Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon

Game Info

EDF: Insect Armageddon pits you and some friends against an invasion force of bugs and robots in 2017’s New Detroit. They’ve teamed up for some reason that is never fully explained, leaving you as Team Lightning to run around and end the threat.  To do this, you’ve got a ton of firepower, fun vehicles, and a squad of dudes intent on…  something.  Much of the plot isn’t explained, leaving you to fill in the blanks – but that’s okay, since the shooting is loose, fun, and actually pretty deep.

You control one of four asymmetrical soldier types that we’re all familiar with in this genre – the heavy slow guy, the jetpack guy, the all-rounder, and the leader guy.  Each one has their own strengths and weaknesses that you can probably tick off without even turning the game on.  “I’ll bet the heavy is slow but carries huge guns,” you’d say – and you’d be right.  But the asymmetry works very well in the game, and a varied team is the key to prevailing over some of the much larger bosses you’ll encounter later in the game.  The jetpack soldier has some particularly interesting nuances to gameplay, such as a different reload feature from everyone else – which adds a level of tactical planning that isn’t really expected from a game where you basically just hold down R1.  With hundreds of weapons and a rewarding unlock system, gathering guns can be quite fun.  However, the reliance on damage output usually pigeonholes your primary weapon into an assault rifle instead of something more interesting (like the pistole-style grenade launchers), leaving only your secondary weapon choice as something exciting.  Many of them are a lot of fun to use, and come with some interesting surprises.

The sheer scale of the game is pretty impressive.  EDF always makes sure you know you’re just a little dude running around in armor.  Sure, you’ve got high-tech weaponry, advanced targetting systems, and massive firepower.  But you’ll forget all that the first time you see a 200-foot tall robot stomp around and crush a tank.  A little bit of the excitement is lost when fighting the big boss battles, though, since they all play out the same way – shoot the weak point, dodge, repeat.  But sometimes you get thrown an interesting curveball, like having to dodge a city-block sized airship that was just shot down.  Even the smallest enemies are man-sized, and the easiest enemy is the size of a schoolbus.  Watch for ticks.

Graphically, EDF falls short of the current-gen standard.  It has a decidedly Wii look on the PS3, with very blocky environments and that weird smoothness you see from low-res textures on HDTVs.  Jagged edges abound on ugly textures one would expect from a game released in 2007.  Although I’d like to think that this is due to the size of some of the enemies, it seems that even the smallest ticks and ants are poorly-textured and rough-hewn.  The sound doesn’t fare much better, since the game spends a lot of time without music and only a few snippets of dialogue.  What’s there is generally appropriate, with a weird goofy sense that suits the game.  Seriously, when the first stage is “YOU ARE WALKING DOWN THE STREET AND NOW YOU ARE FIGHTING GIANT ANTS,” hearing some redneck chant “EDF! EDF!” fits pretty well.  It’s competent, and not much more.

Multiplayer makes everything better, and EDF’s campaign strongly benefits from having a partner around.  Masses of enemies will swarm you, and even on easier difficulty levels, they can get overwhelming.  Having a spare person to dole out revives really helps out in the tougher bits, plus shooting bugs and listening to campy voice acting is always more fun with a friend.  The survival mode is pretty bland, though.  It’s horde mode without any of the fun class selection that the campaign offers – the only grace is that it supports up to six players.

EDF reminds me of that one weird, slightly goofy kid in middle school.  He didn’t care, he drew (poorly) all over his notebooks, and when he got off the bus he was the happiest kid in the world.  This game looks terrible, but is fun and doesn’t give a damn about what other people think.  Although relatively simple on the surface, the surprisingly deep mechanics are easy to pick up and fun to get in to, making this a great game to play with some friends with a few beers.