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This thread has been linked to the game 'Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon'.
It is fairly innate to humanity as a species to foster animosity towards insects. For starters, they look so extremely different to ourselves. Where we have fur, they have scales. Where we have eyes, they have ... well, they're still eyes, but there are just so many of them! Where we have mouths, they have mandibles. And where we have voices, they have clicks, whistles, and screeches.
There is a reason we call them creepy crawlies. And it isn't just because they crawl.
Another thing going against the bugs is just how many of them there are. We humans instinctively know that they outnumber us by a factor of a couple of hundred to one. Since they are generally small, we tend not to dwell on this. In fact, we use this to our advantage. It is inherent in the genes of every young boy to partake in causing suffering to things with more than 4 legs, usually via methods designed to equalise the limb count.
This delight that small boys attain by removing a tiny ant's leg is of nothing, however, when compared to the delight of a grown man blasting the snot out of a giant ant with a rocket launcher.
Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon taps into this most base of prejudices, Man vs Bugs, and is quite happy to go no further in its attempts to tell a story. To wit; aliens invade, by dropping insects the size of busses onto our cities, and let them run riot. There is a slight backstory concerning some missing VIPs, but generally the plot simply runs as far as "There are some bugs over here, kill them all." Missions usually involve heading to a checkpoint, killing the bugs along the way. Upon arrival at the checkpoint, there will probably be another wave of bugs to tackle.
The fun comes from the sheer weight of enemy numbers. It would be true to say that there are times when there is simply nowhere you can look that isn't literally crawling. Ants, spiders, wasps, and ticks all flood the area, each one trying its best to end your existence. Before long, the regular enemies are joined by bigger spiders, giant robots, spaceships, and just when you think you have seen everything they even throw giant robot insects at you. Acid, webs, lasers, and bullets all vie for the right to kill you, along with teeth and stingers. It is safe to say that you just aren't safe until you kill every last bug. When the bugs are this plentiful, that can be quite the task.
Thankfully, you are not alone with your task of saving the entire world from more bugs than you can possibly count. Two AI companions (or two actual companions via online co-operative play) accompany you on your mission. Even better than the colleagues is the quite dazzling array of weaponery at your disposal. There are 4 distinct armour sets available to the player, each of which comes with its own special tricks and weapons. Trooper is a Jack-of-all-Trades, with a decent selection of all sorts of weapons, whereas the Jet class features some quite outlandish weapons and the ability to fly for a short period of time, but suffers from not being able to withstand as much damage as the others. Should you not be so good at avoiding damage, then the Battle armour is for you. Here, you get a handy shield as well as more hit points than the rest. Finally, there is the Tactical class, who gets to deploy turrets and mines alongside his regular weapons. Each class has distinct strengths and weaknesses, and each class receives experience points in a ranking up system the more you play with them.
It is worth noting that this ranking system does require a modicum of grinding in order to unlock all the best weapons for each armour. The higher-tier weapons are the most powerful in the game, and their price reflects this. They are not easy to obtain by any stretch of the imagination, but the laugh-out-loud feeling of power when wielding them more than makes up for the time invested in earning them. Thankfully, all weapons have infinite ammunition, and the inclusion of variable reload times along with a neat little active reload gimmick serves to give you time to think before choosing which two tools of destruction to take into combat with you.
Time in this game is best served by playing with friends, it has to be said. Not only does co-op play automatically lend itself to more fun, but the difficulty scales for the additional players as well. Have 2 friends join you online, and you suddenly find that missions you sailed past solo are a new and more worrying kettle of fish altogether. The offset, of course, is that 3 heads are better than 1, especially when each has a different purpose and is packing heat specifically to help with said purpose. With most of the weapons being powerful enough to demolish skyscrapers with a single shot, it isn't long before the destruction is hitting quite the most ridiculous and wonderful levels you have ever seen in a game to date. (Unless you have played the previous games in the series, of course!)
The EDF series is known for its over-the-top action, with mass destruction and almost insurmountable enemy forces awaiting the player brave enough to pop it in their disc tray. That the graphics and general production values are significantly lower than its contemporaries only adds to the charm. Highly detailed models make way for simpler constructs, with the payoff being that the game engine is able to move more of them about. This leads to some truly hilarious set pieces, with multiple giant robots running around the city, smashing tower blocks in order to get to the soldiers on the ground. Aerial carrier ships will frequently appear, along with nests in the ground that just keep spawning more enemies until you defeat them. The carnage and mayhem keeps on piling, reaching monumental levels. There are quite simply more enemies than you can count on screen at any given time, along with a multitude of ways of disposing of them.
