➤ Earth Defense Force 5, the review 🎮

Earth Defense Force 5 it's an extraordinary game, in the literal sense of the word. In fact, it is not normal that a series of video games, which now boasts a fair niche of fans both at home and in the West, can present itself on the market for the third consecutive time with a substantially identical product: unable to propose new situations if not in the missions more advanced, spoiled by the same defects always and even weighed down in the initial stages by a slow and boring tutorial, which arguably holds in check the desire to launch head down in the umpteenth battle for the salvation of the Earth. The franchise developed by Sandlot has distinguished itself over the years for its videogame b-movie atmospheres, following from this point of view a bit what has been the history of Japanese television science fiction, which drew inspiration from American productions except to skid inevitably in the territory of the giant monsters and the equally gigantic heroes called to fight them.

In Earth Defense Force 5, which has established itself as the best-selling chapter ever, the latter aspect is missing or at least introduced in a limited way, in the form of a huge robot that we will be able to pilot in certain situations. For the rest there is everything: during the missions the screen is crowded with giant insects that seem to come out of the classic It came from the desert, and the overwhelming numerical inferiority in which our team finds itself stands as a sort of trademark for the brand. The formula, very well tested, is in fact based on waves: our task will be to eliminate all the enemies that invade the large map and resist until the end, so that we can move on to the next level and carry on the plot of a campaign. composed of over one hundred missions, to be played alone or in a cooperative multiplayer available both locally via split-screen and online, for up to four participants.

Story and gameplay

If the action and narrative sector of Earth Defense Force 2025 were re-proposed in a remastered version with Earth Defense Force 4.1, in this new chapter the developers have seen fit to start all over again with a real reboot, which, however, exposes us to events substantially the same as those we have already seen, with a single rather useless variant: the fact that the protagonist of the game is a civilian who suddenly finds himself fighting in the ranks of the EDF, an expedient that however does not prevents you from immediately choosing any of the four classes that fans of the series know well and that have not changed in any way from previous episodes.

We will therefore be able to play the role of a Cleaning, moving on foot and initially carrying a machine gun and a missile launcher, or opting for a Wing Diver, a sort of jetpack-equipped Amazon who attacks mainly from above using a mix of light and heavy weapons. Then there are theAir Raider, a support class with conventional weapons and the ability to order air strikes at specific targets, and finally the Fencer, an armored unit that during the first missions will test your patience due to its incredible slowness in movement. By eliminating the aliens and collecting the boxes they leave on the ground (weapons, armor and health) we will not only be able to restore the vital energy when needed, but also and above all unlock new components for the arsenal, better energy cores and armor points that will increase the our defensive skills from level to level.

Compared to the previous EDFs, in this chapter we will be able to carry out a general progression instead of choosing a single character to enhance during the campaign, since the bonuses will be at least partially divided between all classes. Also this time, given the extreme intricacy of the devastating Fencer and the lack of personality of the Ranger and the Air Raider (the latter, however, very interesting from the point of view of the co-op), we carried on the usual Wing Diver having fun targeting the enemy hordes with rapid fire but also with homing missiles or the powerful Plasma Gun. The fact that weapon management is closely linked to the core energy that powers the jetpack makes this class agile and effective but at the same time the most vulnerable in certain situations: an aspect that the balance of the game's difficulty, sometimes characterized by unexpected peaks , often and willingly lays bare, especially in the more advanced stages.

PlayStation 4 Trophies

Most of the forty Earth Defense Force 5 Trophies can be obtained simply by completing the game's long campaign, as the various completion percentages correspond to as many achievements. The few objectives that remain are unlocked by maximizing the armor of the four classes and performing support actions for your companions in the cooperative mode.

Weapons, enemies and technical achievement

As for the four classes, even the rich arsenal of Earth Defense Force 5 draws heavily on the previous episodes of the series, so much so that those who have already tried them will be able to proceed to the heart in selecting theequipment better, unless you want to experiment with different combinations and characters, thus using a new approach with respect to situations that, however, as mentioned, tend to repeat themselves. We are talking about a reboot, which means that we will relive the first attack of the invaders, the story of the media, the terrified civilians fleeing to the street and the reactions of our comrades, initially haunted by the doubt that the attack comes from a some hostile nation unable to accept the reality of a large-scale alien invasion.

There is therefore a very strong feeling of deja-vu and it is really a pity that the novelties of this new chapter in terms of enemies, vehicles and weapons are not introduced immediately, but rather require a few hours to enter the game, thus discouraging those who in practice he finds himself reliving situations already widely experienced. It is all the more surprising that no changes have been taken into consideration for the gameplay, nor a better rendering of the shots nor more sophisticated patterns as regards theartificial intelligence both companions and enemies, really basic. The bestiary of the game ranges from the usual giant insects to flying saucers of various types, passing through the huge ships that release hostile units to real kaiju.

There are some new entries, but they are mostly variations compared to something already seen, as widely seen the entire graphic sector appears. There is no doubt that Sandlot has decided to take advantage of the computing capabilities of PlayStation 4 to bring a huge number of aliens to the screen, making us fight them within very large and often destructible maps, but despite this it is quite evident how the polygonal models and visual effects are very, very dated yet subject to camera blunders or even substantial drops in frame rate during the most chaotic situations. A very similar speech applies to the sound, which boasts a low level of interpretation of the dialogues in English, similar to what we used to hear quite a few years ago.

Comment

Tested version PlayStation 4 Digital Delivery PlayStation Store Price 49,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

5.0

Readers (8)

8.1

Your vote

Earth Defense Force 5 is not that step forward that we were hoping to see for the series developed by Sandlot, but a ramshackle more of the same that seems to be able to do nothing but re-propose the same situations, the same enemies and the same characters as always, without any substantial variant: a big problem for anyone who has played with previous episodes, but that should not worry those who do not yet know this bizarre franchise, endowed in its own way with a perverse charm. Getting into the fray like this, on trust, however, may not be easy, especially at this price.