Helldivers 2 took the world by storm earlier this year with its hilarious emergent gameplay moments and satirical story that took a stab at fascism. While that felt like a breath of fresh air, it’s not the first game to tackle those ideas. The Earth Defense Force series has been around longer than Helldivers has, bringing Starship Troopers-like action to players. Earth Defense Force and Helldivers share a lot in common, from their story premises to their gameplay styles. Both involve killing waves of monsters and having an absolute blast while doing so.
They’re also very different in key ways. As someone who only occasionally likes to dabble in multiplayer games, I find the Earth Defense Force series much easier to pick up and play as a single-player experience due to having some decently competent AI-controlled teammates. Now another entry in the series is out. Earth Defense Force 6 just launched in late July for international audiences, and it’s a perfectly goofy follow-up for Helldivers 2 players in need of a new fight.
Ready for deployment
Earth Defense Force 6 is a third-person shooter that takes place three years after the previous game. As humanity tries to recover from an alien invasion that wiped out 90% of its population, they invade Earth again via a portal that opens up in the sky. Its simple setup allows the gameplay and action to shine through, as the aliens are just evil just for the sake of it and lack any complex motivations.
Players select missions and deploy onto the field to eliminate any alien invaders that they come across. While Helldivers and Earth Defense Force seem like very similar games, the former places much more emphasis on teamwork since players can get overwhelmed by enemies very quickly. Helldivers’ extraction element also adds an extra layer of difficulty. Earth Defense Force, on the other hand, feels almost like Monster Hunter, where you’re tasked with eliminating your targets and once the objective is complete, the mission is safely over. It’s a sigh of relief knowing that the loot I collected is safe when I see the “mission complete” notice and I can look forward to upgrading my weapons. It never feels like I’ve wasted my time, which is a feeling I’m sometimes left with after a Helldivers 2 mission goes south.
The main attraction in the new game is the bombastic action the series is known for. Earth Defense Force 6 has four character classes that gives players some flexibility in choosing playstyles. The ranger is your typical soldier, able to gun down armies of monsters, while the wing diver has more movement options, including the ability to fly. The air raider is a support class that can call down decoys and airstrikes to help out teammates, while the fencer class is the defensive one that can take a lot of damage while also being able to deal quite a bit out as well. While these are standard archetypes you’d find in many other games, the simplicity allows players to just focus on the action.
Enemy variety is surprisingly impressive. Baddies range all the way from giant insects and mechanical drones to octopus-like creatures and bipedal frogs wielding guns. This helps break potential monotony in overused maps and environments. It’s especially true when there are more than 130 main campaign missions to tackle, most of which have objectives that are slight variations of “kill everything.” Those are Earth Defense Force 6’s biggest flaws; as fun as busting aliens are, the story just drags on for far too long while making no sense whatsoever. Still, the straight-to-home-theater vibes kept me coming back for more.
A true B-movie
Earth Defense Force 6 nails B-movie schlock with graphics that look like they belong on the PlayStation 3. The drab, depressing gray and earth tones bring me back to the days of hyper-macho bro shooters like Gears of War. The amateurish voice acting brings out the game’s campy attitude with deadpan line delivery from NPCs and over-the-top squad captains. I’m not even all that bothered by the constant frame drops as monsters and bullets fly around the screen. While these aspects would usually be detrimental to any other game, they add much more charm due to the differences in expectations. I’d be upset if Helldivers decided to disconnect from the internet or dip in performance while I’m in the middle of an operation because high-quality and polished games are what I expect out of Sony. But when playing an Earth Defense Game game, these hammy shortcomings are features, not bugs.
The story here is ridiculous in the right way. The premise is simple: Alien species have ravaged the Earth and it’s up to humanity to fight back and reclaim the planet. However, Earth Defense Force 6 introduces time travel to the mix and doesn’t pull off the concept very well at all. There are so many inconsistencies that I just stopped paying attention. However, a nonsensical plot only serves to highlight how much of a B-movie the game is. “Oh, another futuristic wormhole appeared in the sky? That just means more aliens to kill.”
The absurdity really ramps up this time, with mythical gods entering the fight. Toward the end of the story, I felt like an RPG protagonist facing insurmountable odds. That’s a sharp contrast with Helldivers 2, where I feel like a disposable pawn. Are there plot holes? You bet, but who cares? Earth Defense Force players know what they’re getting into.
Earth Defense Force 6 is more of the same that you’d expect from the series: goofy tone, janky physics, and a mindlessly good time. The series has had a cult following since the beginning, but hopefully, the popularity of Helldivers 2 gets it more attention. It scratches the same itch, but without the icky monetization factored in, and it fits much more with a single-player or pick-it-up-and-play lifestyle (although couch co-op and online multiplayer are also available). If you’re looking for another world to save, go and enlist yourself to Earth Defense Force 6.
Earth Defense Force 6 is out now on PlayStation 4, PS54, and PC.
