The Earth Defense Force series is a long-running group of games that features soldiers fighting against massive waves of huge aliens. From battling against ants, spiders, frogs, UFOs and machines, players must use various classes and weapons to save the planet. Aside from the main line of games, there have been some spinoffs including the darker Iron Rain and the brighter prequel World Brothers. No one expected a second entry of the latter so soon, but there have been some new changes and, overall, the voxel adventure to save the Earth is greatly improved.
Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a continuation of a game no one expected to happen. The original game was largely well received despite the drastic visual change from the mainline series. When considering that the core games are actually fairly dark and about huge aliens killing off humanity, the bright voxel graphics give this spinoff entry a “kiddy” vibe – but don’t let it fool you as it is a really good game.
The gameplay sees players picking a level and a team of four soldiers taken from various EDF games. Each character can be equipped with a ton of weapons and different stat-boosting items. Each solider has a surprising difference in gameplay and these can be things like running speed or various special moves. A lot of characters have a super jump, a fast sprint, various vehicles that they can ride, or stat boosts. Soldiers have a preferred weapon that they get an extra damage boost for, favouring those that stay “in character”, but can still equip others if desired.
Story-wise, World Brothers 2 is very lighthearted, following the EDF6 Ranger who must slowly find allies to fight against the aliens and piece the world back together. Don’t expect anything serious, but the story is actually pretty funny and entertaining as a misfit crew is slowly formed. One thing this game does very well is know its audience. There is so much information and many references if players want to dig into it. Each character has a story, each weapon has a history, and long-time players of the series will deeply enjoy all the throwbacks.
Combat sees players moving their squad of four throughout the battlefield. Each of your allies will attack automatically, while the player controls a single person who can be switched. Often this is a highly tactical decision, as it is a good idea to switch while a weapon is being reloaded, or move over to a high-mobility character like one of the Wing Divers to fly quickly, then to a tank-like character to fight in a brawl. As mentioned previously, each soldier has different specials and movement abilities. Some of these are really funny, like the Fencer from EDF6 whose only special is to throw his fist in the air and yell the infamous “EDF!” while granting an awesome temporary damage boost.
Levels go by pretty quickly, with an average round of about 10-15 minutes, which makes it great for those with not a lot of time or commitment. With so many characters it is very fun to switch around and try new things. There are soldiers that put down turret guns, others that have homing missile launchers, and those that fight with swords that do incredible damage. There is progression between levels as specific characters and weapons level up, allowing a wider range of weapons to be equipped, or outright doing more damage.
The colours and graphics may turn off some of the typical fans of the series, but that would be a bad decision as World Brothers 2 is very fun. While there is not a dark or serious story like some of the others, it is a fun romp about shooting aliens and getting new weapons, which was always the core experience. It feels sufficiently crazy, and getting new gear always trickles in that dopamine. Fans of the series will want to check this out, and it’s often on sale or priced half that of the normal series despite being just as good.
