Earth Defense Force 2017

"Jebus that's a big ant."

Earth Defense Force 2017 (or "EDF") doesn't have a reload button, and it doesn't really suffer in its absence. That tells you about all you need to know about this budget title, the first in its series to hit US shores.

EDF is a third person shooter, and ONLY a third-person shooter. There's little story, no NPC interaction, no escorting, little to no protecting, and absolutely NO strategy beyond picking which gun you want to use to asplode ants in level X. In fact, if you wanted to give this game a title that really summed things up, it would be called "Tiny Soldiers in Khakis vs. the Army of Frigging Huge Bugs and Robots (and a few other thingies) from Planet X". Because that's all it is: you vs. every godawful alien monstrosity that ever stepped out of a late-50's double-feature. And like those old-fashioned movies, this is a game that does not take itself seriously, and thankfully avoids suffering for it. While it's not the best game on the big white box, it's definitely one of the most surprising.

Gameplay:
You blow stuff up. That's it. Controls are similar to a dumbed-down Gears of War, or even closer yet Mechassault. However, while the gameplay may be simple enough to have found a home on the SNES (where this series began, in fact), it doesn't falter for its simplicity simply because for the most part it does what it does very well. Battles are huge, with any combination of massive swarms of giant bugs, lumbering giant robots, immense UFO dropships and so on. As mentioned before, there's no reload button, but only because there's no need for one. You'll never take your finger off the firing button long enough to reload in peace. And thankfully, and keeping in line with the old-school feel of the game, EDF obliges its fetish for firepower with 150+ mostly unlimited-ammo weapons, split into categories with each type having its own place. Many a player will find themselves replaying each of the 53 levels again and again (which you can do to your heart's content, in any of the 7 difficulty levels at any time) simply to collect more weapons. Health too is cumulative, with enemies dropping pickups that increase your total health by 1 point, allowing you to go from 200 hit points to thousands, and even more. And you'll need them all.
Multiplayer, unfortunately, is limited to split-screen co-op. Unfortunately not because this mode is wanting, it's not at all, but because this game SCREAMS for Live co-op. Maybe next time.
Like I said, simple as can be. Just the sort of single-minded explosion-fest you'd expect in a budget game, but done to such a level of ridiculous refinement that you'll find yourself playing for hours at a time.

8.5

Graphics:
EDF does one thing, and it does it well: showing many extremely large things getting blown up. That goes for bugs, robots, buildings, AT-AT-looking things and even good ol' American flying saucers. The entire world of EDF seems to have been made out of balsa wood, paper mache and tinfoil. One missile will send any building, regardless of size, crashing to the ground. While most of those buildings are decent, with a few nice details and pretty reflective windows, when they crash it looks like a ridiculous combination of Godzilla-era miniatures exploding and enough clipping to do Goldeneye N64 proud. Debris will simply disappear into the ground, but despite the lackluster effects you'll often find yourself blowing things up just for the hell of it. Other features of the environment tend to be relatively bland, and texture work is barely adequate, though everything has a nice sheen of bump mapping to remind you you are playing a next-gen game.
Enemies fare a bit better, thankfully. The bugs look, well, like ants and spiders. Their textures aren't immensely detailed, but then I doubt bugs are terribly detailed to begin with, and normal mapping makes up for it somewhat. The robots, however, literally and figuratively shine. While they all look like they've been wrapped in tinfoil, and are far too shiny to be realistic, they fit in perfectly with the overall B-movie aesthetic. They're also accompanied, as with everything else, with a nice bit of soft lighting and normal mapping. Oh, and they're also HUGE. I mean huge. One in particular is easily as big as a skyscraper, and you get to bring them all down. Scale, again, is the main benefactor: environs are sprawling with little to no draw-in, and enemies are larger than life. And you can blow it all up. Joy. While the graphics in this game by no means challenge Lost Planet, its closest cousin, they're more than decent. The only real oddity is the power-ups, which are simple 2D sprites. To be honest, though, this does serve to make them visible in the crowds of rubble and ant corpses. There's also a goodly amount of slowdown, but it never impacted my gameplay, and considering the chaos on screen it's perfectly reasonable.

7

Sound:
Cheesy music, sounding like something out of a PSX game. But I'll be damned if it doesn't fit right in. Guns for the most part sound pretty good, if relatively generic. While there's 170 weapons, there's probably not much more than a dozen effects, but nothing stands out as wrong or inadequate. Voiceovers are, like the music, ridiculously low-rate, with some rather bizarre combinations resulting from the seemingly randomly combined banter of your allies (A:"After this, I'm going to get a steak." B:"I disagree!"). The voiceover lady especially seems desperate to prove that she's, well, desperate. Other sound effects tend toward the generic, but in the chaos of most levels you'll hardly notice. The laser beams from the flying robots, however, did give a laugh: they sound exactly like something from an NES game, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

7

Controls:
The controls are, unfortunately, a mixed bag. While on foot, the only real problem is the unfortunate mapping of jump and side-dive to the same button, which can make it difficult to jump around obstacles in the heat of combat. Also, as mentioned above, there's no reload button, though that's again not a real issue for the most part. Other than that it's pretty typical point-and-shoot stuff.
The problem comes in with the second facet of the controls: vehicles. EDF has about four vehicles, and with the exception of the tank they're damn near impossible to control. The mech especially turns like it has arthritis, with a 180 degree spin taking probably 20 seconds. The speeder bike, on the other hand, moves too fast to control meaningfully, and the chopper is somewhere in between. Even the tank, which for the most part controls fine, lacks any sort of aiming guide, making its weapon difficult to use. Vehicles are also a tad too delicate, which along with the controls adds to their general uselessness. However, their use is never required, so at least you can just ignore their awful-ossity.

6

Total:
Despite its low-rent if serviceable visuals, cheesy audio, poor acting, occasionally wonky controls, and one-track mind, EDF is a definite recommendation. Like the SNES games of old, it rises above its technical failings with a singleminded focus on balls-out action. EDF is basically what Dynasty Warriors would be if it A) had guns, and B) was good: a non-stop celebration of blowing up anything that moves. Good for hours of entertainment, alone and with a friend. Don't hesitate to buy it, especially when it's only $40 new.

8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/07