Earth Defense Force 2025 (360/PS3) review

[QualityChimp]

That's a lot more hours and late nights than I should have put into it!

I should be on tonight but I'm going away until Tuesday night.

I won't lie, I'm seriously thinking of taking my 360 with me! :O

[QualityChimp]

This is one of Major Nelson's bargains, making it ?30 on digital download.

http://marketplace.xbox.com:80/en-GB/Product/Earth-Defense-Force-2025/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80244500805?nosplash=1&DownloadType=Game

[Golgo]

PS3 servers were mysteriously quite well populated last night and I ended up in a superb squad for a solid 2 hours of majestic mayhem and absurd drama ("Chaaarge!", "I owe you my life!", "I love you!"). Despite criticisms of the graphics in reviews I'm consistently surprised by how good the game looks and how well the enemies animate, especially as there are literally billions on screen at once. If price drops can tempt in some more players and keep this alive for a bit longer I'll be happy.

Suggestion for future iterations: would it be sacrilege it wingdiver could carry heal items around the map, stockpile where needed, etc., or indeed if she could carry teammates to the tops of buildings? And, ooh...imagine if Platinum got involved and added some Vanquish-style polish and swooshiness?!

[S3M]

This is one of Major Nelson's bargains, making it ?30 on digital download.

http://marketplace.xbox.com:80/en-GB...nloadType=Game

Anything but a bargain at that price, cheap at amazon and shopto at ?20.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dvideogames&field-keywords=earth%20defence%20force%202025&sprefix=earth+de%2Caps%2C213

http://www.shopto.net/search/?platform=&newsearch=Earth+Defence+Force+2025

Which is the same price as how much my copy cost from GAME.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, I posted the sub-?20 Shopto price last week, but some people like Dig-it-all only.

Just trying to encourage more people to see the error of their ways and get this! You're all missing out, you oafs!

PS3 servers were mysteriously quite well populated last night and I ended up in a superb squad for a solid 2 hours of majestic mayhem and absurd drama ("Chaaarge!", "I owe you my life!", "I love you!"). Despite criticisms of the graphics in reviews I'm consistently surprised by how good the game looks and how well the enemies animate, especially as there are literally billions on screen at once. If price drops can tempt in some more players and keep this alive for a bit longer I'll be happy.

Suggestion for future iterations: would it be sacrilege it wingdiver could carry heal items around the map, stockpile where needed, etc., or indeed if she could carry teammates to the tops of buildings? And, ooh...imagine if Platinum got involved and added some Vanquish-style polish and swooshiness?!

Glad you got a great game going. It's so much fun when you assemble a like-minded team!

I made do with Kats and VanPeebles last night though!
We struggled on the port level with about 6 nests until we came up with a good weapon selection.
It took an age, but I finally started whittling the nests down with the napalm chopper, thus stemming the flow of ants and spiders, until victory was won!
We also did the level with the first appearance of the chandelier drones. After the first few waves, it just consisted of me and Van hiding under the indestructible bridge thinning them out until we won.

In both missions, Kat spent most the time asleep. He's gotten sloppy...

I don't think that the game's lacking by making you think "It would be great if you could do...", I think it's great that it makes you think about some future ideas. Some stuff relatively simple (descend button on the helicopter ), some a bit more complex (how armour is earned).

I guess the Wing Diver can heal somebody then fly off for more health and some of the choppers can carry more than one person.

It's a shame you can't call the triple-seated brutes from the off as by the time they arrive, you're swarmed and there's no chance of getting airborne. I resorted to flying solo to the top of a tower for a good vantage point to guide a Tomahawk missile onto a nest. Nice!

I think the game is prettier than people give it credit for. I could be in the air taking in the whole city whilst dozens of ravagers make their way across it, a massive spaceship is in the middle and loads of missiles are flying around, the next moment, I could be on the ground, looking at some of the pretty shops and houses - all of which are destructible!

