Review: Earth Defense Force 6

Developer – Sandlot

Publisher – D3 Publisher

Platforms –  Playstation 5 (Reviewed), PC

Review copy given by Developer

Earth Defense Force 6 is the latest entry in the long running series developed by Sandlot. This is the sixth main installment but is about the twelfth game in the series as a whole. I remember having my first experience with EDF back on the Xbox 360 and had a blast with the concept. The formula has remained true for the majority of the entries and if you love it you will definitely love EDF6, but if you are looking for something that brings anything else to the table you might not find what you are looking for here.

The general concept of EDF is a group of soldiers who are fighting against an alien invasion on Earth. The structure of the game is built on short missions that surround you with several hundred enemies of different types such as giant ants, wasps, spiders, aliens, toads with laser guns, spaceships, and many more. Each level has the same goal, destroy all the enemies while collecting Armor and Weapon crates that will either reward you with a new weapon or upgrade your existing weapons and also increase your overall Armor rating which serves as your total health.

There are currently 4 classes in the game, Ranger, Wing Diver, Air Raider, and Fencer. Each of these classes plays differently and brings something unique to each mission. For instance, the Ranger is your typical infantry type with well-rounded stats whereas the Wing Diver is a jet-pack-equipped troop that can move and fly around the area but has less overall health. I absolutely love the Wing Diver class, the maneuverability, and the weapon set are so fun but each class definitely has its perks.

There are around 150 missions in this entry which I believe is the highest of any of the EDF games. On top of that, there are 5 difficulties that you can try and the later difficulties are absolutely insane. So if you play through each mission on each difficulty with each class I could easily see the game taking over 500 hours to fully complete or about 125 hours for each class, or about 25-30 hours for a single playthrough. Needless to say, that is a lot of content. However, I don’t think many people will ever want to achieve this.

The number of weapons is pretty crazy, but I found a lot to not be worth it outside of a few weapons for each class, but it is always fun to test new loadouts to see what you can achieve. Also, different situations require different types of weapons. There are several missions where having a high damage short-range weapon will make easy work of all the enemies and others where you may need a really long-range weapon to deal with teleporter ships that are flying above. So keeping a gun for each situation instead of stacking two similar weapons is a great strategy. 

Probably one of the major downsides of EDF6 which may turn people away from the game is the graphics. This game is by no means one that you will turn to for the graphics, this is borderline PS4 graphics but it does enough to keep it entertaining. Outside of the graphics, the story is a bit more structured in this game as it’s a direct sequel to EDF5 but uses a time loop to make it work, however, it’s still very light in terms of a narrative experience. 

Overall, EDF6 does a lot of things right and if you are a fan of the previous entries into the series you will really enjoy this entry. If you are looking for a mindless shooter that you can literally dump hours into, this can fill that void as well. However, if you are looking for a game that has a deep narrative experience or you want a bit more depth in a shooter this might be a pass for you. Personally, I really enjoy Earth Defense Force 6 and think it is definitely one of the better entries in the series. See you on the battlefield soldier! EDF! EDF! EDF!