Earth Defense Force 6 (PS5)

by
Evan Norris
, posted 9 hours ago / 556 Views

Reviewer’s Note: This review contains spoilers for Earth Defense Force 5.

Back when Super Mario Galaxy 2 launched, some fans and critics disparaged the sequel by referring to it as “Super Mario Galaxy 1.5”. And while it’s true the game reused a lot of the assets and ideas of its predecessor, it also introduced bold new platforming conceits, level designs, and power-ups, and in the process became one of the best video games of all time. Earth Defense Force 6, which launches today, could, in the same way, be called “Earth Defense Force 5.5”. It retains the same basic mechanics, and reuses many of the same levels designs and mission parameters from its precursor, after all. But it also introduces additional weapons, interesting new enemies, and several subtle quality-of-life adjustments. It’s more of the same, ultimately, but is that always a bad thing?

Earth Defense Force 6 picks up three years after Earth Defense Force 5, during which humanity barely survived a global alien invasion. Over the last 36 months, the Defense Force has been slowly eliminating the alien stragglers on the planet and attempting to rebuild society — no easy task since only 10 percent of Earth’s population still lives. The temporary peace and stability is interrupted, however, when a giant ring-like spacecraft arrives on Earth and reignites a conflict long considered over.

Story has never been a strong point of the Earth Defense Force series, but this latest installment is something of a different beast. Not only does it continue the plotline introduced in Earth Defense Force 5, but it takes the narrative in some very interesting, surprising directions, which I dare not spoil here. As a result, it’s recommended that you play 5 before picking up 6, at least if you want to get the most out of the twisting storyline.

Playing through 5 would also make you immediately familiar with the sequel’s mechanics and gameplay loop, since the two games are more or less identical in those areas. At its core, Earth Defense Force 6 is a third-person shooter with arcade proclivities. Across 140-plus missions and many different locales, you’ll take the fight to the alien invasion force, using assault rifles, shotguns, grenades, missile launchers, and more. Ammo is infinite and the physics forgiving, which grants the game a breezy, approachable vibe. Despite launching on PS5 in 2024, it feels like a game you’d play with friends on Dreamcast or in an arcade in the early 2000s, which is honestly a breath of fresh air.

The controls are straightforward. You can fire your weapon, swap between firearms, sprint, jump, and perform a sideways leaping dodge — all familiar to those who mastered Earth Defense Force 5. That said, the developers at Sandlot introduced some minor quality-of-life fixes to make the things play more smoothly than before. The infantry classes can now mantle over objects, and the Ranger and Wing Diver now have a dedicated “backpack” equipment slot for grenades and other throwable items. You no longer need to use a valuable slot in order to carry grenades into battle.

In addition to the adjustments above, Sandlot has introduced new weapons and several never-before-seen monster types, including squid-like Kruul that carry sidearms & shields and one-eyed metal-plated androids that come in several shapes and sizes, including a grenadier variant that carries two explosive spheres. The androids in particular are a great addition to the game. They’re among the best enemies the series has ever seen.

Despite all the new things about the game, it can’t quite overcome a feeling of “been there, done that”. This comes from it sharing so many mission objectives and story beats with its predecessor, but also from repetition within and across levels. Earth Defense Force 6 boasts a whopping 147 stages, the most ever for the franchise, but many recycle the same enemies and scenarios, or tweak them only slightly. Not only that, but individual levels, at times, can get tedious as you face off against wave after wave of the same invaders. Ultimately, the campaign is more geared toward quantity than quality.

That said, the quantity part of the equation is so massive that it’s impossible to overlook. Earth Defense Force 6 is one of the most content-rich, replayable games of 2024, full stop. Not only does it include over 140 missions, which should take you 40-50 hours to complete, but it offers those missions at five different difficulty levels and with four unique classes — ranger, wing diver, air raider and fencer — all of which play differently from each other. Finally, you can tackle the campaign solo, in local cooperative play with a friend, or online with up to four players total. If you want to experience everything the game has to offer, you will need to set aside hundreds of hours.

While the game features both local and online multiplayer, they’re not created equally. The online component is much more flexible and enjoyable, in part due to support for larger parties and in part because you get the whole screen to yourself. When playing locally, the screen is unfortunately split down the middle vertically, which significantly limits each player’s visibility.

Even with an undivided screen, the visuals in Earth Defense Force 6 won’t wow you. Due to limited texture work and rigid models, it looks, at times, like a game two generations old. Now, to be fair, it’s clear that Sandlot has pared back the visual fidelity to allow more enemies, bullets, and explosions on screen at once. That’s what the series has almost always been about, and that’s what it continues to be about. And the decision has largely paid off. Despite my screen being filled with disintegrating bodies, spaceships falling out of the sky, and explosions left, right, and center, rarely did I experience noticeable frame rate drops. Only at certain moments, when the system is truly taxed, as it is in mission #31 when dozens of insect eggs hatch simultaneously, does the game buckle.

Note: the game offers both a performance and an image quality mode, but you’re better off sticking with the former, since the latter introduces some serious screen tearing.

As for the music, it’s not very memorable, but it provides the proper background sound — either creepy or bombastic, depending on the scene. Then there’s the voice acting, which falls into the so-bad-it’s-good bucket. Hammy to the max, it would fit in perfectly with a low-budget sci-fi B-movie from the 50s, which is exactly the vibe the game is hoping to achieve.

Earth Defense Force 6 is more of the same, in the best way possible. It retains the approachable arcade-y gameplay and impossibly high replay value of its predecessor while refining its mechanics, adding new monster types, and getting more ambitious with the narrative than ever before. It can get tedious at times, and it looks more like a PS3 game than a PS5 game, but it delivers all the chills, thrills, and spills you’d expect from the franchise. 

This review is based on a digital copy of Earth Defense Force 6 for the PS5, provided by the publisher.

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