BUGS AND GUNS NOW IN VOXELS.

I remember a time where a new EDF felt like something special. EDF 2017 on Xbox 360 was a bit of a surprise to North American players (Europeans may remember the bargain title Monster Attack of which 2017 is a remake) that traded good graphics for chaotic gameplay in large open environments. It was by no means a masterpiece but EDF 2017 was something special for a budget title and became the standout hit from their “Simple 2500 Series” in Japan which had plenty of other titles. While the originals were developed by Sandlot who also created the cult title Robotic Alchemic Drive, D3 would approach American company Vicious Cycle to make the follow up to EDF 2017, Insect Armageddon.

Insect Armageddon came out in 2011, five years after EDF 2017 which was technically an eight-year-old game, and failed to recapture the magic and is commonly regarded as the worst game in the series but it gave Sandlot time to create EDF 2025 which was released in 2013 and later reissued under its Japanese title EDF 4 for PS4 worldwide in 2015. The reason I bring this up is because after this the public would get a new EDF game every year or two. It also became the time where new EDF titles would start asking full price for the newest entries. What once was a fun budget title has become a full priced game that stays true to its budget roots but also competes for customers’ money against AAA titles with far more polish.

PLATFORMS: PC, SWITCH, PS4
MSRP: $59.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $29.99

I bring all this up to basically tell anyone who is looking to jump into EDF with World Brothers to maybe look into previous titles to try out the gameplay for less. While World Brothers is by far the most unique EDF title when it comes to visuals, most gameplay changes are minimal and will be noticed by established EDF fans only. Anyone new to Earth Defense Force can probably stop reading here.

For anyone not new to the series, what is new? Well first the writing has clearly had a step up and actively tries to go for comedy which makes sense with the new visual style. At times this comedy was actually pretty good, while other times I felt like they were trying to be too silly to be funny (like Hanna-Barbera level comedy). Regardless, I do prefer the sensical dialog with actual jokes over the tired campy acting that sort of lost its charm when the series stopped using old 1950s science fiction movies as their inspiration. The visuals work fine and given the story, make sense. I was originally turned off by the voxel like graphics, but it introduced breaking parts of buildings off which introduces a new mechanic of hiding in semi-destroyed buildings to avoid enemy attacks. I thought this may have just been an oversight until a loading screen gave me that tip. Neat.

The biggest change however is the team mechanic. Rather than going in solo, players have to choose four characters to use in each mission. Every character has certain weapons they can use (as well as a weapon they come with), a special ability, and a special attack. Because of the team aspect, each character can only bring in one weapon each which means switching between characters often is necessary and something I had to get used to but the AI on the teammates do a pretty good job of keeping themselves alive. Co-op removes the need for AI but introduces the requirement of having friends, so I was out of luck there.

Every character has their own personality and part of this is from the fact that a lot of characters are stereotypes and while I didn’t think any of them were offensive, I am also not the one to make that call. The cowboy and ninja characters were common stays in my team. To unlock more outside of the story, characters will be found around the maps and will need to be saved to join the party. While I liked doing this, I was upset that this was the only way to get new weapons.

The last change is the map sizes. World Brothers has tiny maps in comparison to other EDF titles and while it makes sense within the story, I still liked running around the large low poly cities in previous titles. However, like the title suggests, this game does bring the player around the world and it was nice to not be stuck in samey environments. I went to Japan, Egypt, England, the Midwest, etc. and having those places really changed up things from other titles and allowed the team to expand beyond just generic soldiers.

All in all, EDF World Brothers is good, but it is also just EDF with a new coat of paint and I don’t need one every year or two. I want these titles to be special and had I not had an EDF title in the last five years (let alone two) I think World Brothers would have been more exciting to play. However, as a fan of EDF it is just another EDF game and honestly had I not been reviewing it I would have likely skipped it because past the coat of paint and new mechanics, it is just shooting giant bugs and monsters. With that I will basically say that this game is on par with EDF 5. It is still fun but nothing special.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.