The order of the day, then, is to throw waves of countless foes at you, and just beg you to kill them. Plot considerations are minimal, and whilst there is an undeniable visceral joy to such mindless wholesale destruction, the title would benefit from a little more variety. Fans of the series will particularly wish that some of the tricks from the earlier games were repeated, whereas newcomers may feel that things are a touch repetitive. These are small concerns, however, when measured against the budget price point. If ever a game deserved the descriptor "Cheap and cheerful", it is this one. By marrying the series traditional B-Movie sensibilities with more Western design structure philosophies, Vicious Cycle have created a title that skillfully skirts the narrow divide between the increasingly generic nature of Western shooters and the arcade-inspired insanity, and occasional subsequent inaccessability of, Japanese games. By treading such waters, they may have hit the formula for mainstream success that has so far eluded the EDF games. Yes, a touch of the magic has been lost, but it has been replaced with adiscipline and focus that will allow more players to experience for themselves just why this series has (justifiably) garnered such a cult following.
If you are looking for an epic story, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an epic experience, then you will be extremely well served here.
There is a reason we call them creepy crawlies. And it isn't just because they crawl.
Another thing going against the bugs is just how many of them there are. We humans instinctively know that they outnumber us by a factor of a couple of hundred to one. Since they are generally small, we tend not to dwell on this. In fact, we use this to our advantage. It is inherent in the genes of every young boy to partake in causing suffering to things with more than 4 legs, usually via methods designed to equalise the limb count.
This delight that small boys attain by removing a tiny ant's leg is of nothing, however, when compared to the delight of a grown man blasting the snot out of a giant ant with a rocket launcher.
Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon taps into this most base of prejudices, Man vs Bugs, and is quite happy to go no further in its attempts to tell a story. To wit; aliens invade, by dropping insects the size of busses onto our cities, and let them run riot. There is a slight backstory concerning some missing VIPs, but generally the plot simply runs as far as "There are some bugs over here, kill them all." Missions usually involve heading to a checkpoint, killing the bugs along the way. Upon arrival at the checkpoint, there will probably be another wave of bugs to tackle.
The fun comes from the sheer weight of enemy numbers. It would be true to say that there are times when there is simply nowhere you can look that isn't literally crawling. Ants, spiders, wasps, and ticks all flood the area, each one trying its best to end your existence. Before long, the regular enemies are joined by bigger spiders, giant robots, spaceships, and just when you think you have seen everything they even throw giant robot insects at you. Acid, webs, lasers, and bullets all vie for the right to kill you, along with teeth and stingers. It is safe to say that you just aren't safe until you kill every last bug. When the bugs are this plentiful, that can be quite the task.
Thankfully, you are not alone with your task of saving the entire world from more bugs than you can possibly count. Two AI companions (or two actual companions via online co-operative play) accompany you on your mission. Even better than the colleagues is the quite dazzling array of weaponery at your disposal. There are 4 distinct armour sets available to the player, each of which comes with its own special tricks and weapons. Trooper is a Jack-of-all-Trades, with a decent selection of all sorts of weapons, whereas the Jet class features some quite outlandish weapons and the ability to fly for a short period of time, but suffers from not being able to withstand as much damage as the others. Should you not be so good at avoiding damage, then the Battle armour is for you. Here, you get a handy shield as well as more hit points than the rest. Finally, there is the Tactical class, who gets to deploy turrets and mines alongside his regular weapons. Each class has distinct strengths and weaknesses, and each class receives experience points in a ranking up system the more you play with them.
It is worth noting that this ranking system does require a modicum of grinding in order to unlock all the best weapons for each armour. The higher-tier weapons are the most powerful in the game, and their price reflects this. They are not easy to obtain by any stretch of the imagination, but the laugh-out-loud feeling of power when wielding them more than makes up for the time invested in earning them. Thankfully, all weapons have infinite ammunition, and the inclusion of variable reload times along with a neat little active reload gimmick serves to give you time to think before choosing which two tools of destruction to take into combat with you.
