or the halfway mark depending on how far you got. So yeah, that’s annoying, especially when you’re constantly getting overwhelmed by enemies and quite literally have no time to breathe. Lastly, there are two new sub-objectives. The first is to take the GATER and collect anomalous material. It’s a solid little side mission and I do like it. The other one is to destroy an enemy encampment, which unlocks a second extraction zone that you can use. This is a great addition that can add a lot of nice variety to the mission and traversing the map.
I’m not going to rake through the patch notes and provide exhaustive thoughts on nerfs and buffs. The last few major highlights I want to touch on are increased level caps, more emote slots, and a SEAF update. The first two are cool; that’s about it; not much else to say really. The SEAF update is fun because it means that there’s a modifier where Super Earth soldiers will spawn during the mission and help you out. You can recruit them and bring them with you to clear objectives. They also received some buffs, such as specialized units that can heal you, or gun you down instantly with a machine gun. I really like the new SEAF update, and it feels like an impactful change that can dramatically change the flow of missions and help you escape from or fight through battles that could normally overwhelm you.
Lastly, there’s a new Warbond: Castellan’s Creed–the Warhammer 40,000 collab. The Warbond introduces the Hot-Shot Marksman Rifle. It’s fine. It’s medium penetration with decent damage. I’d probably like it more if I used it on the bot front and not the squid front, but so far I’ve been sufficiently whelmed. The Bolt Pistol, however, is outstanding. It’s heavy penetration, hits hard, and feels satisfying to use. The biggest downside is that it’s ammo reserves are a little low. It has low ammo capacity in the magazine, which is fine, but I wish you could carry a few more magazines total. Next up is the throwable Melta Mine. These are a mixed bag. They can be really strong and effective for taking out big targets, but they’re mines. That means that you can’t just throw them out and expect the problem to blow up immediately. Their throw range is annoyingly short, which has definitely caused a few deaths on my end. They also aren’t always the most consistent. I can usually get them to blow up and take out a Fleshmob, Crusher, or Harvester, but the horde of Voteless rushing me down is another story. When the Melta Mine works, it WORKS, but when it doesn’t, I really regret my choice of throwable. The last weapon added is the Meltagun Support Weapon. It briefly charges up before firing a high damage beam of energy. It’s very strong. Yes, it is limited by low range, but it’s a respectable tradeoff when the thing is capable of outputting some of the highest burst damage in the game at a really high penetration level. Yes, the ergonomics suck and it can be a pain to aim, but it’s a valid tradeoff. The new armor is fine. It allows you to reload Support Weapons faster and buffs your ergonomic drag. Aesthetically it’s ok; truth be told, the Imperial Guard has never been my favorite Warhammer 40k faction. The cosmetics are cosmetics; there’s nothing more to say there. Overall, this Warbond does set a new standard for what the Legendary Warbonds should be like; it’s a good Warbond.
I think that calling “Devoid of Liberty” “Devoid of Content” is disingenuous and just further cements my opinion that the Helldivers 2 online community has nothing better to do than cry about the game they claim to love. Yes, the update isn’t perfect. The Illuminate roster still feels annoyingly lacking, and adding in another sub-faction that isn’t terribly distinct from an existing one and only muddies the faction roster more. There’s still a chance that something big happens or gets revealed seeing as we’re on the cusp of liberating the Void Source Planet and (supposedly) ending the Void, but I’m not exactly holding my breath. I’ve noticed that Arrowhead tends to be pretty upfront about new additions (even the supposedly hidden Hive Lord who actually appeared quite prominently at the end of the trailer and in the main update screen), so we’ll just have to wait and see. “Devoid of Liberty” is not the worst major update this game has seen. It’s not perfect, but it’s far from bad or devoid of content.
