Earth Defence Force 2017 Xbox 360 Review

Ever wondered what you would do if the Earth was invaded by aliens? Ever thought that maybe the government were thinking exactly the same thing? Maybe they have plans, maybe they are training troops right now for that eventuality, maybe they have their top scientists developing weapons to deal with the situation. In Earth Defence Force 2017 that possibility becomes a reality, ten years from now the aliens arrive and forces are mobilized, and guess what, you’re on the front line.

The aliens you’ll be facing off against aren’t your generic little green men though, they come in two classes; bugs and robots, and they are anything but little. You’ll start off against the bugs, which are just giant ants and spiders and come in a variety of sizes, the smallest of which are about the size of a truck, the bigger ones are only about twice the size so they aren’t exactly massive. The bugs are the game’s cannon fodder really, on the lower difficulty levels they’re pretty easily taken out with even a machine gun, but turn the difficulty up and you’ll need something higher powered just to take out one of them, let alone the absolute swarms of them you’ll be facing. Next to be introduced are the robots, and if you thought twenty foot high ants were a big problem you haven’t seen anything, the basic robots come in two sizes; regular, which must be at least five hundred feet high, and the ‘miniature’ ones that can’t be much more than two hundred. These come with a variety of armaments that increase in range throughout the game, and you’ll have to be careful not to get too close to them as they can always stand on you too. These robots are often accompanied by swarms of gun ships that fly around, but like the bugs these are pretty much cannon fodder, although they are a bit harder to hit as they are not being limited to horizontal movement.

Whilst the standard opposition here dwarfs most video game bosses, the bosses themselves are absolutely gargantuan, the smallest of which are troop ships that drop either bugs, robots or a combination of both on you from the skies. And they just keep getting bigger, walking fortresses, giant bio-mechanical dinosaurs, and, of course, the aliens’ mothership itself, you’re up against some stiff competition. You’re going to need some pretty big guns if you want to save the world, so luckily there’s a suitable armoury just waiting for you to unlock. You get all the staples of any good shooter, machine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, grenades, and not just one of each, there’s plenty there, getting progressively more powerful. You also get a nice range of guided missiles, ranging from the slow and powerful to the fast and not so powerful. You’ll also find some special weapons, like a flamethrower, ideal when you’re facing the bugs in the underground tunnels they have made their home. There’s also some vehicles at your disposal, but these are more of a hindrance than a help, the helicopter handles like crap, the tank can’t take many hits, and the mech has a top speed of about two miles an hour. There’s a hover bike too, this is useless for combat, but makes a good getaway vehicle, shame there’s never one around when you’re getting swarmed by dozens of bugs.

So, there you are with your big guns facing an overwhelming alien force to save the world, but as it turns out the Defense in EDF is a bit of a misnomer. Rather than protecting the Earth’s cities from the alien menace you’ll be laying waste to them in your crusade against the aliens. Every bit of scenery in the game’s varied environments is fully destructible, tower blocks, farmhouses, aircraft hangers, you can blow the hell out of all of them, you can save the world, but will what’s left be worth saving? Who cares when it’s this much fun though. And that’s what this game is all about, fun, there’s no real world physics, the graphics aren’t of the highest standard, although the size of some of the enemy models and the amount of them you get on screen is quite impressive, and there’s no orchestral music or Hollywood voice talent. But despite the bargain basement production values the game is a hell of a lot of fun, more so when played in co-op mode, although sadly no online mode. There’s plenty of levels to get through with a fair bit of variety, and it does get pretty tough on later levels, even on the easier difficulty levels, so it should keep you going for a while.

If you’ve got twenty quid burning a hole in your pocket and fancy a bit of mindless destruction then this is just the ticket. There’s no epic storyline, puzzles or quests to get in the way of the pure arcade style action, so if that’s what you’re after you’ll have to look elsewhere. But for the money you won’t get much more bang for your bucks, and if you fancy taking on an alien invasion and don’t care about story or cutting edge graphics you can’t go far wrong here.

A nice mindless shooter with some of the biggest bosses you’ll see anywhere, and at a budget price.

7.6 out of 10