Time in this game is best served by playing with friends, it has to be said. Not only does co-op play automatically lend itself to more fun, but the difficulty scales for the additional players as well. Have 2 friends join you online, and you suddenly find that missions you sailed past solo are a new and more worrying kettle of fish altogether. The offset, of course, is that 3 heads are better than 1, especially when each has a different purpose and is packing heat specifically to help with said purpose. With most of the weapons being powerful enough to demolish skyscrapers with a single shot, it isn't long before the destruction is hitting quite the most ridiculous and wonderful levels you have ever seen in a game to date. (Unless you have played the previous games in the series, of course!)
The EDF series is known for its over-the-top action, with mass destruction and almost insurmountable enemy forces awaiting the player brave enough to pop it in their disc tray. That the graphics and general production values are significantly lower than its contemporaries only adds to the charm. Highly detailed models make way for simpler constructs, with the payoff being that the game engine is able to move more of them about. This leads to some truly hilarious set pieces, with multiple giant robots running around the city, smashing tower blocks in order to get to the soldiers on the ground. Aerial carrier ships will frequently appear, along with nests in the ground that just keep spawning more enemies until you defeat them. The carnage and mayhem keeps on piling, reaching monumental levels. There are quite simply more enemies than you can count on screen at any given time, along with a multitude of ways of disposing of them.
The order of the day, then, is to throw waves of countless foes at you, and just beg you to kill them. Plot considerations are minimal, and whilst there is an undeniable visceral joy to such mindless wholesale destruction, the title would benefit from a little more variety. Fans of the series will particularly wish that some of the tricks from the earlier games were repeated, whereas newcomers may feel that things are a touch repetitive. These are small concerns, however, when measured against the budget price point. If ever a game deserved the descriptor "Cheap and cheerful", it is this one. By marrying the series traditional B-Movie sensibilities with more Western design structure philosophies, Vicious Cycle have created a title that skillfully skirts the narrow divide between the increasingly generic nature of Western shooters and the arcade-inspired insanity, and occasional subsequent inaccessability of, Japanese games. By treading such waters, they may have hit the formula for mainstream success that has so far eluded the EDF games. Yes, a touch of the magic has been lost, but it has been replaced with adiscipline and focus that will allow more players to experience for themselves just why this series has (justifiably) garnered such a cult following.
If you are looking for an epic story, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an epic experience, then you will be extremely well served here.
Great review Lee.
I love the online 'horde' style games, it descends in to madness after a while, but always enjoyable madness.
I love the online 'horde' style games, it descends in to madness after a while, but always enjoyable madness.
It is fairly innate to humanity as a species to foster animosity towards insects. For starters, they look so extremely different to ourselves. Where we have fur, they have scales. Where we have eyes, they have ... well, they're still eyes, but there are just so many of them! Where we have mouths, they have mandibles. And where we have voices, they have clicks, whistles, and screeches.
There is a reason we call them creepy crawlies. And it isn't just because they crawl.
Another thing going against the bugs is just how many of them there are. We humans instinctively know that they outnumber us by a factor of a couple of hundred to one. Since they are generally small, we tend not to dwell on this. In fact, we use this to our advantage. It is inherent in the genes of every young boy to partake in causing suffering to things with more than 4 legs, usually via methods designed to equalise the limb count.
This delight that small boys attain by removing a tiny ant's leg is of nothing, however, when compared to the delight of a grown man blasting the snot out of a giant ant with a rocket launcher.
Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon taps into this most base of prejudices, Man vs Bugs, and is quite happy to go no further in its attempts to tell a story. To wit; aliens invade, by dropping insects the size of busses onto our cities, and let them run riot. There is a slight backstory concerning some missing VIPs, but generally the plot simply runs as far as "There are some bugs over here, kill them all." Missions usually involve heading to a checkpoint, killing the bugs along the way. Upon arrival at the checkpoint, there will probably be another wave of bugs to tackle.
The fun comes from the sheer weight of enemy numbers. It would be true to say that there are times when there is simply nowhere you can look that isn't literally crawling. Ants, spiders, wasps, and ticks all flood the area, each one trying its best to end your existence. Before long, the regular enemies are joined by bigger spiders, giant robots, spaceships, and just when you think you have seen everything they even throw giant robot insects at you. Acid, webs, lasers, and bullets all vie for the right to kill you, along with teeth and stingers. It is safe to say that you just aren't safe until you kill every last bug. When the bugs are this plentiful, that can be quite the task.
