Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

While this franchise loved being quirky, cheesy, and unpolished, this installment wraps the over the top B-movie action into a more realistic, dramatic package. Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is like one of those late night, low budget popcorn flicks re-imagined and rebooted with bug budget directing and theatrical effects.  The result is an intense arcade shooter that’s an adrenaline-fueled roller coaster, serving as both a great jumping on point for newcomers as well as a fresh but still familiar feeling for longtime fans.

One of the first big changes in Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is its deep and detailed character creation suite. This should come as no surprise, since developer Yuke’s has long been known for its similar creation tools in various WWE and UFC games. This gives players a sense of both creative freedom and personal attachment to the character. Another major, and equally welcome, change comes in how the game handles players’ weapon loadouts. Previously, certain weapons could only be used by certain classes. This time around though, any weapon you find can be used on any class of character. This opens up a slew of new potential strategies and combinations to best deal with the swarms of invaders. The game’s controls feel more fluid than before too, although there are still some issues with things like the camera angles and getting overwhelmed by enemies that can be disorienting, making it difficult to keep up with the onscreen action. And there’s still some issues with repetition, because there’s not a lot of diversity between the missions. Despite this, Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is an absolute blast to play, especially when shared with friends in either split-screen or online co-op. The game might mark a new stylistic direction for the franchise, but underneath, it’s still the same frantic fun that EDF is known for.