A game where using a wash bucket to rinse and repeat is a clear understatement.
- Long, but repetitive campaign.
- The campaign is significantly shorter than EDF 2017.
- Four classes to choose from; each with their own skills and weapon load outs.
- Online capabilities.
- No checkpoints. Prepare for frustration.
Introduction
Over four years after its first Xbox entry comes EDF's Insect Armageddon. A game where using a wash bucket to rinse and repeat is a clear understatement. This latest offering brings a few improvements over its predecessor, but nothing as groundbreaking as the numerous ant holes this game has you blow up. Fans of the previous entry will retread a lot of familiar ground, but now have the chance to revisit it all with an online friend.
Gameplay
The game is broken up into three chapters, which are then broken down into five missions. Each mission pits you against what seems a never ending fountain of ants, spiders and gigantic alien robots hell bent on doing "something" to Earth. You never know what their motives are, but EDF has never been known for its epic story line. During each mission your dispatcher gives you waypoints to head towards. Upon arrival you either need to find a flight transponder, kill aliens in the area or blow up some ant holes. Throw in some cheesy dialogue and essentially that's the entire game. Once you've beaten the campaign, you can play a survival mode that throws you into endless waves of enemies all for the sake of scoring the best time or replay the same missions on two other, probably even more infuriating, difficulties.
As in the previous game, there are a ton of different weapons you can take with you into the Armageddon. The problem is there's too much trial and error involved since the game never fully explains what the guns do in the load out screen. Instead you're forced to make sense of a gun's statistics, field test it and then make a mental note of its usefulness. Out of all the guns I tried, I kept using the same ones despite finding a ton of others. Killing things, the only aspect of the game, is ruined by an attempt to provide weapon variety. I would rather have had a few guns that I could upgrade using experience points than a wide selection of slightly altered gun fire.
The most notable addition to the game happens to be the four character classes a player gets to choose from. Each character has different attributes, a set of somewhat useful skills and a class specific weapon selection. For instance, the heaviest character can use all the massive rocket launchers, but runs the slowest. To make up for it they are given an energy shield they can bust out to block some damage while firing. Conversely, the lightly armored classes run faster, do less damage and have less health. It adds a little variety to a monotonous game, although in my opinion, choosing the heaviest class was a clear choice when it came to survivability. Lightly armored players seemed to be incapacitated far more often than I ever was and needed me to revive them every so often. Luckily revived players come back with full health and as long as you stick together you will make it through the onslaught. Once you've completed a mission you will receive experience points that go towards ranking up, which unlocks new weaponry.
My biggest complaint, and cause for a few rage quits, is the complete lack of checkpoints. On average a mission will take about 20 minutes. Whether you fail at the beginning, middle or end you will have to restart the mission from scratch, losing any weapon crates you picked up during it. There were so many missions where I invested a half hour into it just to die during the final few seconds of its completion. The one that stood out was when I took down an alien drop ship and it landed on me. I could have avoided it, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to come crashing down on my exact position. Needless to say, I shut the game off immediately and played something else. If a game ever needed checkpoints it would be this one, especially when the game becomes pure chaos on higher difficulties. At times the game will throw so much at you that you don't have enough infinite ammo to deal with them all. How is that even possible?
Playing through the game on Normal difficulty clocks in at six to seven hours. The two other difficulties add even more time making it a lengthy and repetitive game. The game is fun in short spurts and even better with a friend, but not something you would sink an entire day in to. It's mind numbing shooter action at its unevolved best.
Something I should also bring up for the achievement hunters out there are the ridiculously time consuming achievements this game has. If you're going for the full 1000 gamer score prepare to log hours upon hours of grinding. Most of the achievements have kill "X" number of "blank" goals; some of which are in the tens of thousands. It's enough to drive anyone mad if you're not already for loving this game.
Lastly, multiplayer consists of local split-screen and online. Both play the exact same as single player campaign, just with more explosions. Honestly, I wish there was more to say about it, but that's all there is.
Graphics and Sound
Comparing the graphics from EDF 2017 to Insect Armageddon is like night and day. There are definite improvements to the game's engine and textures, however, even with the improvements it isn't anything to behold. All the character designs have been improved upon, but levels still consist of endless buildings and intersections. Something I noticed, and actually miss in the latest installment, is the lack of dead carcasses lying around the battlefield. Anything you kill vaporizes into dust, probably to free up some of the game's memory. I actually enjoyed seeing dead bugs lying all over the place in the original game since it added a little something to the landscape.
The sound on the other hand has stayed pretty much the same. When you start a mission, you're locked in for a half hour of ear blowing explosions, gun fire and low-end rumble. I do recommend listening to the horrible, yet hilarious dialogue though. The banter between your dispatcher and Intel is so cheesy you will find yourself quoting it for a few days after just to make yourself laugh. Things like "It is super duper top secret" and Intel telling you to shoot the ants to kill them are priceless. Whoever wrote this stuff is genius. Other than that, it's standard fare. I honestly can't even remember what the soundtrack sounded.
Final Thoughts
I played through the first EDF, so I knew what I was getting into with Insect Armageddon. I would have enjoyed my time with it more if it had checkpoints and wasn't so unnecessarily frustrating at times. I played through it with a friend and we could only take so much of it before wanting to move on to something else. The improvements are a step in the right direction, but we really don't need another Earth Defense game. With games like Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty featuring cooperative modes where you're pitted against endless waves of enemies, EDF pales in comparison. However, for a budget title I feel like it has made its mark with its own cult following behind it. Now excuse me as run out into the streets screaming "E.D.F." and "Remember the Alamo!"
Game Rating: 6.5