After the grim over-seriousness of Insect Armageddon we're back on form with 4.1 TSoND. For those who need a recap Earth Defense Force puts you in the role of a soldier who must kill a billion giant insects, robots, aliens, kaiju, and UFO's that are invading the planet. It's ridiculous in premise and gameplay, but what may first appear as a silly and simple shooter is surprisingly nuanced in every way.
4.1 standardises the four base classes of the game introduced in IA - Ranger (basic soldier), Wing Diver (high speed flyer), Fencer (lumbering artiliary), and Air Raider (vehicles, mechs, and air strikes). It also introduces new ridiculous enemies like the godzilla-esque Ergines and the equally ridiculous Balam Walking Fortress mecha you get to pilot to fight them. It's also a relief to see a return of the light hearted comedy from radio chatter and mission briefings, a gigantic 800 weapons to unlock, and 80 missions to grind at.
The gameplay in this series remains incredibly consistent and its biggest strength. It's an arcade style 3rd person shooter with infinite ammo, you have to tactically reload and dodge the billions of incoming attacks while hosing down the never ending army of spiders, ants, robots, and flying ships that dominate the horizon. It's an intense, frantic, and challenging inundation of sheer numbers that I can't get enough of as you desperately fight for your life.
As you play you can grab armour and weapon crates that unlock new guns and decrease the damage you take permanently (1 point at a time). The weapons range from practical and fun to ridiculous and silly with bouncing ammo and nuclear bombs that fly comically slow.
The EDF formula remains simple, as long as the gameplay feels right it can handle a lot of issues around it but thankfully 4.1 gives us a nice graphical update, a return to the older styles of game, a fun variety of new gear, tweaked classes, and even more silly monsters to ravage.
At this point 6 is about to come out, and 5 is a perfectly fine upgrade to 4.1 so there's little need to jump on this ship now but at the time it was a welcome return to form.
4.1 standardises the four base classes of the game introduced in IA - Ranger (basic soldier), Wing Diver (high speed flyer), Fencer (lumbering artiliary), and Air Raider (vehicles, mechs, and air strikes). It also introduces new ridiculous enemies like the godzilla-esque Ergines and the equally ridiculous Balam Walking Fortress mecha you get to pilot to fight them. It's also a relief to see a return of the light hearted comedy from radio chatter and mission briefings, a gigantic 800 weapons to unlock, and 80 missions to grind at.
The gameplay in this series remains incredibly consistent and its biggest strength. It's an arcade style 3rd person shooter with infinite ammo, you have to tactically reload and dodge the billions of incoming attacks while hosing down the never ending army of spiders, ants, robots, and flying ships that dominate the horizon. It's an intense, frantic, and challenging inundation of sheer numbers that I can't get enough of as you desperately fight for your life.
As you play you can grab armour and weapon crates that unlock new guns and decrease the damage you take permanently (1 point at a time). The weapons range from practical and fun to ridiculous and silly with bouncing ammo and nuclear bombs that fly comically slow.
The EDF formula remains simple, as long as the gameplay feels right it can handle a lot of issues around it but thankfully 4.1 gives us a nice graphical update, a return to the older styles of game, a fun variety of new gear, tweaked classes, and even more silly monsters to ravage.
At this point 6 is about to come out, and 5 is a perfectly fine upgrade to 4.1 so there's little need to jump on this ship now but at the time it was a welcome return to form.