Earth Defense Force: World Brothers - PS4 Review

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers by developer YUKE'S and publisher D3 Publisher—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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It was just another day, humanity was simply minding its own business, and then bam. Aliens attack. Again. Actually again, again, again, again as this time around, you've got enemies from across the Defense Forces seemingly under a banner of a new big bad that has split the world into literal pieces. With no choice to pick up a weapon and fight in humanity's defense once again, welcome back to the field Commander in Earth Defense Force: World Brothers.

The latest EDF entry is an interesting one as it takes the campy-ness, doubles it, and makes it work in a family friendly style that the rest of the series cannot say the same for. I was a bit worried about this direction as I wondered if it may not be too campy for long-time fans but it doesn't take long to settle into the action and the dialog across the sixty missions that make up the first stretch of the game. Once that's done, higher difficulties are unlocked and the rest of the trophies can be hunted down.

Returning to a class based structure as is common with the core EDF titles, this time around you'll be creating a squad of four to take out and fight back against the invaders with in a 3D action style. Going this route allows for one customizations such as four Lancers with different weapons or four separate class types to really be able to adapt to the field. Hell, with all of the campiness you can even take Aya from Onechanbara to fight against the invading hordes!

The overall structure is simple enough but without some of the provided DLC I could potentially see some frustrations at times especially when getting into late game. The reason is, as standard, your squad units will receive armor points for successfully completing a mission. That's about all that is given to you as if you want new or more powerful weapons, you're going to have to rescue one to three other EDF members in the field and hope that they give you what you want. Generally speaking? This was not that case.

This is where I worry that may turn off some people due to the fact that it's random and there's no control over any of it. There are no skill trees or upgrade paths, it's just random to acquire variations of a class, new weapons, and new accessories. If you already have one it's a bonus as it gets upgraded but over the course of the main campaign? I was rocking only a handful of level 2 squad members, weapons and accessories.

Otherwise, if you're here to hunt down giant monsters and space aliens you've come to the right place as there's no shortage of that! From start to finish the objective is simple, shoot to kill everything in sight. From time to time there may be another objective such as defending a landmark but overall, it's done in the same manner as eliminating everything coming at it. Between the classes and the weapons (as they unlock) there are plenty of different ways to go about this and there are trophies for all of them!

Finally, while there is some diversity in gameplay from an Infantry Unit to a heavy infantry unit like a Lancer, to a Wing Diver that takes to the skies into a Ninja (yes Ninja) that strikes lightning quick, when it boils down to it it's not really what these individual units can do separately, but what they can do together which makes this combination of a four person squad interesting. Fly around to quickly get out of harm's way and then drop back in with a heavy weapon (as long as you're in range) and let loose. Enemies getting too close and your weapons take time to fire up or would cause your units themselves harm? Keep someone close that either specializes in melee weapons like swords or punching gloves or go with the classics, a shotgun. If it comes to getting up close and personal you can't go wrong with either or these two!

Summary

That's really all there is to it. Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is simplified fun and even at its toughest running on normal, players shouldn't have an issue dispatching the newest set of does to attack Planet Earth. The only real issue is the pacing of the upgrades but once you're passed that there's nothing to worry about other than how many missions can be crammed into an evening.

Score: 7.5 / 10

 

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Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain - PS4 Review

A Spinoff That Makes It Rain and (Mostly) Brings the Pain

Over the course of time (30+ hours), I’ve developed a bit of a crush on Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain. If the game were a potential romantic interest, I’d of already invited it out for a night of rooftop dancing, so as to woo it with my patented Dragon Shuffle, as the starlight draws attention to my insecticidal shoulders, organic boulders broadened by countless battles with blood-thirsty bugs. But I need to be real with you, soldier. As a decorated veteran trooper who has been enlisted in the Earth Defense Force for 12 glorious years, I didn’t think too highly of Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain when I first witnessed it in action.

It was a recon mission, two days before the title’s official release. Armed with a buck knife clenched between my teeth and a tank top that made my chest worthy of its own biannual birthday celebration, I army-crawled into a Twitch stream of EDF: IR. With my binoculars set to “open-minded excitement,” I observed gameplay of the title’s first ten stages. Initially, torrents of astonishment harmoniously babbled from my chest to my trigger finger; the disgusting and demonic enemy designs, the newly implemented character customization, the sleek and stable presentation - oh, behold how the EDF has evolved!

