Earth Defense Force: Insect ArmageDdon

We all know about the problems of the Japanese gaming industry. The largest publishers from the Land of the Rising Sun experience huge difficulties with the search for qualified personnel in their homeland and are forced to willy-nilly resorting to the services of Western studios and Western experience. True, we will not recall a single case when something sensible (see see from the transfer of purely Japanese game to Western developers (see. At least Silent Hill: Homecomping and Front Mission Evolved).

With Earth Defense Force 2017, the situation is even more complicated. This is not just a Japanese, but three times a Japanese game: here on a long-suffering Tokyo, alien hordes of giant ants and spiders are attacked with the support of a very indecent size of robots and starships, as if who who had come down from the pages of some furs-manga. The right to make a sequel for such a game was taken away from the authors of the original, the eastern studio of Sandlot, and gave the western Vicious Cycle, the most significant achievement of which is Purisjack Puzzle Quest on PSP.

Machine gun from the cockroaches "Mashenka"

Most of you (what a sin to hide) about Earth Defense Force 2017 probably did not even hear, so it is worth telling what kind of game is this and what it has so hooked by those few Western players who were fortunate for her to come across. And the concept is actually as simple as it is brilliant: it is a meat shooter without a single gram of meaning, with a large degree of madness and with a fairly pinch of humor.

[Bullet]] This spider cannot boast of solid dimensions, but spils terribly annoying bugs that meanly cling to the back and explode.

Hundreds of mutant ants on the screen, landing flying saucers with the support of the armada of attack aircraft in the air, stomping on the ground ten-meter human-like robots, walking a giant fortress that lousers from somewhere in the other end of the city, and all this must be destroyed within one of the fifty-three-three missions. It is on the one hand.

And on the other, several detachments of the protective forces of the Earth with endless ammunition for any Casino Charles sister sites type of weapon, including grenade and missiles. The flow of fire and flame towards alien invaders occasionally interrupted only at reloading. The missiles are cut into insect carcasses and explode, scattering dozens of bodies in different directions. Buildings collapse in a picture (the whole city can be reduced with the ground), the screen is now and then close the beautiful flashes of flame from the next exploding robot, the ears are laid from the spinning of dying ants, a flying saucer the size of a football field falls from the sky, demolishing several skyscrapers along the way. And in all this chaos, a handful of men with bad voices chases the choir out of place: “EDF! EDF! EDF!"

[Bullet]] The game has a controlled technique, but, as in Earth Defense Force 2017, fighting on your two is much more convenient.

Add to this picture the opportunity to play with a friend behind one prefix (alas, alas, was not supported) – and you will understand why Earth Defense Force 2017 has become so popular in very, unfortunately, narrow circles. There is no other such a pure, spinal, uncomplicated by a philosophical plot, complex mechanics and stupid restrictions on the shooter on the consoles of the current generation.

The web -winged detachment

Earth Defense Force: Insect ArmageDdon honestly tries to hold the brand. Vicious Cycle did not dare to seriously change the concept of the original game: you still fight with insects and robots, the cartridges are still endless, there are a lot of weapons-and it is cool (from ordinary grenade launches to self-leading assault rifles and shotgans, plasma grenades and launchers, it several dozen missiles shooting at once). However, the developers tried to correct the obvious misses of the previous part and make it a little deeper.

Firstly, they finally added support for the game on the network: the campaign can go through the three of them, and in the survival mode to fight as much as the sinter. Secondly, it is worth noting a longing schedule and animation, but they still do not reach modern standards, so you should not wait for any revelations in this regard.

[[Bullet]] When we are talking about a decrease in scale, we mean this. You just look at these completely deserted streets – disgrace!

