After what feels like an eternity, Earth Defense Force 6 is here.
It’s been out in Japan for PlayStation platforms for some time. However, it feels like the localization took longer than expected. But the wait was worth it, as the game not only lives up to the series legacy, but surpasses it.
There are some mild issues to get past, including some unnerving sequences that you can’t skip. But once the game gets to unlocking weapons and blasting aliens to holy heck, it’s good, baby.
So grab your friends, unleash your rocket launchers and save the world. To quote Starship Troopers, “Do you want to live forever?!”
Aliens, Of Course
The general storyline of Earth Defense Force 6 is fairly easy to follow. Aliens are here. They’re invading with giant bugs, spaceships, frog soldiers and other unspeakable horrors. As a member of the Earth Defense Force (or EDF), it’s your job to stop them. How? With weapons, silly.
There are four classes here, starting with the basic ranger and continuing through the heavily armed fencer. Each one has perks to take advantage of, like the Wing Diver’s gift of flight. However, the general set-up is the same. Use weapons to destroy enemies, but allow for time to reload. Otherwise, you’ll overheat and be stuck in a crowd of bugs without defense. Not smart.
Along the way, you can earn new weapons and armor types, really opening up your arsenal. You do this by picking up crates left behind by fallen enemies in each level. So keep an eye out for those red and green things. You’ll thank us later, especially when you acquire a superb rocket launcher. Heck yes.
While the gameplay hasn’t truly evolved over, say, EDF 5, it’s still loads of fun. Taking on insurmountable armies and watching them fall at your feet is an incredible sight. The destruction is non-stop and the controls are rock solid with aiming and movement. You can also use a secondary ability, such as chucking grenades, which is real handy while reloading. Overall, the game just feels great.
Earth Defense Force 6 Sure Loves To Talk Sometimes
However, some of the momentum is thrown off with certain “missions.” These are actually story exposition sequences, and you can’t skip them. Not even if you’re playing through the game on a higher difficulty. And they take forever. They basically hold your hand through a tutorial each time, and you can’t back out and get past it. Hopefully D3 Publisher will take these out in the future, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
There’s also multiplayer, as you can team up with others to take on bugs across many stages. It works fairly well, though the Steam version does tend to crash more often than not. Once up and running, however, it’s a beautiful experience. Nothing beats saving the world with some well-armed buddies, am I right?
Also, final note. We know some of you aren’t thrilled with the need to log into Epic Games Store over on Steam. We get it. But the good news is the developer is making a patch to remove that requirement. So we won’t hold it against them here. Also, we logged in fairly easily, so it’s not as bad as it seems. Still, it’ll be gone soon enough, so not a big negative at all.
Overall, the game plays well and offers options galore, as well as tons of weapons. Now if we could just skip those exposition missions…
Good Looking Destruction
Sandlot doesn’t reinvent the wheel with EDF 6’s visuals. But there wasn’t really a heavy demand to.
The game is the best looking Earth Defense Force yet though. The levels and enemies are incredibly massive, and there’s lots of room to run. That said, the bad guys can pile up quickly, and the game runs nicely even as they do so. The design is neat, especially the frog soldiers, and the weapon effects are dazzling to watch. (Especially Wing Diver’s “sprinkler laser” attack – nice!) As we noted above, the Steam version does tend to crash a bit. But otherwise, the performance is inspiring.
Also, did we mention you could destroy buildings? Relax, you won’t get fined. (Or even judged by the citizens!)
As for the audio, we finally get to hear EDF’s soldiers yell for victory in English. Not that there was anything wrong with the fun Japanese version. But it’s spectacular to finally hear these guys banter and let loose with EDF songs. (Which are affecting, of course.) This is backed up by fabulous “war music” with ever-changing themes, and nasty sounding creature effects. Seriously, those frog soldiers better not take up singing.
Overall, it looks and sounds like an EDF game. But it’s the best in the series to date. So it has old and new for fans of the series. That works for us.
EDF! EDF!
If you can overlook the bland story missions and the performance issues on Steam, you’ve got a winner in EDF 6. It’s the best in the series, offering catastrophic destruction and crazy waves of enemies to destroy. It’s a lot of fun in single player, with plenty of weapons and incentives. Multiplayer is a blast as well, if you’ve got able-bodied friends. And its performance is admirably handled, in spite of those crashes.
If you’re down for an epic bug hunt – or just feel a bit destructive lately – enlist with the Earth Defense Force. They won’t steer you wrong.
GAMERHUB RATING: 4 (out of 5) JOYSTICKS
Many thanks to Scott Fry and One PR Studio for the review codes. You guys are great!
You can get Earth Defense Force 6 now on Steam and PlayStation!
