REVIEW – The latest episode of the Earth Defense Force is not going to rock the world, it just delivers what we have come to expect from the previous episodes. But it does it well, so fans won’t be disappointed, but perhaps it should be added that it might not appeal to the audience because of that. In other words, it remains a layered game, but a good one.

So Earth Defense Force 6 (EDF6) has accomplished what it set out to do, and as a result it is as entertaining as you would expect.

There will be no shortage of bugs

It’s rare these days for a game to be localized two years after its release, as EDF6 was actually released in Japan in 2022. There are a few things that can be said about the franchise, which has been around for more than 20 years, that are generally true: it’s never the graphics that make it memorable, and if it were a movie, it wouldn’t be a blockbuster. In the game, a remnant of humanity tries to fight off alien invaders in a battle-scarred land. The story is not going to be EDF6’s strong point, because you can’t get much more clichéd than that. The dialog isn’t much better either, but it’s still characteristic for the series. Maybe the redundancy shouldn’t have been overdone, because more than once the same phrase or sentence is said in two consecutive sentences. During the game, large monsters appear here and there on the map, and we have to kill them. It can be very repetitive because it always consists of this: go to the target, shoot, repeat. And there are more than 130 missions in the base game, so it’s not recommended to play it sitting down, because it becomes nerve-racking.

It’s recommended to consume it in shorter chunks, because it’s much more fun to smash everything, even buildings, to dust with the somewhat comical sci-fi weapons. Speaking of weapons, they are unlocked slowly over time, so the variety increases as you complete missions. Rifles, bows/arrows, drones, machine guns, laser cannons, there’s a huge selection and you almost never know what you might want to use at any given time. This can make for an annoying gaming experience. It is trial and error. Anyway, there are four character types, each with its own advantages and disadvantages (Fencer, Air Raider, Ranger, Wing Diver). The Ranger is the typical captain, the Wing Diver is quite mobile (and you could say he’s the most Japanese…), the Air Raider attacks with drones, and the Fencer fights in exosuits with a bigger gun compared to the others. However, the shortcomings of EDF6 are also present here: the visuals aren’t very good for them either, and the menus themselves have become very boring to look at, and since we’ll be staring at them while choosing their equipment, we won’t be able to get this overwhelming dreariness out of our heads for a very long time. That said, it does feel like you’re playing a game straight from the PlayStation 3.

Stuck in the past, but looking to the future

EDF6 may look anachronistic, i.e. it was released in the wrong era, but let’s not forget that the amount of destructibility is huge. Somewhere a compromise had to be made to make the game run properly… and then we might remember that the buildings almost all collapse in exactly the same way. The game is absolutely made for PlayStation 4. Even if you have a PlayStation 5, it just doesn’t make sense to play on it, but at least you can cross-play between them. And that’s what saves the game from an average rating, because if you have someone to play with, cooperatively, the experience is much more fun and the system is pretty well developed.

You can even play locally (!) with two people on a split screen. This is commendable and should be followed by others when the genre allows it. The only problem is that you can’t unlock trophies, and the camera is annoyingly lousy. Online, up to four of you can play together, so each of you can choose a different character type to cover all scenarios, as you can enter the battlefield with a balanced team. On DualSense, you can also use the quick chat option, as you can use the tap pad to quickly throw some pre-recorded phrases into EDF6, which can be a great help to the antisocial, non-communicative player. But beyond that, it’s almost impossible to find anything that makes you say, yes, this really is a current generation game.

Grind it down with friends, forgettable alone

That’s why Earth Defense Force gets a 6.5/10 rating, because it doesn’t have that extra something to deserve a 7/10. The game isn’t bad, but it’s still not in the same explosive form. If you have someone to turn your brain off with (because that’s what EDF6 is best used for), it’s worth spending time with. If not, there’s just no point in spending time or money on it. Those are two extremes, yes, but the game itself is like that from many angles, so it’s no wonder that someone either loves the series or just doesn’t want to hear about it.

-V-

Publisher: D3Publisher

Developer: Sandlot

Style: sci-fi TPS

Release: July 25, 2024.