Have you seen the EDF recruitment stencils sprayed onto the walls?

I love this game!

[^Katsu]

I made do with Kats and VanPeebles last night though!
We struggled on the port level with about 6 nests until we came up with a good weapon selection.
It took an age, but I finally started whittling the nests down with the napalm chopper, thus stemming the flow of ants and spiders, until victory was won!
We also did the level with the first appearance of the chandelier drones. After the first few waves, it just consisted of me and Van hiding under the indestructible bridge thinning them out until we won.

In both missions, Kat spent most the time asleep. He's gotten sloppy...

I died gloriously in the fray. Not COWERING on my knees under a bridge with another man!

I hereby apologise to Chimp for having to revive me, up to 5 times (due to drunken tiredness). I do understand that this does require him having to leave the comfort of his runaway helicopter & encounter the enemy directly (sorry to burst your protective bubble), however I'm sure he can do this a few times for me? After all I've done the same for him 1000's of times, I have the achievement!



Are you about tonight princess chimp?

[QualityChimp]

You're no use to anybody dead, soldier!

Yeah, it's weird being the reviver, not the revivee, ha ha ha!
Now I have the achievement too, so thanks...

I was on until late last night with some Americanos. They were ridiculously underpowered and doing Hardest levels. It may have even been their first night playing it based on their health levels. They did pretty well, considering, though!
The level with the hectors and nests across the bridge proved too tough for them as they kept waking all the hectors instead of taking down the nests first.

I might be on tonight, but I'm trying to sort going out to see Godzilla. If the plans fail, I'll be a-bug-blastin'!

[Golgo]

Encoutered the awesome-o

->Open Spoiler<-

mega-ship into robot transformer

level last night for first time, my squad of noobs squealing with delight like little girls at a My Little Pony convention. Level 78 or something now, looking forward to getting through a first playthrough (Wing Diver on normal) and revisiting with Air Raider on hard, which I've been experimenting with a bit. Completely different experience.

[Golgo]

Happily playing through lvl 80s on normal, my random noobsquad warriors and I were visited by an 'elite' player (only about 27% complete, mind). After assisting us for a bit he started messaging the team, "Is that it?", "Lol, it's soooo slow!", "Haha! I'm sorry but I'm going to have to leave you all to it as normal is sooo pathetically slow and easy!" (bearing in mind the game had been grinding along at 1fps due to the amount of enemies on-screen and couldn't possible go any faster if it wanted to), "Ooooh, I'm literally falling asleep here! / yawns", and so on. Then making his apologies he flounced out of the lobby, no doubt waving a scented 'kerchief around his nose to mask the offending odour of us noobs. He was so affectedly and camply superior I had visions of Quentin Crisp hooked up to a PS3 at the other end.

[QualityChimp]

Ha! There's a lot more chatting on the 360, it seems, but it takes one person to start the conversation.
Everybody's mic were off last night until one guy said "Chimp, do you have any turrets?" Then we all started chatting and working out strategies, which always makes the levels easier.

Once we'd done that, the dropships on the level we were struggling with were taken out first and we aced it.

I'm trying to finish off Hardest, but most games are either Normal or Inferno, so maybe I'll come back to them.

A guy I've been online with a few times reached the elusive 70% the other night and we unlocked the armour and weapons. If only I had some weapons that were higher than Inferno's requirements!

I was chuckling to myself about how each level produces stories worthy of a sci-fi action flick.
I was on the level "Giant Robots". I took out the nearest hector with bombs and fire in my newest chopper, but realised two of my comrades were downed. I summoned a new ride, flew to their aid, took to the skies again and started on the hectors nearby. They saw me and took out my chopper, but they didn't realise I'd land between their legs where their long guns couldn't reach and I was running around blasting robocrotch until they toppled.

Awesome!

[QualityChimp]

Pffft. Awful night last night.

