Review: Earth Defense Force 5 (PlayStation 4)

Become the Soldier of EDF and Save the Earth This is an action TPS which features the furious battle between the alien beings and ‘Earth Defense Force’ called the EDF. You will become one of the soldiers of EDF and exterminate the numerous huge enemies. Protect the peace of Earth.

Pros:

• Really nice graphics.
• 18.82GB Download size.
• Platinum trophy.
• Four save slots.
• Three modes- Offline, Online 1-4 co-op, and 2 player split-screen.
• Opening tutorial mission.
• Four classes- Ranger, Wing Diver, Air Raider, and Fencer.
• Loadout- Weapon 1, Weapon 2 and plasma color. Can customize your character by changing the color of your suit.
• Full stats screen.
• Can rebind controls.
• Customize controls for each individual class.
• Five difficulties- Easy, Normal, Hard, Hardest and inferno.
• Cheesy voice work.
• Every class means you play the game completely different making it feel like a new game!
• Addictive what with random loot drops.
• Bugs now blow up into a million pieces and leave goo behind. Corpses can be blown apart.
• Enemies drop 3 types if crates- Health/armor/weapons and adjust stats and unlock new weapons at the end of the level.
• In game chat shortcuts.
• Minimap- Shows enemies and drops.
• Server browser for online that shows hostname, ping, difficulty etc.
• So much fun to play!
• A corny story as always.
• Co-op mode uses your singleplayer save and vice versa.
• The co-op runs surprisingly well.
• All new enemies and bosses.
• Impressive enemy counts on screen.
• Weapons use a charge limit so excessive use will render them useless until they cool down.
• Some buildings can be blown up.
• Cool locations from towns to the countryside.
• Over 100 levels!
• 100s upon 100s of weapons to unlock.
• You can increase the effectiveness of your weapons by using them or by finding higher level weapons.
• A full level breakdown that shows any unlocked weapons and if they are new or improved and how.
• Goes with the Starship Troopers approach to alien combat and it works!
• Levels are huge.
• AI can help you, They can also die.

Cons:

• Cheesy voicework won’t be for everyone.
• Slowdown does happen a lot.
• Never sure on mission progress/length and it can just end.
• Not as much enviromental destruction as previous games.
• Still has bad rag-dolling when you get hit making it quite frustrating on higher levels.
• Not easy to filter multiplayer rooms.
• co-op online is a separate save and file than your singleplayer.
• Online profile shows your game percentage, missions, weapons favored etc and this info is shared on rooms in the server which feels detrimental as you get instantly judged.
• Default controls are awkward as anything.
• The camera switches to key moments for cinema action effect but actually causes a jarring effect and when returning to action goes all wonky.
• No split-screen options.
• Higher difficulty options are locked until you finish the game once.
• More of the same.
• Missions could do with more description on enemy type so you can get at least one weapon that will work.