Ok so Earth is about to be invaded by waves of Aliens, dubbed the Ravengers, the are threatening to take over the planet and kill all in their path, so what will we do? the answer is to call the Earth Defence Force, a squad of highly trained soldiers made up from all the nations on Earth’s armies and with you taking control of one of these soldiers do the Aliens really stand a chance?
So I have just covered what Earth Defence Force 2017 from D3Publishing is all about, this game which has slipped out quietly on the Xbox 360 release schedule and comes with a budget price, but what does it play like?
You take control of one of the many soldiers which are trying to save the Earth, you character doesn’t interact with anyone during the whole game, in fact he doesn’t speak once, all he is there to do is fire a gun for the person controlling him, in fact there are over 50 missions to play in Earth Defence Force and you probably won’t have to think once, the whole object of the game is just to blow up the invaders and apart from that there isn’t really much else to it.
At the beginning of each level you are given the choice of which weapons you would like to take into battle, you are allowed to take two with you and although at first the choices are limited, you are able to find more in the game by collecting the relevant power up’s which range from weapons, armour and health.
The aliens come in a few different forms, the first lot you will encounter are giant insects, there are hundreds of them scaling buildings and causing general havoc, once you get close enough you are able to blow them to pieces and will be treated to their green blood spraying over the cities wall, this is quite a nice effect graphically, you will also encounter other creatures such as robots and monsters which offer a more difficult challenge (but only because they take more shots to kill).
There are some impressive parts to the game, for example the size of some of the enemies is incredible, some of the boss character’s tower above even the tallest buildings in the game, even the insects and robots are quite big, making your character look like ant food.
Another thing which may impress is that all the buildings are destructible, meaning that if you cant reach the aliens because there is a tower in your way, then you can just blow it up, the same goes for bridges or in fact anything that is standing, this adds another fun element to the game apart from blowing up aliens and UFO’s.
As well as fighting in cities, the missions also have you fighting in the countryside and in caves, during some of these you will also have the opportunity to take control of vehicles such as the Gigantus (which is a large tank) or one of the three others which range from a helicopter, a mech suit and a rather strange looking speeder bike, unfortunately controlling these is a task in itself, as they are very unresponsive to your commands.
Graphically the game is pretty poor, the environment feels almost tacked on and although when you kill a creature all it’s blood splats everywhere, the creature itself just tends to bounce around the scenery until it eventually fades away, you character is also nothing to get excited about, he just wanders along never doing anything different meaning he is just like all the rest of the soldiers around you, controlling him can also be a bit of a task as the jump and dodge button are the same, meaning that sometimes he doesn’t do what you need him too, this also goes for the aiming of your weapon which becomes difficult when there is too much on screen, this is due to the fact that the screen will shakes to represent all the carnage and although it is a novel idea, it is very frustrating.
Earth Defence Force comes with a budget price and this is just as well, I am not saying that this game isn’t fun because in a strange way it is, for some reason you will find yourself going through all the levels aimlessly killing all the giant monsters in your path and enjoying it, hard to explain as it is, this is just one of these games that you will go back to, maybe it’s just because no thinking is required and therefore it is hard to be frustrated with it, sure you would probably be mad if you went out and paid £40 for this, but with a price tag of £17.98, this is maybe one worth thinking about.
