EDF is a really simple game, not too flashy, somewhat cheesy, but that gets you going, and going, and going.
Borrowing quite a bit from Starship Troopers, you will find yourself surrounded mostly by familiar bugs: ants and spiders. How are ants and spiders scary? Giant jumping spiders and acid-spitting ants are trying to annihilate the human race.
But there are more impressive enemies, such as giant walking robots that shoot laser beams and trample you, even bigger four-legged walkers that remind me of those in Star Wars, but these are particularly annoying with their laser cannons and shields. There are also some robotic dinossaurs, and obviously, the motherships (reminiscent of Entreprise) and their little fighter aircrafts.
You are joined by a squad of soldiers, usually not the brightest men in the bunch. They love to adjust their timing to run in front of you while you launch a rocket… Stage by stage, you venture into large cities, claustrophobic caves and tunnels, sunny beaches and grassy hills, killing whatever moves, which sometimes includes your squad members. Especially when you want to pick up the power-ups while only one spider or ant runs around after you.
Enemies drop power-ups, which are represented by very lame 2D sprites. Pick up armor and you get a health boost at the end of the stage. Pick up weapon icons to see what else can you fit in your arsenal. Run over healing icons to recover some health.
There are tons of weapons in the game, but the best and rarest you will only find in the higher difficulty stages. There are rocket launchers, grenade launchers, missile launchers (I love launchers!), flamethrowers, beam rifles, assault rifles, shotguns and more. You can always carry two weapons and switch between them when necessary, so always check for a better version of what you're using after completing a stage.
Some stages also offer vehicles you can control, like tanks, a hover bike that also reminds me of Star Wars, helicopters and even a mech suit. They aren't all that easy to control, and most times you're better off to just run around.
That's where co-op comes into play, making it all a little easier, but doubling the chances of screwing up. Co-op runs in a side-by-side split screen, and it's one of the coolest things to play with a friend (or in my case, husband). You can pick weapons that complement one another, cover each other when needed and slow down rivers of incoming bugs from different sides. Either way, a buddy is the best way to go to get through the game in all five difficulties.
Graphically, EDF is a mixed bag. While the mothership design and bugs for aliens are fairly poor ideas, the walkers and giant robots have some really good design. The textures on the buildings aren't all that impressive and everything looks somewhat dull, but everything is destructible and turns to rubble and ruins, drastically altering the landscape. Your character looks like a GI Joe when strafing too, torso faces the front, everything below the waist turns to the side. It's like the legs have a will of their own, and it's pretty hilarious. And I've already mentioned the 2D icons that seem totally out of place and get really blurry when you come near. The frame rate also gets its fair amount of hiccups when you're being swarmed.
However, the draw distance in the game is amazing, and not many games actually do it this well. I could stand there with my rocket launcher miles away from this huge tower, and actually see ants crawling all over it. Shooting it would result in ants flying all over and the tower crumbling down. But you can see it all happening clearly, even from that far away. The sound is quite amusing. Who doesn't enjoy a good explosion and tons of gunshots when you're at war? Everything sounds as it should, the music isn't bad and the random comments from your virtual squad members, although a bit limited, reinforce the B movie feel. They will either chant "EDF! EDF!" or randomly say something that has nothing to do with what they're doing. EDF is a really simple game, not too flashy, but that gets you going, and going, and going, until the higher difficulty level starts taking the fun away and giving place to frustration. It's easy to find yourself surrounded by tons of spitting ants, spiders shooting webs or those annoying little ships that move so erratically that in the highest difficulty it's almost impossible to take them down. With a bigger budget, this would have been one hell of a game. Earth Defense Force 2017 has plenty of challenge and replayability with 53 levels and five difficulties to clear, and over 150 weapons to discover. It also makes you work for those achievements. Sure it doesn't look spectacular and has its fair share of slowdowns, but it's weird, silly and pretty cheesy, and you will enjoy it so much you won't even care. EDF owns!
Review text part of Grrlgamer.com. Full text and screenshots at http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=edf2017