Stay frosty and alert! It's Earth Defense Forces 4!

[NTSC-J]

It took seven long years, but we finally have a true sequel to the eternal EDF3 (or EDF 2017). I got my copy today and after an hour of play, here are some impressions:

It looks incredible! One of the few things that Insect Armageddon did better than EDF3 was the graphics, but this one takes the top prize. Detailed city streets that look very faithful to downtown Tokyo, from the office buildings to residential side-streets littered with small restaurants and farm patches. It's like Shenmue has been invaded. Also to behold is the destruction: no longer does a single rocket level a building no matter the size; small houses blow apart easy, but big office buildings withstand several hits before you blow a chunk off of them, causing them to slowly collapse and implode.

They weren't stingy: EDF4 has more missions than in 3, plus four characters and five difficulty modes. I've only cleared the first eight stages on Normal and they've been a breeze, but I'm expecting things to get gnarly on Inferno.

Controls are improved, although I've only played with the Ranger so far. The other three types look quite different and like a lot of fun.

Also of note, I got a bonus DLC weapon for getting the first printing, plus another bonus DLC weapon for ordering off of Amazon Japan, but I imagine both of these will be available for the domestic release.

[7711]

I wish this was released on PC, I'd be thrilled to play it.

[Rob]

It's like Shenmue has been invaded.

Sold. I think this is the game I need at this very moment. The sturdier buildings to topple bit is making me hope for something like Red Faction: Guerrilla. That with the no nonsense action of this series would be perfect.

[iconoclast]

I hope I'll have my copy by Monday. I've been looking forward to this for years, and it looks like Sandlot over-delivered.

[NTSC-J]

It's like Shenmue has been invaded.

Sold. I think this is the game I need at this very moment. The sturdier buildings to topple bit is making me hope for something like Red Faction: Guerrilla. That with the no nonsense action of this series would be perfect.

It looks like that once the buildings are damaged they're going to come down, so it's not like you can hang out inside them for long, but the effect is still really cool.

The weapon/health drops also have weight to them so they bounce around which is helpful. I had one mission that had loads of ants and buildings getting blown apart and ant heads were rolling and health items were careening around the screen, it was glorious.

There's more interaction with the enemies now. Ants will pick you up with their incisors but you can shoot at them to free yourself, plus there's a new type of spider that sort of lassos you and pulls you up to its web. I can see this getting annoying on later difficulties.

I still haven't tried the other player types, but one of them lets you equip four weapons!

This really does seem to be the best game of our times.

[system11]

What is this, 2003? 8 month gap between JP and the rest of the world release dates

[DJ Incompetent]

Nothing will make me happier than to play this title.

[NTSC-J]

Experienced the other kind of bug today: I got grabbed by an ant that was under a bridge which caused the bridge to disappear and my character to sprout long Mr. Fantastic arms that whipped me around for a while before flinging me through the ground and into the 3D game netherworld. I reappeared in the sky above the city and in the process unlocked the "Get 200m above the ground" achievement. Awesome!

[iconoclast]

Got my copy today. Started on Hard with the Ranger and played through the first 40 missions. It's good so far, but it seems like they've recycled a LOT of missions from EDF3. There's been some new stuff thrown in every once in a while, but I'm getting a strong sense of deja vu...

Everything else has been great tho. The graphics are a lot nicer, the animation is better, the UI & menus are better, they finally added a reload button, and I'm glad the items have physics now. It used to suck when some armor or a weapon would land in an unreachable area, like in the middle of a steep hill, but now it'll just roll or bounce down. And it's cool how you can recolor your character's outfit. I just hope that most of the next 50+ missions are entirely new.

[Pretas]

This actually has fewer enemies at a time than EDF3, due to the need to balance out the fancy new graphics. Which are quite fancy; buildings no longer collapse in canned animations like in 3, but have dynamic destruction depending on where they're hit. It still has more enemies than Insect Armageddon, where battlefields could feel practically deserted.

There's four classes now, but only two of them are consistently useful. Ranger is your standard EDF soldier. Wing Diver is Pale Wing. New to the game are Armored and Tactical. The former is a slow-moving tank character with powerful weapons, but he's too slow to provide any real support. Tactical is mainly for calling in vehicles, which is now the only way to get them. He can't do much else.

The consensus is that aside from the robust online support, it's still inferior to the mighty EDF2, which was ironically a budget game.

[iconoclast]

Eh, it's way too early for there to be any type of consensus. I think it's safe to say that even the most dedicated fans have barely scratched the game's surface, since it has a metric fuckton of content (90+ missions, 4 classes, 5 difficulties, hundreds (?) of weapons). The tactical guy might actually be really good, since not only does he have access to the vehicles (which actually look decent this time around), but he's the only class that can use the turrets. Those were arguably the best weapons in EDF3, and I'm already wishing I had them for a few of the missions. There's also an "exploit" (it seems intentional to me) that allows the Fencer to dash repeatedly, so I don't think his movement will be too big of an issue.

At any rate, I just beat Hard mode. My fingers ache and my eyes have been bloodshot since Monday, but I can't stop playing. This game is awesome*.

*aside from the crashes. even the 360 version has frozen on me 3 times so far - once right after I beat one of the hardest freaking missions.

[Battlesmurf]

I've gotta ask- how is the enemy count and frame rate compared to *2017?

