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| | Title:
Earth Defense Force 2017
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System:
Xbox 360
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Genre:
Action
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Publisher:
D3 Publishing
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Developer:
Sandlot
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Release:
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Teen (T)
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B-movies are truly magnificent things. A film being known for and adored because of its awfulness does not come around very often, but when it does they remain forever in the annals of cinema. While the debate continues about whether or not games can be considered an art form (they are), they took another small step by adding another game to the short list of games that are sound terrible on paper, but turn out to be awesome fun with the flaws adding to the appeal, a B-video game if you will.
As mentioned before, the game sounds absolutely terrible on paper. You play as a soldier in a group known as the Earth Defense Force (EDF) which was formed upon contact with an alien race known as the Ravagers. These aliens consist or a who's who of low budget monsters including giant ants and spiders, shiny but ultimately purposeless fighter ships and the staple of every alien related movie, the mothership. Your job is basically to try and survive while at the same time trying to kill the aggressors.
As simple as the story sounds, the gameplay is more so. You run, you shoot, you dodge, you grab health, weapon upgrades and armor upgrades. Mission over. That's about it. The EDF does not care for collateral damage or about the survival of your buddies, just the fiery death of the Ravagers. This is probably why the game is just so darn fun, even with the simplistic and sometimes clumsy controls. There is nothing frustrating about the tasks involved. No baby-sitting, no tip-toeing around to avoid shooting buildings. That's right, all the buildings are fully destructible.
These destructible buildings however do not look great at all. In fact, most of the graphics are pretty bland, especially for the current generation. With no real attention to detail, your soldier ends up running kind of awkward when strafing and when it comes down to it, the dodge move becomes a much faster form of moving for some strange reason. The giant enemies look fine and run with vigor, but once they die, they remain in one piece and lay there upside down with immediate rigor mortis until they disappear, sometimes on screen right in front of you.
The sound does not fare any better with simple sound effects and dialog snippets being repeated over and over again. The translations (this is a Japanese game) are also pretty bad, but just enough to be charming, much like the rest of the flaws in the game. It is really surprising and a bit unsettling to hear when you are busy shooting ants and your commander tells you that "The ants are beating off humans!".
The value of this game might be questioned with the lack of any online play but the amount of weapons and a 2 player co-op mode almost fully make up for it. Unfortunately, the achievements are only of the "finish the game on easy" ilk. There could have been a lot of possibilities with the game when it came to the gamerscore.
With 53 missions of shooting and running, one would think that it gets old after a while. Maybe for some, but honestly many may find the game much more fun than their more complicated counterparts. It's unexplainable. It is what it is really, and what it is is fun, and is that not what games are about?
Pages
| The Core Score |
Overall
8 |
| Fun |
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10 |
| Gameplay |
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6.5 |
| Graphics |
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5 |
| Audio |
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5 |
| Replay |
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7.5 |
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| Kid Safe Score |
| 5 Questionable |
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Bugs are really creepy, as is the goo they spray. Eww. |
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