Earth Defense Force 3 Impressions

The third installment of the sleeper shooter hit from the The Simple Series from the PS2, Chikyubouegun or Earth Defense Forces, has made its way into the big leagues with its third installment of the series on the Xbox 360. With a larger budget, and the power of the Xbox360, Earth Defense Forces 3 rocks the house with its insane graphics and intense action.
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For those of you who are not familiar with this series, it’s a behind the back third person sci-fi shooter. Basically as a soldier of the EDF you are to destroy all monsters attacking the earth. No real storyline but lots of and lots of action to make up for it. The main draw of the series that set it apart from other behind the back shooters was the insanely large enemies the game throws you up against. The general scale of your little foot soldier avatar in comparison to the massive space invaders made you feel like a character in those old Godzilla movies.

The game mechanics of Earth Defense Forces 3 is very simple controls. What is nice is that the developers of the game have 2 control styles. 1 is the basic beginner controls, for those who are not accustomed to behind the back shooter games, the other control style is called “Technical Controls” which allows the player to have total control over where they aim. Personally I think the “Technical Control” scheme is far more suitable for playing this game, just due to the sheer amounts of enemies that come at you from all angles at once.

As with all third person action games, there is a huge selection of weapons to unlock, ranging from assault rifles, rocket launchers, to flamethrowers. At times it can be rather stressful trying to get your self over to pick up the weapon briefcases in the middle of these massive firefights before they vanish, but with a little practice and a lot of dodge rolling it will become second nature.

One thing that will totally bring a smile to any ones face is the fact that almost everything is destructible on the map. If you don’t want to bother navigating through the city blocks, just blow all the buildings and structures that stand in your way, out of the way! It’s a great new feature that really adds just to the whole over-the-top action experience!

Expect a full write up of this insane action game soon! But seriously folks, don’t wait for my review, go out and buy this game NOW! It is 250% worth it. Best mindless shooter of the year!