After the relative success of the EDF and its sequel in Japan, D3 and Sandlot decided to team up and produce a next generation sequel for the Xbox 360. Released in December 2006, Earth Defence Force X proved to be one of the most popular Xbox 360 titles in Japan, quickly cementing itself as one of the top 10 sellers in the region. This lead to D3 making the decision to take EDF X to Western audiences - as Earth Defence Force 2017.
You've got to have balls of steel to invade Earth
The premise of EDF 2017 is quite simple. In 2014, Earth makes its first discovery of extra-terrestrial life forms in space. With each passing year, it becomes more apparent that the alien ships are headed towards Earth, with the space craft making their landing in 2017. At first, many believed that the aliens had come in peace, but it quickly becomes apparent that they are interested in claiming the planet for themselves. A planet-wide co-operative force named the Earth Defence Force is sent to combat the alien threat.
Upon starting the first level of EDF 2017, the first thing that becomes readily apparent is the game’s sheer scale. The massive alien mothership hovers over the futuristic cityscape, itself spreading for many miles. The player will be surrounded by other EDF soldiers, scurrying up the street (complete with enthusiastic yet cheesy banter) – and then you meet your first enemy…a horde of giant ants. Within seconds machine gun fire and rockets will be flying up the street, ants will be flung through the air, with a veritable flood of green blood flowing from their bodies. Before you know it, you’ll be surrounded by dead ants, half a dozen collapsed buildings, and a whole ton of power ups – and the next wave of ants will be on its way. It’s this constant mayhem EDF 2017 provides that makes many other third person shooters feel a bit puny by comparison, and it only gets bigger and badder as you progress.
The radar says "You're doomed."
Ants are not the only enemy you will encounter in EDF 2017 – giant spiders, robot walkers, tactical fighters and a 120ft tall dinosaur are just some of the aliens that form part of the Ravagers forces, and they all come thick and fast. Fortunately, the EDF is prepared, with some 150+ weapons to be found in the game – machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, homing missiles, grenade launchers and many more. Mind you, many of the weapons are just incremental improvements of other earlier weapons, but as you get to the later levels, you begin to find some really awesome weapons; the Genocide Launcher has to be seen to be believed. A number of vehicles are also at your disposal – a tank, a bi-pedal mech and a helicopter. Unfortunately, these vehicles are a little cumbersome to use, and often leave you much more vulnerable to alien attack than you are on foot.
EDF 2017 has 53 levels (in varying locales, such as Tokyo, the countryside, a beach head, and Ravager caverns), and five kinds of difficulty. Easy and Normal are quite manageable, Hard will test your mettle and Hardest will cause some aggression, but the Inferno difficulty level is a new kind of evil – and it’s the one you have to beat to get the lion’s share of the game’s achievement points. Fortunately, the game’s story is geared towards co-operative play, so you can team up with a friend to take on the forces of evil. On the downside, the game only supports split-screen co-operative play, though we doubt that it would be possible to get EDF 2017 running well on Live; the action going on at any one time would be far too intense for our piddly ADSL connections. A competitive battle mode is included, but just doesn’t compare to what’s on offer in the co-operative game. Blasting through the 50+ levels should take about 8 hours for any moderately skilled gamer on the two lower difficulties, but playing through the harder modes is worth it just to see the crazy weapons on offer. Unfortunately, the game seems to be geared towards being played in quick bursts, with some of the levels being repeated later in the game with a different scenario attached.
This iron giant isn't so friendly
Scale is definitely the major advantage of EDF 2017’s presentation – rarely do you see games with fully destructible environments and massive numbers of enemies on screen. The game does have to make a few compromises to fit everything in. While the city and the aliens do look decent, they have a real low-rent feel to them when you get in close – the city seems a bit flat, and the aliens look like they’re made from plastic. The EDF soldiers, including the main character aren’t really worth writing home about either – but they get the job done. The frame rate takes a real beating throughout the game as well, sometimes slowing down to 5 frames per second when the action gets really thick – it’s more noticeable in co-operative mode. While it won’t bother those who played the import version of the series on the PlayStation 2, newcomers are bound to be annoyed by the lack of stability. The game’s voice acting is suitably cheesy – exactly the type of panic-ridden stuff you’d expect to hear in a B-movie, while the constant action is sure to give your speaker system a thorough workout.
Earth Defence Force 2017 may be too loud and dumb for some players, but the action-packed, large-scale warfare on offer is something everyone should try. The game isn’t without problems, particularly the frame rate and repetition of some missions, but the sheer enjoyment of the experience, especially when played with a friend is more than enough to offset the game’s weaker points.
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