Earth Defense Force 2017 (review 2)

I have a hard time talking about things I enjoy. It seems to be at least somewhat of a societal problem, as most blogs that are fun to read are fun because the writers hate whatever it is they are writing about.

for example, What Would Tyler Durden Do? is funny (most of the time anyway) cos he hates everything he writes about.

in contrast, the exemplary Boing Boing isn't. There may be funny things in the posts, but the writing itself is never terribly so.

Humorously writing about that which you love or enjoy is hard. At least unless you are Andrew W.K. in which case it's easy and brilliant.

So EDF, budget title for the Xbox 360. Best game on the system and the one which to this day I can still pick up and enjoy playing. It's a simple enough game. Giant robots and bugs are attacking and your job is to kill every non human thing on the map. Then you do it again.

The variety of levels is amazing. When Gorgeous Hair, Scummy and I were working through Inferno for the first time we had to heavily strategize, which is impressive because they only strategy is what weapons to carry, where to go, and what to shoot first.

When you're attempts at playing Patton pay off it's huge. A hi-5 scenario.

Even without that, the game is loads of fun. We constantly compare it to Contra, which I think is reasonably apt. Running and gunning. That's it. In a time when GTA is trying to be everything to everyone, EDF wants to be about shooting shit. Shooting the holy hell out of it, over and over and over.

One of the developers of Halo said it was about making a fun 45 seconds and doing it over and over again. EDF nails it in a way Halo 3 can only visualize in dreams.

EDF wants to challenge you to emerge from a shower of green bug blood or inferno of exploding robots. It wants you to be a badass space marine and that's it.

This review isn't funny, and I know pretty well that I'll never be able to explain why I think this, above all things, is gaming perfection, but I felt it was necessary to pop back in and tell you to try it out. Play it w/ a buddy. Beat 10 levels. And then, if you want, stop.

Good luck with that, stopping.

4 stars