I prefer to suppose I’m a really affected person individual, in a position to put up with any life problem with a smile on my face. I’m well-behaved, well mannered, and forgiving. However there’s one factor that reliably drives me right into a fury, turning me into an enraged and incoherent idiot. That will be one of the irritating online game enemies of all time: the Stalker from Helldivers 2, a bug that someway appears like it’s making an attempt to focus on me, particularly, as a result of some deeply private grudge.
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has thrown out loads of sudden surprises, like a suicide mission to a bug-infested planet that ripped open a black gap, or a surprising Automaton counter-invasion days after we thought we had wiped the bots off the map. All of that is youngster’s play in comparison with the Stalker, an enemy that cloaks, waits to leap you, after which eviscerates you with its flickering tongue and slashing claws.
At first, Stalkers had been stealthy, however not fully cloaked; they’d a shimmery impact that allowed gamers to see their define at a distance, particularly throughout climate results like fog. Close to the top of April, Arrowhead modified this and made it so Stalkers are actually stealthed. It’s potential to glimpse slightly shimmer if the situations are excellent, however realistically, you’re in all probability going to get jumped after which completely thumped.
It’s gotten to the purpose the place, if I’m enjoying in opposition to Terminids, I middle my total technique round these hateful little beasts. I take advantage of the guard canine backpack to fry sneaky Stalkers. I roll with a grenade launcher, and as quickly as I get a whiff of Stalkers I begin searching down their nests so I can pelt them with grenades. If I don’t get to really feel protected and safe, why ought to they?
You’ll anticipate that with the passage of time, I might be extra ready to cope with Stalkers. You’ll be fallacious! I’m snug with a Bile Titan, and I’ve handled half a dozen Chargers with out breaking a sweat. I truly like preventing Automatons, although a variety of gamers discover them to be the scarier faction.
However fuck Stalkers. All my homies hate Stalkers. I’ll always remember the humiliating expertise of loading in to play a mid-level match as a two-man workforce with a buddy of mine, solely to search out ourselves air hockeyed backwards and forwards just like the saddest puck between a by no means ending stream of Stalkers.
There are methods to cope with these guys — shotguns, cautious headshots, sure stratagems — however months into the lifespan of Helldivers 2, they’re the one issues that make me genuinely mad. Time has not healed that exact wound in any respect. That’s an achievement, I suppose, so congratulations to the Stalker for claiming its place as one of the irritating online game enemies of all time.