The bugs are back in town. Seriously, they are back with a vengeance. I know this because the in-game characters keep screaming “It’s been seven years!” over and over again that I’ve come to believe that’s the games unofficial catch phrase. The only problem if the little fact that the last game took place in 2017 making it… well, eight years, but I digress as I don’t know the series canon.
Earth Defense Force 2025, published by D3Publisher and developed by Sandlot, is an arcade shooter sticking firmly to games of days gone by. This is my first exposure to the world of Earth Defense Force and its crazy large bugs/creatures/aliens/robot world. There is something strangely satisfying about getting lost in the simplicity of the games mechanics; shoot bug go boom. It’s a great deal of fun to rip through hordes of creepy crawlies with the variety of classes and weapons the game has to offer. There is nothing like having the ability to carpet bomb and level an entire city block, especially when I do it by accident killing my compatriots while learning the different classes.
Each of the games eighty-five levels starts with you selecting one of four classes before jumping into the carnage. You can equip the loadout of each character with a load of firearms, accessories and special items all of which you can collect within each mission. Each of the four classes plays in entirely different ways from each other. If you are new to the world of Earth Defense Force like I was, you will be best off selecting the Ranger class which is the most well-rounded of the bunch. The three remaining classes include the Air Raiders who can call in driveable vehicles and call in targeted air strikes but has a very weak set of weapons that aren’t very effective in close quarters combat. Wing Divers, the unit of choice for my co-op partner during this review, are very fast and agile allowing for short bursts of sustained flight but have the lowest armor rating in the game. Finally we are left with the Fencers which is the most powerful class in the game with their gatling guns and ability to dual wield weapons, but suffer from being terribly, terribly slow.
Earth Defense Force is okay in single player, but you will find yourself pretty bored from the simplicity and repetitive nature of the game. This is an arcade game at heart, so levels will just ramp up the amount of enemies for you to mow down. The graphics are nothing to write home about either as this game is clearly not running on the Unreal 3 engine, or any engine that makes it look cutting edge. The engine works fine, but you would be forgiven for thinking the game was a very early PS3/360 launch title. The graphics, while not mind-blowing, still do their part and lend to the sense that Earth Defense Force is a campy affair, reminiscent of low-budget B-movies of the 1950s. The voice over work is just as over the top and provided us with a number of laughs, even if characters tended to repeat themselves quite a bit.
Multiplayer is where Earth Defense really shines. Eighty-five levels can quickly become a tedious affair by yourself, but with others the fun really ramps up. It’s a blast to coordinate with others and play off of each of the character classes. I’m not usually a fan of multiplayer, but here I had more fun working with others to accomplish a defined goal, as opposed to capturing a flag or camping out shooting everyone. I ran dozens of levels in split-screen co-op but there were noticeable signs of slowdown all throughout our play session. The game’s engine was chugging along trying to render everything and came to an almost crawl when large and destructive specials were used.
Earth Defense Force is a fun and frantic arcade style shooter that will please fans of the series but leave new players wondering what generation the game came out in. The multiplayer extends the game while it lasts, but there just isn’t enough “meat” underneath the games campy exterior to make it a must have for new players.
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