I’d love to see what would happen if an arachnaphobic were to play this game. In the future, big eyed aliens aren’t the real threat you should beware of, as hulking machines and wave after wave of ants and spiders are the real threat. Forget training soldiers, we need to start training pest exterminators if we hope to stand any chance come 2017. Do you have what it takes to stand toe-to-toe with monsters the size of skyscrapers? Live or die – Earth relies on you!

THE STORY SO FAR
The story goes that in 2013, we receive our first communication with alien forces somewhere way out in the galaxy. With an alien presence out there in the vast darkness, it seemed only natural that the aliens would come soon, but would it be sooner or later. By 2015 we had still not heard back from them, so whether they would be the friendly ETs or evil Independence Day aliens still remained to be seen, but with no chat happening between them, Earth developed the Earth Defense Force (EDF) to protect themselves should the aliens be hostile. In 2017 the aliens arrived and destruction was all they had on their minds.

The story of Earth Defense Force 2017 (EDF 2017 from here on) is told through in-game cutscenes, which gives out your missions during specific levels, as announced over a fictional news report that you only really hear most of the time, and only occasionally see – though when they are talking you’ll still see aliens, it just isn’t fully presented like you are watching a television program. The cutscenes work well as a story frame, but in general there isn’t much of a narrative, as the general gist is you go into a level, kill everything, and then move on and do it all again, with perhaps a different setting.

GAMEPLAY
Since there isn’t any multiplayer outside the ability to do co-op through the story mode, we’ll just lump everything in here together since co-op doesn’t chang the regular story any whatsoever just because there is another player involved.

Before you start any level, you’ll first select what weapons you want to take into battle, and then pick the difficulty. There are many different weapon types, ranging from the assault rifles to the missile launchers to grenades and rocket launchers and shotguns and more. Each different weapon has their strengths and weaknesses, with some having more power than others and others having wider shot range and affectiveness up close or either far away. The usefulness of a weapon will also breakdown to things such as how many rounds a given weapon will hold, and how quick the reload time is, because there isn’t much worse than to find yourself reloaing your assault rifle when an ant is standing right in front of you.

Though you only start with a few weapons, you’ll amass a larger armory by completing levels, and collecting the weapon drops the aliens give out once they die; sometimes they’ll drop weapons you already have, sometimes they’ll drop slightly better weapons, and other times they can drop some killer weaponry. There are several different difficulty levels, and as you complete the higher and higher difficulties, you’ll unlock even more powerful and the coolest looking of the weapons. Beyond weapon drops, killing enemies will also drop you armor to level up your character (in a manner of speaking) and health powerups to help you out should you find yourself getting a thumping by the aliens.

Combat within the game is easy, as your character controls much like most FPS games today. Your left thumbstick will move your character around while your right thumbstick controls the camera and which way you’ll be looking. The only other controls are the left trigger which will make you jump or roll if you are strafing, the right trigger being used for shooting your currently equipped weapon, and the right bumper switching out between your two weapons.

Beyond the on-foot shooting that makes up the bulk of the fighting, you can also pilot and use the destructive force of several different vehicles, including a tank, a hover bike, helicopter, and walking tech suit. Though the idea of vehicles spruces up the combat somewhat, the problem is that they aren’t the easiest thing in the world to control, making them more a nuisance than anything else.

Of course, the complexity of vehicles isn’t really needed, as the enemies aren’t all that hard to fight; you run around, point your weapons, and then let loose. The bulk of enemies are made up of the ant and spider variety, which are quite easy to kill. For some of the hulking behemoth robots though, you’ll have to dodge about a little more carefully, as their weapons can do some serious damage in some relatively quick time. Still, in the end, the only thing you really do is point weapons and shoot, as there isn’t much strategy involved.

Environments aren’t too varied, as most of the time it feels like you are in a city, the same city to be exact, over and over again. Things will change up off and on, such as going underground to take out a hive, but most of the time it feels like you are running around the same explodable city. But hey, explodable isn’t bad, as it can be fun – and is visually cool – to blow up a nearby building with a rocket launcher; the environments (at least the city ones) are highly destructable.

GRAPHICS
I do believe this is the best I have ever seen metal look. If there is an alien creature that is metal in the game – flying spherical ships in the sky, drones, walking monsters – it is simply awe inspiring and spectacular, as metal in the game is the best I’ve ever seen in any game. The problem is that though the metal looks amazing, everything else is pretty ugly, especially your EDF character and partners (cannon fodder as I like to call them). It’s pretty wicked the sheer amount of aliens that can be scurrying about on the screen at once, but sometimes that can lead to problems, as I’ve noticed tons of clipping issues and stuck aliens that get stuck under awnings of buildings.

SOUND
The aliens and weapon effects are really nice and help pull you into the world, and the ambient music can at times really highten the intensity of a heated alien battle. The one big downfall to the sound work is the voiceover work, which is laughably bad at times. Whenever you hear about people complain about the atrociousness of terrible voice acting in videogames, look no farther than EDF 2017.

IN CONCLUSION
The best way to think of Earth Defense Force 2017 is to imagine it as if it was an arcade game of yester year, but updated with today’s graphics. Though not deep at all, it is at times pretty addictive and fun, as long as a constant frag fest against giant bugs and robots is all you want to do. For some, that will be all they need in a game, but for others though Earth Defense Force 2017 just won’t offer up enough gameplay or goods to keep you too busy or occupied (or happy) for any length of time.

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