Reviewed: April 7, 2007
Reviewed by: Blake Kenny

Publisher
D3 Publisher

Developer
Sandlot

Released: March 20, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Teen

7
6
6
7
7.7

Supported Features:

Fortunately for Earth Defense Force 2017 it hit store shelves promising the world nothing and having absolutely no hype to live up to. I mean lets face it, not a thing in this world can kill a game faster than unrealized potential. If a game has virtually no publicity or marketing and there are no expectations placed upon it, it’s pretty easy to take it for what it is, another cheap, modest offering, that’s likely to suck. But every once in a while, having low expectations can lead you down a road towards epic and exciting adventures you never planned on. Earth Defense Force 2017 is just such a game.

EDF pretty much came out of nowhere and in all likelihood most gamers never even heard of it until about 2 months before it was in stores. So when it lands on shelves at an affordable budget price of about $40, chances are a few consumers with money to burn will take a chance and pick it up. After all, Test Drive: Unlimited, the latest game in a struggling series was a budget title, and it turned out to be fantastic. You never know, sometimes surprises are out there just waiting to be discovered. So is Earth Defense Force 2017 what the masses would call a sleeper hit? Well I wouldn’t say that, but for the right kind of person, it might be exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

However, on the plus side, what kind of game reviewer would I be if I didn’t point out at least one of the positive things that EDF 2017 has going for it. It can’t be all bad can it? Well, to be frank, this game does have one redeeming quality, it has some of the most exciting, addictive, balls to the wall action I’ve ever experienced. Despite all of the problems inherent in EDF 2017, it still manages to produce the most important ingredients to be found within any game. It’s fun! It’s flat-out, in your face, silly and relentless fun, pure and simple.

I know that for this type of game, no-one cares about the story, but in a nutshell, Earth is being visited by aliens, and while it’s unclear in the beginning if these visitors are here with good intentions or bad, the fact that Earth’s government dubs them, “The Ravagers” pretty much stamps the idea that they’re most likely not here to make friends. After all, if the aliens where going to turn out friendly I’m sure the government would have called them the “Snuggle Bunnies” instead.

As the player, you assume control of some unknown soldier, an anonymous member of the Earth Defense Force – and for over 50+ missions you’ll battle your way through “B” movie bliss, waging war against giants ants, giant spiders, giants robots and even bigger spaceships. With over 150 awesome weapons at your disposal, swarms of enemies and fully destructible environments, you can almost smell the mayhem. It’s a wonderful, carnage filled romp; full of death, destruction and everything else that makes science-fiction camp so utterly fantastic.

You begin the first mission able to play it on any difficulty level you chose, but truth be told, you’ll never beat the game on “Inferno” - the games hardest setting without beating it a few times on one of the easier modes first. Once a level has been unlocked you can re-play it again at any time on any difficulty. As you work through the game, you’ll collect various weapons and amour upgrades that increase you maximum stamina or hit points. The armour upgrades are also cumulative, meaning that every time you do a mission, you’ll have more life than the time before. Play through the game enough times, and eventually you might have enough hit points to sustain you through the near impossible and completely diabolical - Inferno difficulty, EDF 2017’s ultimate challenge.

While walking is your primary means of travel, you occasionally gain access to some vehicles, such as tanks, helicopters and mechs, but I should warn you, they all suck and are nowhere near as enjoyable to use as they may sound. They control horribly and don’t do any more damages than most of the weapons you collect as you play through the campaign. In EDF, vehicles are nothing more than an uncontrollable curiosity. Of course you’re going to try them, but your first time will likely be your last. In the end, you’ll probably walk everywhere, and since walking is the only control scheme that works perfectly, you’ll have little need to move about any other way.

While the game is below par in many respects, it’s impossible to deny the fun factor held within this title. When a stampede of ants comes charging down Main Street, it’s exhilarating to blast away at them with rockets, their green blood exploding from within, the city crumbling down around them. While EDF is technically poor in many ways and suffer from a lot of problems, control isn’t one of them. The game plays extremely well and controlling your character is never and issue. Had it not been for the solid controls, this game would have been a complete disaster, but because it plays well, it makes up for all the other problems, almost making them seem intentional.