Eh, it's way too early for there to be any type of consensus. I think it's safe to say that even the most dedicated fans have barely scratched the game's surface, since it has a metric fuckton of content (90+ missions, 4 classes, 5 difficulties, hundreds (?) of weapons). The tactical guy might actually be really good, since not only does he have access to the vehicles (which actually look decent this time around), but he's the only class that can use the turrets. Those were arguably the best weapons in EDF3, and I'm already wishing I had them for a few of the missions. There's also an "exploit" (it seems intentional to me) that allows the Fencer to dash repeatedly, so I don't think his movement will be too big of an issue.

At any rate, I just beat Hard mode. My fingers ache and my eyes have been bloodshot since Monday, but I can't stop playing. This game is awesome*.

*aside from the crashes. even the 360 version has frozen on me 3 times so far - once right after I beat one of the hardest freaking missions.

[iconoclast]

I don't think there are ever as many enemies on screen at once as there are in 2017, but some of the later stages can still get pretty packed. The missions just seem to be a little more wave-based, so there's nothing ridiculous like 2017's Mission 52.

The frame rate drops pretty often (and it can get really choppy when shit hits the fan), but that's to be expected from EDF.

[BulletMagnet]

E.D.F.! E.D.F.! E.D.F.!

[NTSC-J]

hundreds (?) of weapons

780!

With all the weapons to unlock, massive number of stages, and difficulty levels per character, it's going to take years for those of us with jobs and families to 100% this thing.

[Weak Boson]

Been wanting to try this series for a while and I notice Insect Armageddon is on sale on steam for £3.50. But from what I gather it's not the best in the series. Is it still worth a go, or would I be better off waiting for a copy of 2017/2025 to materialize?

[NTSC-J]

It's ok, but it's the black sheep of the series and not really representative of what people like about these games. I'd wait for 2017 or 2025.

[iconoclast]

I only played through Insect Armageddon once, but I really didn't like it. It lacks almost everything that makes EDF a great series: massive scale, hordes of enemies, lots of 5-20 minute long stages, tons of different weapons, and maybe this is just me, but I like the item collection in EDF as well. Rolling around the field, collecting some weapon boxes and hoping you get something gdlk is part of the fun - especially since there's some risk involved (If you fail a mission, you get nothing. Greed can lead to some frustrating deaths...). So yeah, I'd wait for 2017 or 2025. Note that 2017 is a little barebones in comparison to EDF2 (aka Global Defense Force if you have an EU PS2) and especially EDF4. They're all great tho.


Anyway, I'm nearly done with Hardest. Most of the missions that involve the gatdamn dragons have been pretty hard; they're completely ridiculous if you don't have any allies to take the aggro or some cover that can protect you from their fireballs. I have no idea how I'll be able to beat some of them on Inferno unless I either farm a ton of health or find some amazing weapons...

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Does this have splitscreen co-op? Or online co-op only?

Nevermind, Wikipedia seems to list it as 2P co-op for offline. But is it any good or is it like, laggy as fuck or something?

[Damocles]

I don't think there are ever as many enemies on screen at once as there are in 2017, but some of the later stages can still get pretty packed. The missions just seem to be a little more wave-based, so there's nothing ridiculous like 2017's Mission 52.

The frame rate drops pretty often (and it can get really choppy when shit hits the fan), but that's to be expected from EDF.

Fuck mission 52. Seriously. That was the only inferno level I didn't do solo. Resorted to using a second controller as a decoy and exploited the weak rocket launcher/strong bomb combo.

[NTSC-J]

I've been trying to play through the game with the Air Raider, but it sure is a challenge liking this guy. He must get some killer weapons eventually because they handicapped the hell out of him. The reloading is weird and seems to have a limit of some sort? It straight up stopped on me during a mission and I was left with jack shit to defend myself. He also needs a gun of some kind for when you get grabbed by an ant or a spider and need to free yourself. The vehicles are all ass, at least initially.

[Weak Boson]

Thank you NTSC-J and iconoclast, I'll give Insect Armageddon a miss. I didn't realize EDF2 made it to the EU so I'll keep an eye out for that.

[iconoclast]

Just finished Hardest. I beat almost all of the stages at 1000 -1500 health, but I had to do some grinding in order to get through a few of the tougher ones (I'm currently at 3300 health, which is a little overkill. < 3K should be fine.). That's the one thing that I really don't like about this series: It's absolutely impossible to avoid taking damage during a few of the stages (especially on the higher difficulties), so you *need* to be able to take a few hits before you can go searching for healing items. Thankfully, grinding requires practically no effort whatsoever (you tie a rubber band around your controller(s) and collect a pile of items every 10 minutes or so), but I think these games would be significantly better if they were balanced around the player having a predetermined amount of health. Oh well.

I've put a disgusting amount of time into this game over the last 10 days, so I think I'll take a little break before starting Inferno...

[iconoclast]

I started playing this again earlier today. It's been 4+ months since the last time I played, and since then they've patched the game and made some balance changes. Weapon drops are more common, a bunch of weapons got buffed, a few enemies got nerfed, and apparently there's less slowdown. Overall, everything feels much more balanced now.

The biggest change is probably the huge nerf to the dragons: they've had their health drastically reduced (one shot from a Lysander F kills them on Inferno), they react to pretty much every bullet (so it's easier to stunlock them with a rifle), and I don't think they shoot as many fireballs as they used to. I'm glad that the dragons are no longer death incarnate, but I'll also miss having to come up with some creative strategies just to survive their onslaught. For example, there was one mission where I camped under the roof on the second floor of an apartment building, surrounded myself with a wall of fire, and shotgunned anything that managed to get through. Stuff like that doesn't seem necessary any more, which is a bit of a shame.

They also released 45 extra missions as DLC, which I'm about to buy and play through.