EDF 2017 was released as a budget game for the 360, at 39.99, it got a rather tepid inception due to the fact that its game play doesn't really appeal to American gamers.
Game info: Release Date: 03/1502007 Developer: Sandlot Publisher: D3Publisher Console: Xbox 360
Premise: You are a member of the earth defense force, formed after humans discovered life on other worlds sending out radio signals, while most people believed the aliens would be harmless the group was formed after attempts to establish contact with the aliens failed. Since the aliens made it fairly clear in there radio signal that they would be coming to earth soon the EDF is formed for the possibility that the aliens will be harmful. Anyway, Doomsday happens, aliens come to earth, and fuck everyone. You get to be the condom... basically. could suck, could be awesome, lets find out.
The Game: the game is composed of 53 missions each with five different difficulty settings, which range from piss poor easy, to; Jesus, I hate myself, hard. So the game can be played casually or enjoyed by people like the guy who owns this
Depending on the difficulty setting your missions range from a walk in the park, to a walk in the park using only your earlobes for locomotion. Enemies drop weapons and health. Health will fill up your health meter instantly, but weapons won't be available until the next mission. Its pretty basic, kill everything on screen except the other EDF soldiers and the occasional civilians. The game might change it up in what order things come at you from, or what kind of things com at you, or even how they come at you. Some enemies are dropped into battle by large alien transport ships, others are just there when you show up for the mission. One thing remains unchanged... all of them want to kill you. You'll go around different parts of Tokyo with other members of your EDF squad, sometimes meeting up and joining forces with other squads. Your partner AI is nothing to write home about and most of the time will run around yelling "I'm out of ammo!" or screaming. Occasionally you'll encounter an AI controlled teammate that actually has his head on, but often they will die too quickly to be of much use. You're basically on your own against a lot of aliens. Story is told through cut scenes before each mission and in the dialog between EDF soldiers and EDF HQ its fairly clear as to what happens, "aliens are attacking the planet, go kill them" is basically repeated before every mission with some variation. This game isn't supposed to be played for its writing, its played for its just sheer... ridiculous... funtitude
Graphics and Sound:
for voices get used to soldiers freaking out, and your basic sounds of futuristic war. I don't think the sound detracts at all for the game, nor does it add much. The aliens can make some rather interesting sounds, but I really don't think any of them are very realistic. One of my friends who cares about this sort of this said that most of the weapons sounded "beefy" which I believe is a good thing, but I'm not 100% on that. There is some slowdown later in the game when you are fighting 8000 enemies at once and use a nuke on them, but that is understandable, and it isn't long lasting or game breaking, so its nothing to worry about.
Controls: Played a third person shooter before? No, you say?
Well, your right analog stick controls the camera, while the left analog stick controls the player. Right trigger shoots your equipped gun, while left trigger executes a nice dodge roll maneuver. Face buttons fire, why I don't know, but they can, the face buttons also swap weapons and aim up (but not down o.O). There are a number of vehicles in the game, the majority of the ones I've used so far (I'm about a third of the way through) suck ass. considering you get unlimited ammo, and that controlling the vehicles is so slow, so clunky, and so damn unnecessary I just don't use them at all. Sure the walking tanks flame thrower is nice, but guess what, my machine gun has unlimited ammo. However, the walking tank, for some reason, can jump 300 feet into the air. Now this has no practical application that I have found yet... but if I do find one I will be sure to let you all know.
One thing I hated: “Oh man its got laser cannons.”
“HQ the fortress is attacking us with laser cannons, were all going to die if we don't do something quick.”
“Troops, take out the enemy laser cannons.”
They've got some FUCKING GENIUS' working at HQ man... I tell you.
One thing I loved: You can see quite a ways, while fighting 5000 enemies, with massive enemies off in the distance... you get a nice sense of epic scale, and the fact that you're in a global war. of course you don't run out of ammo, but if you did the game would be impossible, in the most difficult setting... it is impossible.
One thing you'll probably love: I'm told, and have seen videos, of late game weapons where you literally shoot rocket nukes... so if you're into massive destruction (the buildings do collapse) then I highly recommend this game
Conclusion: EDF 2017 deserves a lot more praise than it got. one of the few games ballsy enough to just throw 10000000 guys at you and say good luck. This approach however wasn't well received by your average halo player who doesn't know where japan is on the map.
Final Verdict: 3, thumbs up but its still cold outside. Aside from bad writing the game holds up quite well. and besides, you know you always wanted to run around tokyo with nuke rocket launchers killing thousands of evil aliens.
I love this game, but it gets very little playtime on my 360. If only it had online Co-Op, everyone around here sucks. Seriously though, it's utterly retarded yet one of my best purchases all at once.
No online co-op, crappy vehicle controls, no autosave, aren't game breakers but they sure are annoying. It's a fun game that would have benefited with a little western development thrown in.
I seriously love this game and all -- especially the craptastic dialog -- but dear lord, don't get me started on the vehicles. The freakin' helicopters take 30 seconds to lift off and at that point you make it 5 ft in the air before a robot and/or spider destroy the damn thing instantly.
A friend of mine has been gushing about this game for months. I finally tried it and just don't get it. Looks like I'm in the minority, perhaps I should give it another shot.
Awesome game indeed, but needs to be played coop to get full fun value. Running around, killing legions of giant shit... What could be better? Also, the voice acting is total quality. The ridiculously camp guy on your team is just fabulous.
Leader of the Dtoid RTS clan.
Squad commander of the dtoid ChromeHounds - bloop me if you want to get it. I need to be online in the game for your request to be accepted.
Been here for a while...
One of these days I'm going to have to stop buying video games and start saving my money...
Chrono Trigger is the best game ever.
Secret of Mana is the second best game ever.
enough said.
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