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Top 50 Challenge 2014 – Earth Defense Force 2025
I’ve never played an Earth Defense Force game, but I’ve heard players sing their praises well before I met some of their fans here at Game Informer (check out Joe Juba’s review here). In many ways, it’s the Dynasty Warriors of third-person shooters. Lots of enemies on screen, lots of over-the-top action, but not a whole lot of input coming from the player.
Learn more about Game Informer's Fight for the Top 50 Challenge 2014
I totally understand the appeal of the game, and I was quickly charmed by its aesthetic without much expectation going in. The purposefully clichéd banter from the soldiers and civilians consistently cracked me up. I loved hearing the scientist come over the radio to remind me giant bugs are attacking, as if the giant bugs attacking weren’t enough to keep me up to date on the situation.
The enemies themselves, the gigantic bugs, are surprisingly scary. There’s something about seeing giant, realistic ants and spiders crawling over skyscrapers that is genuinely unsettling, and it’s made even better (or worse?) by how the rest of the game is basically comic relief.
The combat is simple and amounts to pointing your gun and shooting and trying to keep moving. Different types of enemies (I got far enough to see some flying alien ships) keeps things interesting, but I could feel it getting stale as I fired off my hundredth rocket at my millionth ant. The fun of the game seems to come from playing at higher difficulties for a higher score with friends recalling the abandoned arcade structure of video games past, but it just wasn’t doing it for me. And the slow trickle of new equipment unlocks didn’t encourage me to eagerly jump to the next level.
My Vote
I get why Earth Defense Force 2025 has a dedicated following and I enjoyed my time with it, but it’s hard for me to join the campaign for its inclusion in our top 50 of 2014. It’s shallow, empty-calorie fun, and while I love that this game exists and perfectly executes on it’s B-movie caliber intentions, I don’t think it’s enough to earn a spot on our list of the top 50 games of 2014. I will however, quickly jump into a local co-op game for a few hours the next time the opportunity pops up, even if I don’t plan on playing more by myself outside of work.
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