Review: Earth Defence Force 2017 (360)

EDF 2017 has all the traits of what can be considered a dreadful game, yet somehow it pulls through by giving you an enormously fun thrill ride right to the end. We couldn't help but fall in love with it.

The third entrant in a very obscure Japanese series, EDF 2017 pits your character against swarms of alien foes as they invade Earth. These range from the cannon fodder that are the giant ants to the massive walking robots called Hectors. Throw in a few flying saucers, giant spiders and a Godzilla-like lizard and you have plenty of stuff to kill, and that's all you have to do. There are no puzzles, platforming sections or anything really to test the brain; it's just straight up carnage and that's where the game really shines.

With a host of weapons that become unlocked as you progress through the levels (over fifty of them!), creating maximum carnage has never been so fun. With fully destructible environments included, the carnage you can cause is amazing. It reminded us of the scene in Team America where they stop the terrorists, but ended up levelling the whole of Paris in the process. More often than not that's what happens, only instead of Paris the game is set in the only place giant monsters seem to attack - Japan. Although you can only carry two weapons onto the battlefield you're given a diverse range from rocket launchers, to assault rifles and the rather quite useless grenades. Best of all you have unlimited ammo for each, a good job really, because in later levels the screen literally fills up with enemies making you feel like you're actually taking part in an intergalactic war. Of course, with such on screen action and the pleasant £20 price tag something was bound to be sacrificed - in this case it's the graphics.

Although not quite awful, they're very basic. The flying mothership and UFO's look quite nice, but the city is lacking in detail and the way the each building collapses is quite laughable. It will fall down quite convincingly, but afterwards half the rubble will just vanish, much like the enemies who only stay dead on screen for about five minutes. On the whole though in a strange way it does add to the B-movie film feel. Voice acting is also something that shouldn't be taken seriously. On the surface it's dire with phrases being constantly repeated, but take time to listen to what's being said and you'll hear many hilarious phrases that will stick in your mind. Such gems as "go back home...to space", "Fatty's been killed" and when you annihilate a whole host of aliens then the whole team starts chanting, "EDF! EDF! EDF!"

Something that EDF 2017 truly lacks though is an online co-op. We've had some major fun playing split-screen, but the ease of use that Xbox Live provides we expected it to be included. One for the sequel perhaps? People may also bemoan the fact that all you do is put your finger on the shoot button and run around the map killing ants and other creatures, but they'd be missing the point. This game isn't an exercise into the "mind of shooting games" or "the evolution of a genre" or other such nonsense that might be spouted from the pages of Edge or many of its online impersonators. This is about killing stuff and having a good old time when doing it. Gamestyle would rather it stuck to what it's good at than add needless stuff like platforming and stealth.

Earth Defence Force 2017 then is a rarity that comes along far too infrequently. A cheap game that sacrifices graphical flare for good old fun and destruction. Well worth the asking price.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver