Earth Defense Force 6 Review – A Messy Horde of Arcade Fun

Earth Defense Force has fulfilled a particular niche in gaming as the self-aware campy ‘B-movie’ series for a decade, and I’m delighted to say that the latest game continues this trend with enthusiasm. The same general formula from EDF’s first Western release is still present in EDF 6. You’re a soldier in an intercontinental army whose goal is to protect the Earth from alien infestation. There’s no deep story or character moments, and the cheesiness is off the charts throughout. The mission structure is remarkably simple and can be enjoyed as an old-school couch co-op experience. And of course, the third-person shooter gameplay is pure arcady action with an emphasis on large enemy swarms overwhelming the screen. Like its predecessors, EDF 6 is a throwback to a simpler time in gaming.

Despite retaining many of the ingredients that make EDF what it’s been, Earth Defense Force 6 achieves a couple of series benchmarks and firsts. EDF 6 marks the first time the series has entered into the current console generation, being available on PS5, PS4, and PC. The game can be played in 4K for the first time and there’s a general framerate improvement when run on performance settings. And you’ll be thankful for the increased fidelity and performance considering EDF 6 has the longest campaign in the series, with over 130 missions and thousands of weapons. Earth Defense Force 6 is also the first direct sequel in the series, following the rather abrupt and devastating cliffhanger Earth Defense Force 5 left players with. As expected, EDF 6 retains much from the previous game, with identical menus, combat, and even some repeated missions. But before diving deeper into EDF 6’s gameplay, let’s talk about the story and presentation.

"The mission structure is remarkably simple and can be enjoyed as an old-school couch co-op experience."

Since EDF 6 is a direct sequel to EDF 5, you can’t really avoid spoilers for the previous game. That said, the EDF series never took their stories too seriously, which is something that’ll hit you in the face as soon as you start up EDF 6’s opening mission. You find yourself in a battered bunker when a hilariously cheesy drill sergeant starts hurling insults at all the ‘worthless maggot’ recruits.

Despite the world’s population being reduced by 10% after the catastrophic events of the previous game, there’s still plenty of hilarious banter between soldiers, most of it unintended. My favorite of these campy moments was rather innocuous. The sergeant gets swung around like a ragdoll by giant fire ants as he politely, and rather demurely, asks them to “please, let him go,” highlights the sheer absurdity of the writing and its wonderfully campy tone throughout.

"Bringing up the chat box during cinematic moments can result in some funny moments"

A lot of the humor is intentional, but there’s a ton of unintentional hilarity here as well. Flat voice lines and occasional mistranslations permeate the game’s script, but it all comes off as self-aware B-movie cheese in the end due to the inherent tone the game succeeds at. You can even say your own cheesy lines through the chat box, which consists of affirmations, celebrations, and orders you can give to co-op partners. Roughly half of these chat box lines are voice-acted, with different actors for each of the four classes.

I find some of the storytelling to be clumsily done, though not due to the obvious B-movie cheese. There’s a general lack of flow and internal glue between sequences, something that is shockingly apparent after the climactic 13^th mission. Without spoiling too much, a break in the status quo occurs at the end of this mission, resulting in a complete shift in time and space. Even if you’ve played EDF 5 to completion and know the story inside/out, it’s difficult to understand what just took place. There’s a lack of explanation and set-up, not just for that penultimate moment, but the entire game. Missions often feel disjointed and disconnected from one another since there’s no overarching narration or connecting thread, even when you have the same squad around you. On a brighter note, much of the English cast from EDF 5 returns during these ‘totally-not-a-flashback’ sequences, with Sarge being a highlight throughout. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of sound, the music is absolutely banging in this game. The laughably barebones intro is strengthened by the engaging orchestral score and the menu themes simply rule. Your EDF squad will randomly chant anthems as you march forward to battle, further highlighting the strong musical core in EDF 6.

"Most of your time will be spent wildly shooting hordes of oversized insects and aliens."

