Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 Review – Brotherly Love

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 Review

The Earth Defense Force series needs to get its release schedule figured out. We can go years without any games: there was a 6-year gap between Earth Defense Force 5 and Earth Defense Force 6. And now, only 2 months after Earth Defense Force 6’s North American release, we get the spin-off Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2. Luckily for EDF fans, this newest entry might be the best in the series.

For those who don’t know, the Earth Defense Force games are budget third-person shooters. They have pretty simple mechanics: shoot, jump, roll, reload, switch to a secondary weapon, etc. But they make up for this simplicity with epic scope and a hilarious tone. The games throw massive swarms of hundreds of enemies at the player. Sometimes the enemies are gigantic kaiju or Independence Day-sized spaceships. The whole experience is served with this hilarious tone of hyperbolized American patriotism. It’s not for everyone, but I love the EDF series.

Voxel Visuals

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a spin-off that, unlike the mainline games, has voxel graphics. This game was designed to appeal to a younger, Minecraft-loving audience. But it uses the child-friendly presentation to allow the player to create and customize their characters to a really fun degree. This newest game also has a greater emphasis on multiplayer co-op. There’s 4 four-player online co-op as well as local split screen!

The multiplayer elements work really well in Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 because of the World Brothers games’ 4 person squad mechanic. In past EDF games, the player used one character per level and had to choose that person’s role before the level started. Now players can choose 4 characters and switch between them with the d-pad at any time. There are a lot more character types than the 4 found in prior series games. And they vary quite a bit. No longer do EDF fans have to choose between a heavy armored Fencer and a speedy flying Wing Diver! Also instead of two weapons, each character has one weapon, and an ability unique to that character, such as an area attack, or healing grenade.

Lots of Content

There’s a ton of content in Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2. There are over 100 levels, with tons of characters to find and add to your team. There are the aforementioned character creation and multiplayer modes. And there are mild RPG elements, where players can gather armor upgrades, and unlock new weapons. The only problem is that the gameplay can get repetitive. If this is the only Earth Defense Force game you’ve ever played, then it’s a great value. But if you’re a diehard EDF fan, you’re probably either still playing Earth Defense Force 6, or you’ve burned yourself out on it already.

The story of Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is very light. It’s even less than usual for the EDF series. And the voxel graphics don’t quite capture the scope of mainline EDF games. The voice acting also doesn’t quite nail the tone. I was surprised by how well the voice acting got the patriotic dorkiness of the main games, but they dialed down the wackiness. Despite these gripes, the whole package works well because it feels more like a celebration of the series, rather than a sequel. There are characters and weapons from every single EDF game present. It’s nice to have something a little different. Even the music has this strange throwback sound to it. It sounded like a Sega arcade game from the 90s, and I couldn’t have been happier to listen.

Give and Take

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a bit of a mixed bag. It probably has the best gameplay in the series, but loses some of the scope and campiness of the mainline games. Also, the timing of its release is weird, coming out only 2 months after Earth Defense Force 6. While I reviewed the PS5 version of World Brothers 2, and found it ran beautifully, at the time of preorder, the Switch version was $46.79 CAD, while the PlayStation version was $66.99. That’s pretty major savings to consider if cost is an issue. If you’ve never played an Earth Defense Force game before, Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 would be a great place to start. If you’re already a diehard EDF fan, then this is a quality entry. I just wish the series staggered its releases more.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher***