Let’s not beat around the bush when it comes to the Earth Defense Force series of games: people don’t play these games for their story or for their graphics. Much like the Dynasty Warriors games, people play the EDF games to live out a fantasy. For Dynasty Warriors, the fantasy is being various famous Chinese warriors and killing hundreds of enemies with a pointy stick. In EDF’s case, people want to live out being in a Kaiju movie battling giant monsters, robots etc as the JSDF. Think of Godzilla movies from the 80’s and you’ll get a good sense of what kind of series the EDF games are. That what makes these games endearing. But what if the series got a bigger budget? What would that look like? Wonder no more as for this generation’s EDF game D3 Publisher, the publisher for the EDF series, has recruited Yuke’s, the former developer for the WWE 2K games, to develop a game called Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain. Is Iron Rain the Godzilla King of the Monsters of the series, or is Godzilla 98′ a movie everyone pretends that never existed? Suit up and let’s find out in the review for Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain for the PS4.
EDF! EDF! EDF!
An actual story- Story in EDF games are for the most part the same: an intergalactic force comes to Earth to raid our resources and invades the planet using various insect creatures and robots. Its up to the Japanese led Earth Defense Force to the invasion and win back Earth. Iron Rain isn’t that much different, however Yuke’s has given the story a different twist. Yes you still join the EDF, but instead of being a part of the JSDF or a PMC working in Japan, the EDF is multinational organization created to battle the Aggressors. You are an EDF trooper taking part in Operation Red Sprite, an operation to push back the enemy and destroy a Hivecraft that the Aggressors have sent down as a first strike force. At first everything is going to plan until the EDF detects an energy signature coming from the Hivecraft. Instead of retreating, the Aggressors have decided to self-detonate the Hivecraft, which will create a blast large enough to level the whole city. You and the unit you’re attached to, are sent over towards the Hivecraft to back up a special unit designed to take down the Hivecraft. The EDF manage to weaken the Hivecraft, but that isn’t enough as it still fires it beam and destroys every within its radius, which includes the deaths of all the EDF forces taking part in the operation. But somehow you survive and with the help of a member of the special unit, you are give a energy cell and have enough power to finally take down the Hivecraft, though afterwards you end up in a coma. Seven years later you wake up and are back on the front lines once again but this time with Blast Team, a squad within the EDF that is led by the head of the EDF himself. With Blast Team you travel around the world, taking the fight to the Aggressors. What Iron Rain’s story so different from previous EDF stories is that Yuke’s took time to give it personality. You’re no longer just some random person who gets dropped into the battle with no context. Granted that the context for Iron Rain’s is silly and absurd, but at least its more fleshed out that previous games.
Fighting more than just bugs- In all of the EDF games (including Iron Rain) you and the EDF are constantly fighting against ants, spiders, roaches, robots UFOs and all sorts of giant creatures drones. In Iron Rain in addition to the Aggressor threats are the Kindred Rebellion. This group of rebels/rouge EDF troops first showed up when the Aggressors first kicked off their invasion. Some within the EDF didn’t like how the organization was prioritizing high level officials over civilians and staged a coup d’etat against the EDF. While it failed, they did manage to do some damage to the EDF’s reputation. Now they fight against the Aggressors on their own as well cause some trouble for Blast Squad along the way. There will be a few missions that you will encounter the Kindred Rebellion after a hard fight against the Aggressors. This is actually a nice change of pace from other EDF games which have you just fight bugs and other creatures.
Geared towards Western gamers- The thing about the EDF games is that they depict a super sci-fi version of the real life Japanese Self Defense Force or JSDF. Their gear is slick and outrageous, giving off an anime feel. Most of the games take place in Japan. So its easy to see why the average Western gamers can’t really relate to the game, no matter how cool it is to kill giant insects and robots. The Iron Rain reflects a more Western vibe. The weapons, though still crazy looking, seem to be a bit more utilitarian and realistic look to them. And instead of being a strictly a Japanese organization, the EDF and Blast Team are a multi national organization similar to the UN. The missions location are also varied and not locked to just Japan as the locations in Iron Rain vary from states in the US like California and Arizona to European countries like the UK. Desserts, urban cities and coastal beaches makes Iron Rain seem more open and varied, unlike just the urban cityscapes of previous EDF games.
A squad with character- With most EDF games you’ll get dropped in with an AI squad that will “help”. They mostly provide pointless banter and decoys for the waves of monsters. So there’s no real need to get attached to them if they get swarmed. In Iron Rain Blast Squad consist of Captain Takuma Yagami, Squad Leader 2 Mike, Squad Leader 1 Brenda, Maive the comms operator, Philip, Mert, Tatiana and of course the head of the EDF and overall commander of Blast Squad
Character and load out customization- In previous EDF games, the only things you could change on the trooper you picked was their main and secondary weapons. In Iron Rain you are able to customize the look of your trooper. You can change their physical traits ie male/female, mix and match different pieces of their uniform, the color of their PA-Gear, the PA-GEar its self and of course their weapon load-out. Now speaking of load-outs, not only can you freely choose which class you want to use (through PA-Gear) but you can also have up to 9 different load-out slots to customize for each situation. This makes the characters feel more personalized than just playing as one of the classes.
Resistance is futile
Over aggressive AI- Saying the the AI in an EDF game is like saying water is wet. For those who have played the games will know that. And Iron Rain is no exception. However Iron Rain is suppose to be an entry point for those who have never played an EDF game before. The AI is overly aggressive, especially when there’s more than one monster type running around on the screen at once.
Missions are repetitive- As fun as the gameplay is for all EDF games, they all suffer from repetitive missions. Actually there seems to be be only one mission type in the series and that’s kill all the monsters/aliens/enemies. Iron Rain suffers from the same mission repetition. It would have been nice to have some other mission type like search & destroy, survival, even the hated escort missions would have have been a nice chance of pace.
Frame rate issues- One of the great things about the Unreal Engine is that, depending on the developer,there could be a ton of things going on in the game at the same time and not be any slow down. Yuke’s takes full advantage of this, maybe a bit too much. One of the defining traits of any Earth Defense Force game is hundreds of giant bugs, UFO, giant mechs and other huge enemies swarming the screen all at once. Its a really awesome sight to to see in motion. Its also a double edged sword. While its cool to see all this chaos in motion, there are times when it gets to hectic and the frame rate starts to slow down so much that its noticeable. Building will start to slowly crumble, bodies (both EDF trooper and monsters) when flung will slowly fly away, and other odd yet hilarious glitches. While not game breaking, the odd frame drop can get a little annoying.
Texture pop in- Another annoying “glitch” that happens is texture pop. Texture pop in is when textures for an asset, say the road or buildings, isn’t appearing in the game at first and then pops in a few seconds later. This happens in a few levels/stages in Iron Rain, mostly when there’s a lot of action going on, ie hundreds of monsters on screen, civilians running away, etc.
Earth Defense Force Iron Rain is D3 Publisher’s attempt streamline the series for a Western audience. And for the most part it gets the job done and then some. It has an actual story with squad members to care about, your character can be customized and have custom load outs. Though it still suffers from the same faults that most EDF games fall for, such as texture pop ins, frame rate drops, repetive missions and over aggressive AI. As annoying as these things are, Iron Rain is still a blast to play and a perfect starting point for those who were curious about the EDF series but felt it was too anime-ish.