Thankfully, you are not alone with your task of saving the entire world from more bugs than you can possibly count. Two AI companions (or two actual companions via online co-operative play) accompany you on your mission. Even better than the colleagues is the quite dazzling array of weaponery at your disposal. There are 4 distinct armour sets available to the player, each of which comes with its own special tricks and weapons. Trooper is a Jack-of-all-Trades, with a decent selection of all sorts of weapons, whereas the Jet class features some quite outlandish weapons and the ability to fly for a short period of time, but suffers from not being able to withstand as much damage as the others. Should you not be so good at avoiding damage, then the Battle armour is for you. Here, you get a handy shield as well as more hit points than the rest. Finally, there is the Tactical class, who gets to deploy turrets and mines alongside his regular weapons. Each class has distinct strengths and weaknesses, and each class receives experience points in a ranking up system the more you play with them.
It is worth noting that this ranking system does require a modicum of grinding in order to unlock all the best weapons for each armour. The higher-tier weapons are the most powerful in the game, and their price reflects this. They are not easy to obtain by any stretch of the imagination, but the laugh-out-loud feeling of power when wielding them more than makes up for the time invested in earning them. Thankfully, all weapons have infinite ammunition, and the inclusion of variable reload times along with a neat little active reload gimmick serves to give you time to think before choosing which two tools of destruction to take into combat with you.
Time in this game is best served by playing with friends, it has to be said. Not only does co-op play automatically lend itself to more fun, but the difficulty scales for the additional players as well. Have 2 friends join you online, and you suddenly find that missions you sailed past solo are a new and more worrying kettle of fish altogether. The offset, of course, is that 3 heads are better than 1, especially when each has a different purpose and is packing heat specifically to help with said purpose. With most of the weapons being powerful enough to demolish skyscrapers with a single shot, it isn't long before the destruction is hitting quite the most ridiculous and wonderful levels you have ever seen in a game to date. (Unless you have played the previous games in the series, of course!)
The EDF series is known for its over-the-top action, with mass destruction and almost insurmountable enemy forces awaiting the player brave enough to pop it in their disc tray. That the graphics and general production values are significantly lower than its contemporaries only adds to the charm. Highly detailed models make way for simpler constructs, with the payoff being that the game engine is able to move more of them about. This leads to some truly hilarious set pieces, with multiple giant robots running around the city, smashing tower blocks in order to get to the soldiers on the ground. Aerial carrier ships will frequently appear, along with nests in the ground that just keep spawning more enemies until you defeat them. The carnage and mayhem keeps on piling, reaching monumental levels. There are quite simply more enemies than you can count on screen at any given time, along with a multitude of ways of disposing of them.
The order of the day, then, is to throw waves of countless foes at you, and just beg you to kill them. Plot considerations are minimal, and whilst there is an undeniable visceral joy to such mindless wholesale destruction, the title would benefit from a little more variety. Fans of the series will particularly wish that some of the tricks from the earlier games were repeated, whereas newcomers may feel that things are a touch repetitive. These are small concerns, however, when measured against the budget price point. If ever a game deserved the descriptor "Cheap and cheerful", it is this one. By marrying the series traditional B-Movie sensibilities with more Western design structure philosophies, Vicious Cycle have created a title that skillfully skirts the narrow divide between the increasingly generic nature of Western shooters and the arcade-inspired insanity, and occasional subsequent inaccessability of, Japanese games. By treading such waters, they may have hit the formula for mainstream success that has so far eluded the EDF games. Yes, a touch of the magic has been lost, but it has been replaced with adiscipline and focus that will allow more players to experience for themselves just why this series has (justifiably) garnered such a cult following.
If you are looking for an epic story, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an epic experience, then you will be extremely well served here.
There is a reason we call them creepy crawlies. And it isn't just because they crawl.
Another thing going against the bugs is just how many of them there are. We humans instinctively know that they outnumber us by a factor of a couple of hundred to one. Since they are generally small, we tend not to dwell on this. In fact, we use this to our advantage. It is inherent in the genes of every young boy to partake in causing suffering to things with more than 4 legs, usually via methods designed to equalise the limb count.
This delight that small boys attain by removing a tiny ant's leg is of nothing, however, when compared to the delight of a grown man blasting the snot out of a giant ant with a rocket launcher.
Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon taps into this most base of prejudices, Man vs Bugs, and is quite happy to go no further in its attempts to tell a story. To wit; aliens invade, by dropping insects the size of busses onto our cities, and let them run riot. There is a slight backstory concerning some missing VIPs, but generally the plot simply runs as far as "There are some bugs over here, kill them all." Missions usually involve heading to a checkpoint, killing the bugs along the way. Upon arrival at the checkpoint, there will probably be another wave of bugs to tackle.
