Earth Defense Force 2017 (Xbox 360)
Publisher: D3 Publisher
Developer: Sandlot
Genre: Action
Release: March 30, 2007
Platform: Xbox 360
Reviewer: Eric
If you've heard about this game then give yourself a pat on the
back. Earth Defense Force 2017 is a budget game for the Xbox 360 that
nobody has heard of. The people that have had the privilege to hear about
this game do rave about it. Its simple game play can make anybody loose
two hours at a time.
Have you ever wanted to play a game that feels just like those
old Sci-Fi movies you use to watch? Earth Defense Force 2017 feels
just like these kind of movies and the plot is just as bad. Instead
of the aliens attacking Earth they are just visiting. I shit you not
they are visiting, think of them attacking the world as a family
trip to Disney World. Even though this aspect of the plot is B-Rated
it is nice to hear the voices in the game saying how the aliens
are attacking the United States, backup is needed. Two levels later
half of the United States is destroyed. This part of Earth Defense
Force 2017 makes up for the aliens just visiting Earth.
The level designs in this game are neat for a budget game. True
some of the level designs are used over and over again, there are
fifty plus stages in this game. Being able to blow up buildings with
a simple rocket launcher never gets old, that is why playing the
stages in the city are too damn fun. You can literally to more
damage than the visiting aliens. Again a neat thing like this covers
up a flaw in the game, this happens a lot in this Xbox 360 title.
Controlling your character is simple, from moving to firing/changing
your weapons is done so nicely. It is a shame that you can only hold
two weapons in this game but Earth Defense Force 2017 does offer a few
vehicles to use. I really wish these weren't in the game. Controlling
the helicopter is so nerve wrecking. The best part really is flying all
the way up into the sky and exiting while firing down at the aliens.
When your character hits the ground nothing happens and you will have
more than enough time to run away so your helicopter doesn't fall on
you. Controlling the vehicles is a big disappointment, as much as you try
you will never want to use them, even tough the tank can destroy a ton
of aliens in one shot.
The aliens in this game range from giant ants to cyborgs. Killing
ants can easily be done with any of your 150 weapons, just make sure
you don't shoot your rocket launcher too close, you'll fly up
twenty feet in the air, plus take some damage. Cyborgs can be
a pain in ass to destroy since they have annoying laser beams. All
you need to do really is take out your shotgun and pump a few rounds
into them. When they fall a small atomic bomb explosion occurs,
just continue to walk through it and destroy more aliens. Glitchy?
I would think so, explosions like this should do some damage to you, but
again this is a budget title so not too much time might have been
spent on beta testing.
Completing this game on easy may take even the best gamer four
or so hours. Some of the stages are way too short, the loading screens
are longer than them. There are five difficulty settings here so once
you go through easy try your hands on the next one. All of the achievement
points here are easy in ways. You have five achievement points for each
of the difficulty settings then another one for collecting all the weapons
in the game. In order to get all the weapons you need to beat each
difficulty to get special weapons. Replay value should be at a high on here.
If it takes a couple hours to beat it on easy just imagine how long it will
take on the hardest difficulty.
Final Verdict
Earth Defense Force 2017 is the best kept secret on the Xbox 360. Some Xbox 360
users might be turned off with the lack of Xbox Live features but with a game
that can be as addictive as Halo how can you say no? Whenever you do play this game
just make sure you don't play too long, the loading time
in-between some levels may
annoying you a lot, plus some of the enemy AI in this game can lead to some extra
minutes in certain wide area stages. In general Earth Defense Force 2017 is worth
the try. Being able to destroy giant ants and spiders is too fun, make sure you don't
pass this game up.
Rating
7 out of 10
Earth Defense Force 2017 Trailer
