What's up gamers? I'm really excited about the launch of this new update, this huge patch that comes packed with everything new for the 3 year anniversary celebration. It comes loaded with a ton of stuff for the PvE mode, and today we tried out the first mission of the PvE mode in this new update, called: INFERNO. The interesting thing about these missions is that they run parallel to everything happening in the game's campaign, so many of them will belong to those squads that were handling other jobs while we were playing as Lieutenant Titus, letting us find out what was going on on the other side of the story.
The PvE mode is completely separate from the PvP
Something interesting we noticed for the first time jumping into PvE is that it's completely separate from PvP. Same classes, same interfaces, but the mods, weapon experience, character, and rank are going to be completely different for this mode compared to PvP. This gives the player a brand new experience that doesn't stay limited to the simple online PvP clash, and it's something that adds a lot of life to the game and genuinely makes sense with the roadmap the team has laid out to extend the game's lifespan all the way to 2027.
Having this separation means your progress in one mode doesn't just carry over automatically into the other, which could sound annoying at first, but honestly it works in the game's favor. It basically gives you two full progression systems to chase, two sets of cosmetics to unlock, two different ways to build out your loadout depending on whether you're going up against other players or fighting side by side against the Tyranid swarm. For someone like me who already sunk a bunch of hours into PvP, starting fresh here in PvE actually feels exciting instead of like a grind, because there's a whole new set of things to work toward.
INFERNO mission in KADAKU
This mission represents the first one of the new mode, and it's the Talasa squad's mission to plant a bomb in the middle of the Xenos swarm, which lets us learn the story of this squad while they're carrying out the bombing to weaken and wipe out the swarm. It's a pretty great way to open up this new content, since it immediately throws you into a different perspective from the one we got with Titus, and you can feel right away that this squad has its own dynamic, its own way of handling pressure, and its own stakes in this whole war.
Playing through it, you really get that same sense of scale and chaos the campaign is known for, except now you're seeing it unfold from a completely different angle. It's a smart move from a storytelling perspective too, since it fills in gaps in the overall timeline instead of just rehashing things we already saw. By the time the bomb goes off and the mission wraps up, you genuinely feel like you just watched a piece of the bigger war that was happening while we were busy elsewhere with Titus and his squad.
Breathing new life into the game
This mode takes us out of the typical PvP clash, but it's also not the same as the campaign's co-op mode, and that gives the game new life, not just on the lore side like I mentioned before, but also in terms of raw hours of gameplay and action, with more than 13 missions to enjoy just within the Operations mode alone. And that's not even counting the SIEGE mode and Stratagems, which I haven't tried yet. Today I only got through Operations.
Having this much content thrown in for a 3 year anniversary update is honestly impressive. A lot of games this age start slowing down on content drops, but here it feels like Saber Interactive is doubling down instead, which lines up with everything they've said about keeping this game alive and growing all the way through 2027. For someone who already finished the campaign and spent a good chunk of time in PvP, having 13-plus fresh missions to chew through feels like getting a whole new game bolted onto the one I already loved.
Enjoyment and group action
In these missions, you obviously have clear objectives to complete and a bunch of enemies to wipe out. Here the Xenos can call in reinforcements and waves of swarms that'll try to take you and your squad down, so this is where quick thinking, melee combat, and fast weapon switching get put to the test over and over again across the huge, sprawling environments this game is known for. I honestly don't have anything to criticize here, I'm genuinely very satisfied with it.
What really stands out is how well this plays with a squad. Coordinating with two other players to hold a position while waves of Xenos pour in from every direction brings out a completely different kind of tension compared to soloing enemies in the campaign. Someone's covering a flank, someone's reviving a downed teammate, someone's holding the line with heavy weapons fire, and it all comes together into these chaotic, satisfying firefights that make you want to immediately queue up for the next mission the second one ends.
Much easier customization
Even though the customization menu is almost identical to the one in PvP, it does have a few differences and extra specifications that the PvP menu doesn't have, like abilities, weapon mastery, and a lot more. It genuinely feels more robust here, like they took the base system from PvP and expanded it to fit the depth that a PvE progression system usually needs.
So, gamers, there are still a lot of options and processes in this game I haven't explored yet, and I'll be thrilled to keep sharing them with you in a future post. Between INFERNO, the rest of the Operations missions, and whatever SIEGE and Stratagems turn out to be, it looks like this 3 year anniversary update just gave me months of fresh content to dig into. See you in a next post!
