Earth Defense Force 5 Review

"Splatting Bugs"

Campaign

February 24, 2019 at 3:48am

This was the first entry in the franchise that I've played, and this is one wildly weird series. With Earth Defense Force 5 you're a regular trooper and part of a massive initial attack on humanity. Massive bug creatures are being spawned in from giant towers, and you need to slaughter them as fast as you can. The general narrative just keeps you going, and it covers a fairly expansive selection of time.

It wasn't anything too strong, but is a nice background to you mowing down large scale creatures along the way. There's a good hundred or so levels with various difficulties to choose from. The entire game can be played in coop with two player splitscreen and there's online cooperative play for a group of four. There's quite a lot of content here, hordes of monsters to take on and each level has a series of objectives to work through.

Gameplay

The visuals definitely come across as old school, they're quite aged. The world does have a realistic quality to it however and there's destruction. When things break up, they sort of vanish so it's nothing special. The creatures are absolutely disgusting which is great, you get to see their parts get all grinded up from your bullets. There's a good variation in the enemies you have to take on throughout your journey and you'll never see some things coming.

There are a wide range of weapons, and a nice sense of scale within fairly fast paced areas. It's also more realistic in the sense that you're part of an army. You hear about the dangers of this invasion, and there are other troops actively fighting alongside you. You're not just a lone brave soldier, you feel as though you're part of a full company. There were some performance issues throughout the missions with the base hardware targeting 30fps.
Earth Defense Force 5 Review Xbox Wallpaper Screenshot

The Conclusion

Earth Defense Force 5 brings massive, large scale bug splatter baths and just a ton of content. There's a lot going on across the levels and you can enjoy that with others in coop locally, or online. There were some performance issues and this isn't anything too amazing, but it's purely fun.

The campaign offers a lot of content, many missions and so many twists. You can play this for countless hours, with extra layers of challenge if you want different difficulty choices. The visuals weren't wild, but display a realistic world to fight within. This style is carried forward in the sense that you're actually part of a larger coalition against these monsters that are invading.

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Earth Defense Force 5 Review on Playstation 4
Review Code Provided by One PR Studio

Rating Overall: 7.0

Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner