EDF - Insect Armageddon (360/PS3)

[BaronSqwelch]

EDF ANNOUNCEMENT

Plough Boy, aka Team Juans, is hereby BANNED from co-op. All members of the EDF are encouraged to reject his advances - sexual or otherwise. Members of the EDF found consorting with the aforementioned judas traitor scoundrel will be stripped of rank AND kecks. The latter shall not be returned until fammydodd has finished with the offender.

The EDF do not accept squad members abandoning the fight, especially men who are off to FAT CAMP (home of the fat and camp) for a week.

Mine has arrived....I am away for 2 weeks from monday tho...what happens to my EDF membership?
I have designated sunday as a 12 hour session day tho!

[MisterBubbles]

The Jet is my favourite so far in campaign ,having a jetpack makes it so much easier to move around and just fly into the air a bit avoiding danger, though you have to watch your meter doesn't overheat and during this point you can't reload. The Tactical unit is able to deploy turrets and mines ,perfect for holding down positions against incoming alien baddies.

[prinnysquad]

Mine has arrived....I am away for 2 weeks from monday tho...what happens to my EDF membership?
I have designated sunday as a 12 hour session day tho!

Yours is secure - you're going out on sorties for a couple of days beforehand. Plough Boy's indiscretion is just one more indiscretion in a long, sorry line of henpecked indiscretions.

Thanks to good 'ol free market competition, my postman doesn't come until lunchtime.

[Briareos]

Had my first play on this last night. I hadn't played a lot on my xbox recently and to my delight when i hit the eject button to put the insect Armageddon disc in out slid the disc for 2017! Shows how much I like the games I guess.

I seem to be finding this a little more difficult than the previous version, I've died once on the first three levels and often found myself fleeing from the action to backtrack and pick up health drops. The feeling of difficulty may stem from the fact I've come off playing 2017 with all the super weapons and am now going back to the weak starter weapons... On the subject of health drops they only seem to increase your health and armour back up to maximum unlike the last game where they increased your overall amount of health (on the next level). How do I increase it? Is it just a case of there are 7 health increases, one per tier i level up?

I'm still not quite getting the hang of the special powers as yet, I played level three using the turrets type but I only realised I had turrets near the end of the level, I thought they would have been weapons equipped in the main weapons slots like the last game but it turned out all I had to do was pull the left trigger, Doh!

Is it me or have they changed the button configuration? I seem to remember being able to roll with the left trigger and shoot with the right, but now the roll button is on the right bumper it's awkward to operate (at least for me).

Final question; in order for it to save your progress on a level do you have to wait to go to the level select menu after it shows you the upgrades you have earned on the current level? When I try and quit out of that screen with the B button it says I will lose progress, would that wipe out the upgrades it has just shown on screen?

[Fader209]

How much did you guys pay for the game? I'm thinking of popping down to Tescos as it's supposedly around the ?20 mark and I do like the look of the game.

[^Katsu]

Katsu EDF IA System is online

[QualityChimp]

Fader, what are you faffing about at?

Man up, grow a pair and help save New Detroit from the onslaught of the Ravagers!

[Fader209]

That's all the motivational talk I need

[BaronSqwelch]

just played through the first mission on normal....never died, or came close to it in any of the 5 segments! loads of health pick ups around and your AI guys never seem to need them. so you EDF experts are safe to start on hard I would say!

played mainly as a trooper and a little as the tank character....got my trooper up to tier 3 sofar. favouring an assault rifle/bazooka weapon combo, running arund like a headless chicken a bit tho.

my eyes took a beating too...need to blink more I think

[prinnysquad]

After a quick trip home after leaving the ****hole, we were all EDF'd up and ready to go.

First impressions were muted - weak guns, small ants, bland setting. But, we plugged on. It's EDF, FFS.

We ended the night on what-I-presume was the penultimate mission - the fourteenth.

New impressions:

Positive
- It's really good, on so many levels. The best way of describing it is 'EDF, but not EDF.' Once this is accepted, then it's a terrific co-op experience.
- The visuals have some nice touches - splats of colour on the EDF suits from slain insects; flaming cars flipped at you.
- The weapons get better - there's some really neat ones released on the Tier 3 Battle Armour I was playing with. They sound a bit better as you progress, too.
- Some of the enemy designs are very good. The wasps and hectors work reallly well. The hectors have this weird roaring sound that seems to be a cross between Spielberg's WOTW Martian machines and Sinbad's Cyclops.
- There's a superb sense of invasion. The videos seen so far are weird - almost like a reverse-psychology sleight of hand on the part of the developer. In the co-op missions we played, there was an almost constant stream of big and little, varied enemies, attacking. There's some great mix-ups too, with different types of ants and spiders attacking at once, and dozens of ufos buzzing around.
- There are quite a few sections of the game that I found to be truly exhilarating and memorable. They were brilliant.
- The stats screen and achievements tell the story you need to see. Great, great grinding achievements.
- There's a bit of variety in setting - i.e., time of day.
- The environmental visuals are functional, and we only encountered slowdown late in the game when the screen was packed.
- Even though disappearing bodies suck, some weapons strike the enemies with such explosive force that they rocket into the sky before they have a chance to dematerialise. Great stuff.
- The Four-armour, tier system, and buying system all work well.
- The AA Guns, turrets, tanks, mechs, all handle well and are useful.
- Downed big ships crash to the floor and slide along - a nice effect.

Skank
- The radar is demented. It'll flash occasionally, with dozens of red dots, then nothing. You'll be staring at an ant, and it won't be on the radar.
- The setting is largely the same - all in one city. There are some slight variations, and the later sections have some nice detail, but the game badly needs some countryside action or something.
- Voiceover woman is annoying - speaking in a nasally light-South African drawl.
- Disappearing bodies = lame.

Observations
- The game seems to use a few tricks to get away with feeling a lot more crowded than it really is. The radar thing and the city setting make it easy to present the player with a constant stream of enemies, where new replaces dead. The countryside levels of 2017 made it clear that there was 50+ enemies on a hillside in the distance - fire at them and they surged towards you. This game presents you, for the most part, with about 20-30 enemies visible at once, but replaces them quickly as you kill them. It works fine, but you sort-of wonder if the red dots sometimes on the radar are really there, or are hidden off-screen until a downed ant needs replacing.
- Haven't played any other mode yet. But splitscreen - thank god they listened to the fans!!!
- The Tier system makes for some decent replayablility. I'd almost finished the campaign with the battle armour near tier 4, but other armours were at levels 1 and 2. Plenty to stat-up.
- Some weapons are found in-mission, notified by a radiation-style symbol, but if they belong to a higher tier for that class of soldier then you have to wait to use it. This is a bit annoying, but keeps the firepower/challenge balance fresh. The other weapons are available to buy when you tier-up.
- The flow of missions and levels works well. I prefer shorter missions, but for this game this works fine.

This is a very odd game. I think it's a very good effort, and a super experiencce with a lot to offer, but it really doesn't feel like EDF. I still prefer so many of EDFs design features, yet this adds a lot of great stuff too. It's like a tribute game putting a very different spin on the series. To be honest, it's far better than I'd hoped for, but it's not as good as Sandlot titles. It's lacking the charm in many respects, and the pick-up-and-playability. Yet, at the same time, it's very, very accompished for what it is. It's almost too difficult to precisely articulate how I feel about it.

As an EDF, a 7.
As an insect-whupping action game, a 9.

Hope that helps.

[Colin]

I've never played an EDF game, but I've always liked reading how passionate you lot are about them. One word answer Prin, if I bought in to this with no bias toward what are regarded as the superior previous titles, would it be an excellent and enjoyable experience or not?

And, importantly, considering I never do it, would this be a good first online game?

[Neil]

Can anyone confirm if the 360 Pal version is region free?

[BaronSqwelch]

I've never played an EDF game, but I've always liked reading how passionate you lot are about them. One word answer Prin, if I bought in to this with no bias toward what are regarded as the superior previous titles, would it be an excellent and enjoyable experience or not?

And, importantly, considering I never do it, would this be a good first online game?

This is my first taste of EDF too so I say YES to all your questions...I've done ten missions so far and am enjoying it immensely. Plus if this one isnt as hectic as the others this one is def. best to start with.

The battle at the end of mission 10 had me running round in a panic, down to my last bit of health trying to revive my team mates!!
Playing with real people instead of the AI can only make that even better!!

[vanpeebles]

Great points there Prinny, it was a top night really, ended on a high. It's EDF Jim but not as we know it. Also the AI teamate is pretty good too.

Also Ikobo just get both 360 versions, no need to be a skankasaurus.

[prinnysquad]

I've never played an EDF game, but I've always liked reading how passionate you lot are about them. One word answer Prin, if I bought in to this with no bias toward what are regarded as the superior previous titles, would it be an excellent and enjoyable experience or not?

And, importantly, considering I never do it, would this be a good first online game?

Yes!!