Review: Earth Defense Force Iron Rain (Steam)

The year 2040. An action TPS where you will become one of the EDF soldiers and fight against the invaders from outer space which ruined the world.

Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• 22865mb download size.
• Steam achievements.
• Controller support.
• Controller-2 layouts, custom, and advanced custom.
• Graphics-resolution, window mode, shadows, AA, draw distance, post-processing, texture/forage quality, motion blur, v-sync, aiming depth of field and display frame rate.
• Japanese and English voice.
• Action shooter gameplay.
• Co-op both offline split-screen and online 4 player co-op.
• Full stats screen complete with filters and sections.
• Two views- close and far.
• Four difficulties-easy/normal/hard/hardest.
• 3 save slots.
• Fully destructible environment.
• Practice area.
• Crystal’s-drop from enemies is colored and represents health and currency.
• Loot chest drop will contain a new weapon.
• Character creator-custom face with sliders/body types/customise uniform/mask/abilities and voice type.
• Still full of cheese from the story to the dialogue.
• Quick recover button from ragdolling.
• You get 30 seconds at the level end to pick up crystals.
• Badges to put on your uniform are locked to tasks in the game.
• A lot of clothing unlocks.
• New PA gear (suit) unlocks as you play.
• Enemies blow up better than before and just behave better.
• All new monsters and creatures to face against.
• Clear Hud and a mini-map that shows enemies and drops.
• Items-you can equip X amount (dependant on PA gear allocation) of unlockable items like health, boosters, vehicles, turrets, etc.
• It plays like an action film.
• AI troopers play a bigger part, you can heal and resurrect them and they fight with you.
• More aggressive enemy AI.
• Day/night locations.
• Great set pieces.
• PA gear determines stats, item capacity and what power you have.
• Weapons have a rating. (rareness)
• Can replay levels.
• Overdrive-fast reloads and you heal. You build this up by attacking.
• You can ride the creatures!
• Clearer progression.
• Fun to play.
• Supports online and split-screen co-op.

Cons:

• It starts in Japanese for some reason.
• No benchmark test.
• It doesn’t include any DLC.
• Difficult.
• Not a very good tutorial.
• Bad hit detection.
• Projectiles can go through walls.
• Clunky controls.
• Have to quit out to change gear.
• A lot of trial and error in regards to knowing what gear to use.
• No dedicated dodge button.
• So easy to ragdoll.
• Slow reloads.
• Not the best item descriptions.
• Slow loading times.
• Enemy AI can be too aggressive at times.
• Invisible wall issues.
• Unlocking is slow.
• Too many currencies to keep track of.
• A lot of clothing unlocks.
• No leaderboards.
• Corpses can stop moving and being able to shoot through them.
• Horrible controls whilst on enemies.