Katsu and I were a two-man-army, but struggled to complete all but one mission on Hardest.

I played terribly and had a series of mishaps that proved catastrophic, such as dropping bombs on an advanced dropship just as its shell closed and firing napalm in a classic dropship just as it exploded, leaving me trapped inside with my own fire as it tumbled out of the sky.

Both events left me chopperless and stranded directly underneath the ships and their myriad of insects they'd just dropped. Not a good place to be...

Well, at least I discovered if you aim properly, the EF31 Fire Neireid (Level 56 drop) can take out a dropship with just a couple of volleys (if you aim right ) of its Unguided bombs. Each button press launches 4 x 4500 damage bombs. It's just a shame there's only 16 of them per helicopter...

[QualityChimp]

In these muggy evenings, I'm torn between sweltering in the heat of an enclosed space with the 360 belching out heat or opening the windows and risking attracting moths and such, which is really off-putting when you're playing a game against giant insects.

Last night, I opted for the former and had the windows closed, but I still had one of these Ravagers buzzing around:
[hide][/hide]

A flipping spider-eating wasp!

->Open Spoiler<-

I'm pretty sure that's what it was, but it was pretty tiny.

Back to the game, it's getting trickier to get into Hardest levels because people are either just getting the game and working their way through Normal, or trying their luck on Inferno to get the bigger weapons. Hardest is, in some ways, tougher than Inferno because there are stricter weapon and armour limits.

When I can't get into a Hardest game (which is only once every few days, really), I've been trying out Wing Diver and it's amazing how different the game plays. Although she's as delicate as a petal, it's really refreshing to be able to swoop around the levels. You can dive down and revive a player, get away from the action when you're swarmed or swoop up into a dropship. There's a little ledge in the middle of the classic dropship, where you can stand and blast away from inside. Suckers.

It's also refreshing to be the one zipping about the level doing the revives whilst Katsu is restricted as the lumbering Fencer or the Air Raider who can't take any vehicles or bombing runs into a cave level.
This is what I've been putting up with since the game came out in February!

We blazed through Legion of Monsters last night, but it made a real difference with the weapon limits off, powerposts deployed and a ranger rocking a twin-Lysander Z configuration!

[chopemon]

I played a few hours of Sekiro yesterday and the path I've taken through the game meant I had a string of bosses to do rather than the big stretches of exploration. It was gruelling so I went back to the PS4 version of this to crush some damn space bugs. I intended to go back to Sekiro after a couple of hours but nope, all bug killing, all the time baby.

Had such good fun. I bounced off the 360 version because I started with Winged Diver and was struggling to complete some missions because she's pretty fragile and the gun I had weren't cutting it when I was dealing with Hectors and the ships that spawn enemies. Back when I started the PS4 version I picked the Ranger and picking him back up, I'm having a great time. Got a good assault rifle for dealing with close crowds and a really fast, high damage rocket launcher for distance.

Currently in the early 50s missions. Taken down a Mothership and done the first set piece Godzilla type enemy mission. Such great pacing in these games. They tell the story in mission and there's a perfect pace of apocalyptic missions (Mothership takedown) then more sedate clear a bunch of bugs out of the harbour type missions.

I played with some randos but stopped after some Fencer was using his dash to steal all of the loot right from in front of me.

Utterly fantastic game and such a joy to play. Not sure when I'll finish this but I've got my eye on the physical asian version of EDF 5 for after.

[QualityChimp]

The loot should be shared, mate.
You want to be encouraging people to hoover the crates up before the mission ends.

Amazing game though, eh?

[chopemon]

I agree about the loot. What I meant is that as a faster moving character, when the hoovering happened he was managing to get everything before me. He got it all and I got barely any. No sharing was happening.

Just played a few more missions and had a great time. Got flung half way across the map by a red ant, just cartwheeling through the sky.

Got a good new AR that fires a lot slower but is really powerful. Having fun sniping the hornets out of the sky.