That was my impression, anyway, until I looked past the novelty of these additions and improvements and came to a realization that bit me like a chomp from a two-story ant: In order for the game to uphold this fresh graphical fidelity and solid performance, drastic reductions had to be made to both the size of the stages and the quantity of threats on the battlefield.

Those of us who have blasted a trail of Earthly justice in prior EDF installments can easily visualize the severe impact these reductions can have on the frantic yet overpowering gunplay the series has become admired for. However, to actually see Iron Rain stripped of these elements, well, I damn near orchestrated a plot to get myself dishonorably discharged from The Force. Miraculously, once I got my hands on the game and adventured through one-fourth of its online campaign, I developed a searing fondness and appreciation for its attempts to mechanically and aesthetically progress the EDF foundation. Even if, as a spinoff that’s reaching for wider Western appeal, it had to take a big step back to do so. 

As an enlistee in EDF: Iron Rain, you live for one purpose: to defend our mother Earth from alien attack, while utilizing a selection of high tech weaponry to blow those bastards back. You begin your service by customizing the gender, look, and outfit of your soldier; choosing between one of three powered exoskeletons (a fourth is unlocked in the later missions), which determines the the abilities and weight limit of your soldier class; and selecting a loadout of guns, grenades, healing items, turrets, traps, battle vehicles, and air raids (these items affect your weight limit). Once you’re properly attired and locked and loaded, you’ll be prepared to deploy on a 52 mission campaign that will see you bombarding the Aggressors, war-bred extraterrestrials that consist of everything from Walmart-sized insects and arachnids to walking, skyscraper-esque battle stations.

While Iron Rain adheres to the same basic rules and principles of the primary EDF titles, it also strives to experiment with the formula by adding elements that will most likely become fundamental features in the series going forward. For example, each exoskeleton now comes equipped with useful energy move that’s unique to its class: the Trooper, the basic ground unit, can dash and dodge her way through and around enemies’ melee attacks and projectiles; the Jet Lifter, the airborne unit, can hover just beyond a swarms reach while thinning it out with rocket fire; the Heavy Striker, the bulky tank unit, can dual wield any weapon in the game and emit a forcefield that deflects projectiles and explosions; and the Prowl Rider, the extreme mobility unit, can dart around the battlefield at breakneck speeds by attaching grappling wires to terrain, buildings, and enemy bodies. Also, you are no longer fixed to a specific class for the duration of the campaign; you can change exoskeletons in between missions, allowing you to adapt to a stages’ specific dangers as you see fit.

Some other additions to Iron Rain that make it unique to the main series include: an active reload system, which grants the opportunity to reload some weapons faster with a timed button press; down-the-sights aiming for certain weapons; enemies and weapons that deal and are weak to elemental damage; Overdrive, the ability to, for a limited time, imbue your exoskeleton with unbounded energy, increasing your firing rate and defense while granting the power to spam your energy move; a gem-based currency system for purchasing health increases, new weapons, items, and attire; the aforementioned character customization system; and, most noticeably, graphical detail beyond what any EDF title has yet managed. 

Unfortunately, as stated earlier, the improved and relatively impressive jump in graphical quality did not come without major compromises. The enemy swarms in Iron Rain are not nearly as massive nor do they create the same awestruck sensation as the ones in EDF 5 or EDF 4.1. To address this flaw, your opposition is more aggressive and resilient, and the stages are much smaller and more thoroughly constructed, with buildings that give off a piercing feeling of verticality. However, this reduction in space creates a reduction in boundaries, meaning that you will either constantly dash or fly out of bounds while trying to escape a Kaiju’s area-of-effect butt slam, or be repeatedly juggled or knocked out of bounds by self-assured insects with a propensity to charge attack (an issue that becomes even more prevalent on harder difficulties).       

Despite the disappointment I, as a veteran EDF trooper, endured at first glimpse of Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain in action, it soon grew into one of my favorite EDF games in the series, right behind EDF 4.1 and 5. And even with the reduction in the enormity of enemy swarms, it still offers the fun and frantic bug genocide that only the EDF really knows how to provide. Now, not all fans or newcomers will value the compromises Iron Rain makes; however, it cannot be denied that this spinoff was a necessity. In time, it may prove to be filled with a lot of great ideas that progress this underappreciated franchise in profound directions. 

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Yuke's
Publisher(s):
D3 Publisher
Genre(s):
Action
Third Person Shooter
Mode(s):
Single Player
Coop
Other Platform(s):
NA

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Jedediah

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