Do you like B-movies? Specifically low-budget action films? Ever wanted to play a game built around those classic tropes: half-rate acting, excuse plots, and the cheapest props and effects money can buy all put together to make little more than a spectacle of action? Well, if you haven't heard of the Earth Defense Force series (or have, but only have experience with the unfortunate Insect Armageddon, a shitty knockoff by a US company that missed the point completely), then I've got a game for you.
Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair, alternately just EDF 4.1, is the first PC port this series has seen since the aforementioned disappointment Insect Armageddon. Which, of course, means it's the only real PC port of the series. It's also a really, really good port, with a lot of people commenting that it runs far better than on consoles even with below-average computer specs. This is good news, because when there can be easily hundreds of enemies on screen getting blown up by a few dozen spectacular explosions with just one player, the game can be quite taxing.
Now, this action comes with some drawbacks that may deter some people. Visually, the game is somewhat meh. This is an intentionally low-budget game made by a team of 25 people, and you can see the effects as enemies get replaced with low-poly sprites in the distance, and even up close their textures and animations harken back to the late PS2 era. The plot is silly and a bit deranged, serving little more purpose than to fling you at more enemies, sometimes without even good reason. Finally, the voice acting is intentionally laughable, with NPC soldiers shouting cliches, chants, and occasionally bursting into a verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, rewritten to be about the titular EDF.
However, there's a whole boatload of these voice options, and anyone with soldiers following them can have their followers join them in glorious war cries. There's also a surprising amount of different voices you'll actually hear, which can help keep it fresh. As for the visuals, they're a necessary sacrifice to keep the game running smoothly, and while there aren't really any ways to adjust the game for higher-end computers which can take more punishment, it also means that fairly old computers with underwhelming stats can still join in the fun. It also means that the game can support a truly ridiculous amount of stuff going on at once without even minor slowdowns, except in the most insanely frenetic scenarios (such as several truly massive field battles involving literally thousands of enemies).
There is one warning, however. The game uses SSE 4.1, so anyone using a Phenom II or older AMD CPU needs to download an unofficial patch (stickied in the game's Steam Discussions) in order to actually play. It's an easy fix to apply, though, and was made by a professional developer, so it's safe.
Author
Topic: Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (Read 8268 times)