The fun comes from the sheer weight of enemy numbers. It would be true to say that there are times when there is simply nowhere you can look that isn't literally crawling. Ants, spiders, wasps, and ticks all flood the area, each one trying its best to end your existence. Before long, the regular enemies are joined by bigger spiders, giant robots, spaceships, and just when you think you have seen everything they even throw giant robot insects at you. Acid, webs, lasers, and bullets all vie for the right to kill you, along with teeth and stingers. It is safe to say that you just aren't safe until you kill every last bug. When the bugs are this plentiful, that can be quite the task.
Thankfully, you are not alone with your task of saving the entire world from more bugs than you can possibly count. Two AI companions (or two actual companions via online co-operative play) accompany you on your mission. Even better than the colleagues is the quite dazzling array of weaponery at your disposal. There are 4 distinct armour sets available to the player, each of which comes with its own special tricks and weapons. Trooper is a Jack-of-all-Trades, with a decent selection of all sorts of weapons, whereas the Jet class features some quite outlandish weapons and the ability to fly for a short period of time, but suffers from not being able to withstand as much damage as the others. Should you not be so good at avoiding damage, then the Battle armour is for you. Here, you get a handy shield as well as more hit points than the rest. Finally, there is the Tactical class, who gets to deploy turrets and mines alongside his regular weapons. Each class has distinct strengths and weaknesses, and each class receives experience points in a ranking up system the more you play with them.
It is worth noting that this ranking system does require a modicum of grinding in order to unlock all the best weapons for each armour. The higher-tier weapons are the most powerful in the game, and their price reflects this. They are not easy to obtain by any stretch of the imagination, but the laugh-out-loud feeling of power when wielding them more than makes up for the time invested in earning them. Thankfully, all weapons have infinite ammunition, and the inclusion of variable reload times along with a neat little active reload gimmick serves to give you time to think before choosing which two tools of destruction to take into combat with you.
Time in this game is best served by playing with friends, it has to be said. Not only does co-op play automatically lend itself to more fun, but the difficulty scales for the additional players as well. Have 2 friends join you online, and you suddenly find that missions you sailed past solo are a new and more worrying kettle of fish altogether. The offset, of course, is that 3 heads are better than 1, especially when each has a different purpose and is packing heat specifically to help with said purpose. With most of the weapons being powerful enough to demolish skyscrapers with a single shot, it isn't long before the destruction is hitting quite the most ridiculous and wonderful levels you have ever seen in a game to date. (Unless you have played the previous games in the series, of course!)
The EDF series is known for its over-the-top action, with mass destruction and almost insurmountable enemy forces awaiting the player brave enough to pop it in their disc tray. That the graphics and general production values are significantly lower than its contemporaries only adds to the charm. Highly detailed models make way for simpler constructs, with the payoff being that the game engine is able to move more of them about. This leads to some truly hilarious set pieces, with multiple giant robots running around the city, smashing tower blocks in order to get to the soldiers on the ground. Aerial carrier ships will frequently appear, along with nests in the ground that just keep spawning more enemies until you defeat them. The carnage and mayhem keeps on piling, reaching monumental levels. There are quite simply more enemies than you can count on screen at any given time, along with a multitude of ways of disposing of them.
The order of the day, then, is to throw waves of countless foes at you, and just beg you to kill them. Plot considerations are minimal, and whilst there is an undeniable visceral joy to such mindless wholesale destruction, the title would benefit from a little more variety. Fans of the series will particularly wish that some of the tricks from the earlier games were repeated, whereas newcomers may feel that things are a touch repetitive. These are small concerns, however, when measured against the budget price point. If ever a game deserved the descriptor "Cheap and cheerful", it is this one. By marrying the series traditional B-Movie sensibilities with more Western design structure philosophies, Vicious Cycle have created a title that skillfully skirts the narrow divide between the increasingly generic nature of Western shooters and the arcade-inspired insanity, and occasional subsequent inaccessability of, Japanese games. By treading such waters, they may have hit the formula for mainstream success that has so far eluded the EDF games. Yes, a touch of the magic has been lost, but it has been replaced with adiscipline and focus that will allow more players to experience for themselves just why this series has (justifiably) garnered such a cult following.
If you are looking for an epic story, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an epic experience, then you will be extremely well served here.