Earth Defense Force 6 Review – Bug to the Future

Earth Defense Force 6 on PS5

To me, the Earth Defense Force series exists to deliver the perfect comfort food games. Each new installment is similar enough to the one before so that you can easily drop back in, but there’s always a new gameplay wrinkle and enemies to encounter. You always know what you’re getting with any EDF, making it exceptionally easy to lose yourself in them, which is simply the best. I had imported the Japanese release of Earth Defense Force 6 in 2022, and I happily jumped at the chance to review the English release.

For anyone who has not heard of this long-running series, Earth Defense Force is a third-person mission-based shooter. At a base level, the game is all about shooting giant enemies (typically bugs) to collect the random weapons and max health upgrades they drop so that you can take on tougher enemies/difficulties. Earth Defense Force 6 is the first game in the franchise on the PS5, and it definitely shows, as it constantly feels like there are more enemies on screen than I’ve ever seen.

While EDF6 is a continuation of EDF5, you don’t need any knowledge of that to completely enjoy everything the new game has to offer. Not only does EDF6 provide all the backstory you need, but the story also takes you back through some of 5’s best missions.

Before this game, I would never have thought I’d be praising the plot of an Earth Defense Force title. Mostly, the games all exist as a pretty threadbare line. But then, out of nowhere, Earth Defense Force 6 gives an engaging and enjoyable sci-fi plot that goes above and beyond what I ever expected, but no spoilers. The game begins a few years after the end of EDF5, which ended with a magnificent boss fight. However, that victory didn’t halt or reverse the invasion, and the Earth has been almost completely overtaken.

The EDF soldiers are tired from the constant fight for survival, and the present state of the world means things like airstrikes and vehicle call-ins aren’t possible. That’s not to say there aren’t any of those things in the game, they just aren’t possible at certain sections of the story due to the setting.

The ravaged landscape and destroyed world do lead to the perfect upgrade to the Air Raider’s assortment of weaponry: drones. While most don’t work like autonomous turrets, you are given a beacon with each set to individually send them after enemies. They come in many different flavors. Most deliver explosives or serve as essentially attack dogs with machine gun fire or heavier shots. This entirely shifts how Air Raiders have worked up to now, and it makes them much more feasible as a class when playing alone.

This one simple new change made me actually play Air Raider early on, when I’d usually avoid them in favor of the Ranger or Wing Diver for the first playthrough. This then also meant that the ability to use the actual turrets returned to the Ranger, which is something I had missed in EDF5. Outside of that, the classes are largely unchanged. Wing Divers are still great for the mobility in getting across the map and swooping in to get items at the end of a mission, and Fencers are still crazy tanks.

The best parts of these games are trying out new weapons as you get them, because everything behaves differently and there are hundreds to earn. It’s always best to read descriptions because some weapons sound like a fantastic deal, but you can’t reload them. Ammo isn’t a thing in the EDF universe, as all guns have an unlimited supply, but you have to keep an eye on the reload times, as they can be what gets you into trouble.

In a nice carryover from spin-off World Brothers, EDF6 incorporates damage numbers. Normally, I would complain about seeing damage numbers without having health bars for perspective, but with so much going on at all times, it’s nice to know that I am actually making hits.

As is the case for these games to one-up the previous mainline entry, there are 147 total missions. EDF6 follows the norm that when playing solo/split-screen, you can use anything, but online multiplayer still places health and weapon level limits until the host has completed 70% of the total game. This is a large undertaking, as it’s a matter of completing those 147 missions across five difficulties for each of the four classes.

Up until now, completion had been split between offline and online, though, which made it annoying if you wanted to play with friends and also progress alone. Thankfully, EDF6 does away with that, and your completion percentage carries over between the two modes. This time, I didn’t feel like I was wasting my time not furthering my online percentage to maybe reach 70%.

There is still a remaining roadblock to getting there, though. The latter two difficulties don’t unlock until you beat the story. Beating things on the third difficulty, Hard, still counts for Easy and Normal completion. I was a little bummed to learn that the last two difficulties exist separately, same as with the previous game. I still believe finishing a mission on the final difficulty, Inferno, should give you completion on all lower difficulties.

As for direct gameplay, EDF6 doesn’t really change anything for the series, but it never had to. This series is the ultimate example of ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.’ The strategy in Earth Defense Force is choosing the best weapons for a mission and knowing when to cut out early and rework your loadout. There’s something unique about grinding out completion and working through the repetition of all the missions in these games that I haven’t encountered anywhere else.

The usual term is ‘mindless fun,’ but these games aren’t exactly mindless. The shooting is fun, but the gameplay itself does allow your brain to absorb other things as well. I highly recommend giving the first playthrough your full focus because of the cheesy B-movie dialogue and interesting story. If you continue past that, however, these games are perfect for turning on a podcast or an audiobook and just kind of cruising back through the game. There’s something special about the comforting repetitiveness.

Earth Defense Force 6 is one of those games that I will never get tired of, as I have gone back to every single game in the series time and time again. As a whole, Earth Defense Force deserves way more attention, and I can’t imagine there’s anyone who wouldn’t like it. If you like cheesy dialogue, giant monsters/bugs, and shooting progressively crazier weaponry, give this one a shot.