It’s taken two years for Earth Defense Force 6 to finally come Westward, but it’s lost none of its charm or appeal now that it is finally here.
Earth Defense Force 6 follows on directly from the previous game, and while the initial tutorial mission is irritating and cumbersome the following missions are just as intense and manic as the series is known for.
You see, the premise of the Earth Defense Force games has you thwart an alien invasion, almost single handedly, against little swarms of giant insects, monsters, aliens and massive spaceships. All with goofy and incredibly powerful weapons.
Originally released back on the PlayStation 2 in 2003, the first game in this series was a lot of fun and I’ve been happily playing these games ever since. Developed by Sandlot and originally intended as a budget spinoff from their popular mecha games, which focused on a big scale discrepancy between the player and the enemies they faced. These games have built up a considerable fanbase in the decades since.
Earth Defense Force 6 is no different in this regard, but it does play an interesting time travel trick early on.
In that, the initial missions have you deal with a post-apocalyptic landscape. Yes, we won the war against the aliens in the previous game, but humanity was nearly wiped out. However, the aliens enact a time travel do-over and inadvertently send the player back as well.
So if you’re not familiar with the previous game, then some of the narrative beats may be somewhat lost on you, but the game makes up for this with an increased and varied array of involved enemies.
That’s the point here, Sandlot has focused on this particular type of gameplay for decades now and have really drilled down on what makes these games fun.
Many comment on the graphics being pretty basic and in truth, the graphical engine hasn’t really changed since Earth Defense Force 3. However, what the engine does facilitate is an insane number of enemies attacking you at once. There’s really nothing else like it in a functional sense.
You still have your quirky allies and their equally bonkers dialogue, as well as pretty hilarious commanders talking to you over the radio, but the story always tends to take a back seat to the action. That’s a little different this time around, with the time travel shenanigans in this instalment, but the focus of these games is really about how they play.
On this front, a lot has evolved since the early PlayStation 2 games. I tend to play as the Ranger, as I am old school, but you have other character types that can fly or use power armor. Each character type can wield multiple weapons and other items.
The Ranger has two weapon slots, as well as a backpack (for things like grenades or turrets) and other additional items. You can also equip and call for vehicles with a variety of firepower at your disposal, although the controls for those are somewhat an acquired taste.
Killing enemies has them drop health, armor and weapon upgrades. While the former replenishes mid-mission, the armor and weapons are tallied on each successfully completed sortie. That means the more you play, the more armor and weapons you unlock. With the harder difficulties giving you much more powerful weapons if you are able to survive.
While I had a lot of fun on my playthrough on the PlayStation 5 version of the game, with the online mode being great fun co-operating with other players. The PC version has been mired in controversy, as the Steam version seemingly requires cross registration with an Epic Games account.
After what happened with Helldivers 2 on Steam requiring a PSN account, I’m surprised D3 Publisher went down this route. Some have been criticising the developer Sandlot for forcing this account linkage. However, it’s extremely unlikely it has anything to do with the Sandlot and is more the fault of the publisher.
All that aside, the PlayStation 5 version of the game plays very nicely, both offline and online. You even have a split screen multiplayer mode, which is a sad rarity these days and very much welcomed here.
Overall, Earth Defense Force 6 is a solid new entry in this long running bug blasting series. The graphics are definitely dated, but that is clearly a conscious decision on the part of Sandlot to focus on making the game as manic and as fun as previous games in the franchise.
Earth Defense Force 6
Platform: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, PC
Developer: Sandlot
Publisher: D3 Publisher
Released: 24th July 2024
Price: $59.99
Score: 9/10
Disclosure: I was sent this game for the purposes of this review.
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