And you’ll need inspired anthems since you’ll be engaging in a LOT of shooting in this game. Overall, the controls are rather straightforward. You have an over-the-shoulder camera perspective and can sprint and dodge while playing as the Ranger class. Certain weapons allow you to zoom in with a scope for precise aiming, but a majority of combat is spent wildly spamming enemies in the face with bullets. While the shooting is more precise here than other EDF games, it’s certainly not on the level of Gears or more polished third-person games, but it does its job well enough. Sprinting, however, controls horrendously due to the camera. Every time you sprint, the camera zooms in so your character fills the entire screen. There’s no way to change the sprint camera in the settings either, so get used to not seeing anything while desperately sprinting away from hordes of bugs. I always grit my teeth whenever I have to sprint due to how disorienting and obfuscating it is with all the action going on. Likewise, the chat box is brought up anytime you use the D-pad, which can get really annoying when bringing up the pause menu and trying to change settings. This is a slight UI issue at the end of the day, but the cluttered menu overlays still stick out as a sloppy oversight.

Thankfully, the missions themselves are straightforward and just plain fun. You constantly feel engaged in combat and there’s hardly any annoying irritating missions of the escort/protect variety. You can get your entire squad ‘killed’ and still overcome the mission if you yourself manage to survive. Earth Defense Force 6 is basically a shooter version of the Dynasty Warriors musou games, with giant swarms of bugs and aliens filling the streets instead of Chinese armies. There’s a satisfaction of being caught in the middle of 50 giant ants and just holding down the trigger blasting through them to victory that can’t be overstated. However, this simple fun can get repetitive pretty fast, especially during long gaming sessions.  While it’s a good thing that there’s not too many annoying mission types, there’s also just not enough mission variety in general. Sure, each mission has a slightly different environment with occasional new enemies and layouts, but the objective and strategy usually end up being the same.

I would enjoy this simple mission structure more if there were mid-mission checkpoints, but alas, every death results in you redoing the mission from the start. And EDF 6 doesn’t play around; it can get difficult in its later stages, so you may end up repeating the same mission multiple times even on Normal difficulty. While the missions aren’t particularly long, lasting anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes, the lack of checkpoints adds repetitive padding and artificial difficulty. Despite all this, Earth Defense Force 6 makes for an ideal popcorn game. It’s easy to turn your brain off for 15 minutes as you mow down giant bugs and blow buildings up. Speaking of blowing up buildings, the environmental destruction is an absolute delight in EDF 6. Every single building is destructible, which is good because enemies just love climbing and attacking on top of said buildings.

"The Air Raider class gives you drones and the ability to call in helicopter airstrikes. Each class has a unique set of weaponry."

The four different classes provide a lot of variety in kit and playstyle to make up for the repetitive mission structure. If you’re playing online co-op you can even form a team comprised of all four classes, making for one heck of a balanced offensive. Ranger is your common infantry rifleman who can equip rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, missile launchers, and a variety of grenades. Earth Defense Force 6 has drivable vehicles and Rangers are the only class besides Air Raiders who can commandeer them. The vehicles themselves have sloppy driving controls but work well enough for the amount of time you use them in EDF 6. Wing Divers are your jetpack class with enhanced mobility, though they’re more prone to damage. Air Raiders provide support, calling in a variety of air strikes and vehicle drops. Finally, Fencers are slow heavies with the most powerful arsenal of weaponry in the game, fulfilling the tank role perfectly. There’s a boatload of different weapons, grenades, shields, etc., that you obtain through enemy drops. When enemies drop duplicate equipment, it levels them up, further enhancing all the various parameters automatically. I like how automatic the process of leveling up and upgrading equipment is in this game considering the sheer number of equipment and class options available.

All in all, Earth Defense Force 6 provides a fun time and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a perfect popcorn game to relax to if you just want to shoot and blow stuff up mindlessly. This entry is very similar to its prequel, EDF 5, but includes more bang for your buck due to the huge campaign and enhanced performance and graphics. If you want simple, silly fun packaged in a lengthy co-op campaign, you can’t go wrong with Earth Defense Force 6.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.