The only serious innovation is the division of soldiers into classes that differ from each other in a type of armor, the speed of movement and a set of weapons. There are four classes in total: an ordinary average infantryman, a heavily armed slow attack aircraft, an engineer who knows how to arrange automatic turrets and mines, and a very fast, but poorly -proof, flying warrior with jetpak behind his back. Each class is pumped separately, and the maximum level of development depends on the level of complexity, on which, in turn, your hero’s effectiveness and weapons available to him depend. But the game is arranged so that it is useless to cut the most important regime right away – you simply cannot go through it with a non -roll fighter.

So to open everything that the game can offer, you will have to go through it more than once. In this regard, it is very similar to the first part, where there were five levels of complexity, and only the most persistent warriors of the Earth were able to defeat the highest. The prize for such heroism was an incredibly powerful weapon.

Dichlophos will not help

Positive changes end in this and universal sadness ends and begins during the flight of the game from rainy Japan to sunny California those particles of success formula Earth Defense Force, thanks to which the game from the Trash turned into a small masterpiece.

The main loss is, of course, the scale of what is happening. If earlier there were hundreds of enemies, and several dozens of people fought with you, now only two partners are given to you, and the number of insects running around the buildings has sharply reduced. Although at rare moments the game still pleases with cool episodes: when it is trying to fry you with the rays of the death of the Gulliver sizes with a mechanical spider with the support of several “small” robots and a couple of dozens of insects, there is simply no time to breathe. And not only to you, but also to the game: it begins to blur corny (we played the version for Xbox 360). The first part also sometimes creaked, but the scope of events there was completely different, and problematic episodes occurred much less often. Here, almost the entire last chapter takes place in a slow shooting mode.

[[Bullet]] Armor with jetpak – Great thing. It's a pity that there is enough fuel for a short time.

Following the scale, Tolika of madness disappeared: there is no one else to scream with chorus “EDF!", You can’t stumble on the detachment of the infantrymen, standing back to the back and shooting the spiders that sew on all sides, and bravely save him from imminent death. There are also big problems with variety: the bright juicy colors of Earth Defense Force 2017 were replaced by the gray dust of dilapidated cities, except for which there are no more locations, although in the original we fought in gorges, and underground, and on the sunset beach, and on green hills. Game situations are generally trouble: the goal of almost all levels is to find a fallen transporter and blow/protect it.

In addition, a bunch of seemingly insignificant, but annoying little things appeared. Invisible energy fields on arenas, which interfere with normal (and vital) maneuvering. Literally pissing out the process of reloading a la GEARS of WAR , which is completely inappropriate in the hurricane Earth Defense Force. Constant bugs like passing through solid objects and the brakes already mentioned. The game even ends completely unexpectedly, breaking off at a glance at a climax, which brings thoughts on its banal arrears.

Many of those who have not played Earth Defense Force 2017 will hardly understand our claims to the Insect ArmageDDDON. Such meaningless arcade jewelry, in which the finger from the gashter is never removed at all, is now almost not done-on the horizon it only loomes Serious Sam 3 , But it is still unknown what will come of it from it. Therefore, for the first time in a long time, having encountered this genre in the Insect Armageddon (especially if the company is made by several friends), you can seriously get carried away. The problem is that everything is known in comparison, and comparison with the original Earth Defense Force: Insect ArmageedDon simply does not stand out.

Reigracy:

Cool plot:

Originality:

Easy to master:

Gameplay:

5

Graphics:

6

Sound and music:

6

Interface and management:

7

Waited?

Westernized continuation of the beautiful meat shooter Earth Defense Force 2017. Played about the same as the American version of the film "Call" looks compared to Japanese.

Mania rating: 5.5

"Medium"

Protective power

The very name of the organization Earth Defense Force, which protects the Earth from beetles, is the wildest stamp. In the same way, for example, the following structures were called.

[[Bullet]] Special troops in all parts of Duke Nukem

[[Bullet]] Union of Earthlings in Red Faction

[[Bullet]] Army in the final film about Godzill – "Godzilla: Final Wars"

[[Bullet]] Fraction in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness