Earthfall (XB1) Review

A glitched invasion.

While I never actually played Left 4 Dead, I played its sequel, Left 4 Dead 2. Back in 2009 and 2010, I was actually rather addicted to it for a time. The cooperative experience mixed with the chaotic nature of the entire thing was fun and challenging. Since it looks like we’re not going to get a Left 4 Dead 3 anytime soon, we’re going to have to look to other sources for that same type of co-op experience. Enter Earthfall. While one could easily say Earthfall is a Left 4 Dead clone, it has a few interesting changes along with it, though it lacks the polish seen in Left 4 Dead.

Earthfall is a single player or multiplayer first person shooter that has players taking on hoards of not the undead variety, but rather extraterrestrials that have taken over the planet. Players choose one of four characters that all play similarly, but have varying personalities they will hear through the game’s dialog. This is how much of the story is told throughout Earthfall. Much like its inspiration, players will find multiple types of weapons to use while taking on the aliens coming for their heads. This includes pistols, sub-machine guns, shotguns, and other heavier equipment. They can also carry one of each healing item, stimpaks and medkits. These can be used to heal oneself or used to heal a teammate. Throughout the levels, players will be tasked with traveling to objectives, completing the objectives, and escaping. Sounds a lot like Left 4 Dead, right? Well, it is.

Platforms: PC, XB1, PS4
MSRP: $29.99
Price I’d pay: $20

The similarities don’t stop there either. Along with the drone hoards that run straight for the players, there are special alien enemies that take a little skill to take down. There’s one that jumps on characters and pins them down, ones that explode when shot and leave an electric toxic cloud of gas that damages the team, a fast alien that grabs a player and drags them around, and the big daddy of them all, the Beast that acts a lot like a tank that rips through a group of players and fires a hardcore blast of energy that can melt a health bar.

Players have a few options available for defensive measures. They can put up portable barriers that can block a hoard from entering a room for a while, but opens when a player walks up to it. There are even auto-attacking turrets that can lay down some cover fire when players are reloading or going for an objective. If they’re looking for a different or better main weapon, they can either find them laying around the areas or go to a 3D gun printer that gives players options to select a new gun. This is a nice addition to the game that allows play styles to change up a bit in a pinch. These 3D printers require power, and usually turning on the power will attract a hoard so it’s best to be careful.

One nice feature is not just a difficulty setting, but players can change the AI to behave differently as well. Turing my AI partners to masterful skill could make short work of the chapters while dumbing them down would make my life much more difficult.

The story is told two ways, through character dialog in game and through unlocking lore by killing enemies, using guns, and finding things in the environment. Much like Left 4 Dead, it takes its storytelling the minimalist way and finds different ways to show it off. Unlocking new lore in game will allow players to read dossiers on all the different things that took place during the invasion known as the Earthfall. It works, but I really wished there was a bit more story dialog in game while playing. It can be rather minimal.

While the gameplay is totally fine and serviceable, there are still some issues I had with my time with Earthfall. The game can get rather buggy at times. There were multiple times I would run into aliens that were kind of just slowly floating towards me like they were swimming in the air. I shot at them and there was no reaction and they eventually just disappeared. The enemy and partner AI would sometimes just stand there and do nothing while the other would be massacring them. This all happened pretty much every time I played the game. While it’s most certainly funny, it also became a hindrance in some areas when I really needed the help of my AI partners.

The game features 10 chapters in all, with five divided up into a mission. Unlike Left 4 Dead where there were some more missions thrown in, Earthfall can be a bit of a short experience. Some chapters lasted much longer than others, with a final playtime probably clocking in around four to five hours.

The online multiplayer allows for up to four player co-op. While there were a few instances of lag, it worked fairly well. Co-op is the way to go in Earthfall. While the AI is not completely idiotic like in many other games, having another person there backing me up was much better. It made for a much more enjoyable experience.

While it’s not Left 4 Dead, it is still a decent co-op shooter that really tries its best to be one. While there are some issues with AI and glitches, I still had a decent time with Earthfall. Co-op really makes up for a lot of the issues, and for a relatively cheap price, you can more than likely get a few friends to pick it up and have some fun co-op action for a few hours. One nice thing Holospark announced is that all extra content they will be providing post launch will be completely free, so any new missions or chapters can be enjoyed without having to spend any extra. That could entice some players to pick it up, play through it, and come back to it when new things arrive. In the end, with some buddies and a game plan, Earthfall can be a fun, albeit, flawed experience that a Left 4 Dead fan would still enjoy.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Decent co-op action
  • Interesting setting
  • Nice options with approaching combat
  • Decent price point
Bad
  • AI can be lacking at times
  • Multiple bugs
  • Short experience
  • Wish more story was in game
6
Decent
Written by
Drew is the Community Manager here at ZTGD and his accent simply woos the ladies. His rage is only surpassed by the great one himself and no one should stand between him and his Twizzlers.