Like every Xbox 360 game, Earth Defense Force 2017 has 1000 gamerscore points waiting to be unlocked through a whopping 6 achievements. Beat the game on each of the 5-difficulty settings and collect every weapon and you’ll have your 1000 points. Sounds easy enough, but amassing enough stamina points to survive Inferno difficulty won’t happen overnight, and since some of the 150+ weapons are awarded only for beating certain difficulties, you’ll have to do all 5 to get that one. Good luck warriors, because getting 1000 points in EDF is a major accomplishment.

Overall the animations and textures are pretty week throughout. When you blow ants away with a missile launcher, they fly through the air like giant, lightweight hunks of styrofoam. Their legs don’t bend or move at all, they’re completely unanimated. They’ll land on the ground randomly and tumble about, much like dead leaves might blow from a stiff breeze. They’re almost completely weightless and it looks ridiculous. In addition, spaceships and robots are shiny and metallic, as they should be, but for some strange reason they look as though they’re modelled out of tin foil, almost as if you could punch a hole through one by throwing a rock. It’s hard to describe, but everything about the look of this game screams cheap. Everything looks so bad, it’s good.

I remember the first time I blew an alien transport ship out of the sky, I was mesmerized. These ships are simply enormous. They lose their ability to stay in the air, and start to fall towards the earth, sure to crush dozens of building under their immense size and weight. The buildings crumble and throw up fire, dust and debris – and the second the ship hits the ground… it’s completely disappears without a trace, instantly. It’s a bit disappointing considering the magnitude of the crash, but it’s pretty much what you come to expect from this game as you play it. The bright side is, if these ships go crashing down in the distance, it can look great because they disappear behind objects in the foreground, but if you’re at ground zero don’t expect to be impressed with the visuals

Graphically, EDF 2017 is pretty lame. Outside of high-resolution, I’ve seen better textures, animations and effects on the original Xbox. The thing is, for some reason this cheesy game’s low budget visuals are half the charm. It has a low quality look to it that perfectly suits its corny B-movie feel. As strange as it may seem, poor production values almost serve to make this game better.

As for the voice work, I’m pretty sure your comrades at arms have to be the most mentally deficient people on Earth when you consider the stuff they say. Some of your friends will talk about how, after they kill off the few hundred giants ants terrorizing the city that he plan to go out and eat a steak dinner. Why a soldier would be making dinner plans while fighting off an invasion force is beyond me, but hey, I guess everyone has to eat. Some of the crap these guys say is so bad; it’s hard not to snicker at the sheer absurdity of it. Just like the visuals, the sound in the game is terrible, but just like those visuals, within the context of this B-movie disaster, it’s almost genius.

EDF never been compared to “A” titles, but its sure to come up in conversation from time to time as one of the least memorable, but thoroughly enjoyable games ever created. Give it a rental at the very least, and if you think its fun, like I did, the price tag is nice and tolerable. Earth Defense Force 2017 is great budget gaming and a fun diversion when you need a quick fix of action.

Talk about a surprise, I mean, I had interest in this game the instant I saw screenshots of those giant ants. I would have done just about anything to try it out. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, I was fairly certain as an instinctive reviewer who has played just about everything that this game would totally suck. Still, sometimes a surprise comes your way, Sandlot managed to grab hold of the most important element in any created videogames. Fun! It’s just plain fun to play.

Still, in the end, my final score has to remain realistic. I refuse to score an enjoyable game higher than it deserves. The graphics and audio quite simply stink, and as well as they might work within the context of this game, I can’t rightfully believe that poor visuals and sound were all part of a master plan. I’ll never believe that the lame B-movie presentation found within EDF was intentional. It was a best effort, that when compared to other games on the 360 it’s absolutely horrible, but in this case, for some strange reason, they work out.

Congratulations, you somehow, miraculously, pulled it off.