Global Defence Force and Earth Defence Force 2017 are third-person shooters in which you shoot a lot of giant insects and space ships in open plan, entirely destroyable levels with an assortment of stupid guns. They are extremely good fun, and don't cost very much money. Are you sold on the games yet?

You're not? Please accept my apologies. You see, it's very difficult for someone who's played one of the Earth Defence Force games to understand why even the most basic description of the concept doesn't always trigger great excitement and immediate purchase by the reader. It's even more difficult to imagine somebody playing the game and not grinning like a chimp.

Global Defence Force is the second in the 'Chikyû Boueigun' (literally 'Earth Defence Force') series, but the third to be released outside Japan. The original 'EDF' was released as Monster Attack in Europe, also on the PS2, and the third, much more prominently as Earth Defence Force 2017 earlier this year for the Xbox 360. Both the games under scrutiny here are fantastic, and thoroughly recommended, but each have their advantages and disadvantage over the other.

The EDF games are all budget games, with their roots in the prolific 'Simple 2000' budget range in Japan by D3 Publisher, costing a mere 2000 Yen each(the equivalent of £10). Most games under the Simple label are the usual tat nobody should be bothering with (a game of The Billiard anyone?), the EDF games being some of the very few that stand out. One of the main reasons for this, is that they use a pretty advanced engine, developed for full-price games.

Besides EDF, the developer Sandlot works solely with games involving big robots of the remote-controlled variety. With the EDF games, Sandlot have looked at their highly specialized engine and tool set, and very cleverly recycled a lot of things whilst making something entirely different, entertaining, and totally, majestically ludicrous.
Both games are essentially the same from a gameplay standpoint. You play as an infantryman in a jump suit, and choose two weapons to take into each mission. Swarms of large enemies charge at you, and the missions unfold as desperate attempts to prevent yourself from being completely overwhelmed. The aim of each and every mission is to kill every last bug, saucer or, errm, mother ship. The missions take place on about 5 very large maps, ranging from real world cities to open countryside and underground tunnels (the scale of the maps is your first clue on the big robot origins of the engine). EDF 2017 has 54 missions, whilst GDF has roughly 75. They can range from only lasting a few minutes, to lasting about 20 minutes.

The enemies can be split into four categories, with several variations within each. Primarily there are the walking insects, mostly giant ants and spiders, which are the most numerous, and try their utmost to flank on both sides and surround you. If you allow them to close in on you, you will be unable to use your heavy weaponry without blowing yourself up, and in the higher difficulties this is usually the end of the road. To liven things up there are flying ants, spaceships and saucers which are much more difficult to destroy en-mass, as well as giant saucers which dispense round after round of bugs for you to dispatch until they themselves are destroyed. Finally, towering walking enemies with devastating long and short range attacks, in conjunction with the other enemies create the higher level gameplay of prioritizing what you kill first, and preventing threats from developing. As the game progresses, the missions contain more and more of the different classes of enemy simultaneously, building up complexity fairly steadily.

As I mentioned before, only two weapons can be carried at a time, these are selected between missions from an ever growing categorized list. The sheer quantity of these is possibly another relic of the mecha-orientated tools used to make the game. There are hundreds of weapons; assault rifles, shotguns (recommended!), sniper rifles, homing missile launchers, bazookas and various special more exotic weapons. You're given quite a lot of data on how each one behaves, so that you can read the description of each mission and choose the weapons which you think will cope best with each particular onslaught. For example, a very powerful but slow reloading sniper rifle might be very useful for taking out distant slow moving nasties, but for a mission with purely fast moving swarms of ants, you'll need both some kind of artillery and a shotgun or rifle for when they get up close.

There is the occasional difficulty spike, but the almost RPG-like structure of the game prevents you from ever becoming completely stuck. Ammunition is infinite, but health must be regained by collecting item drops from the fallen cannon fodder. As well as health top-ups, collecting the weapon icons unlocks weapons for later, and collecting armour permanently increases your health by one point. Of the five difficulties which are all available from the start, only the easiest two will be approachable at first, because you simply won't have enough armour or powerful enough weapons to get very far into them. The games are designed to be replayed difficulty by difficulty either for the entire game or for each mission. If you ever encounter a mission which is simply too difficult, you can just play through some earlier ones again, perhaps on higher difficulties, to unlock better weapons and collect a bit more armour. It never really feels like you're grinding however, because you're having so much fun!

Every ant that you kill, and you'll kill a lot, will let out a great shriek and a terrific bursting noise as it explodes into a mass of naff green or orange gunge sprites as its body is blown into the air, Starship Troopers style. Every giant robot you take on will stumble and flinch ridiculously before finally letting out the biggest explosion you will ever see on your television screen. Every structure in the map collapses with very minimal effort, making you, the Earth Defence Force, more of a threat than the invaders! With all this going on, it'll come as no surprise that the game frequently gets a bit over-enthusiastic and can't draw the frames as quickly as one would would like, but this rarely causes a problem with the gameplay and I actually found it rather amusing in the context of this totally ludicrous experience. If Ikaruga can get away with it, this surely can.

Also worth mentioning are the vehicles (tank, chopper, hover bike, and also a small mech in 2017), which while difficult to control and with no obligation to be used, can liven up a mission and prove invaluable on occasion. Their almost simulation-like controls are another hint towards Sandlot's previous games.

Both games feature split-screen co-op, which is tremendous fun. Unfortunately there is no online mode or feature of any description on the 360 game, which is a huge shame, and justification in itself for a further sequel.

There are a few minor irritations which both games have in common. Firstly, the lack of a reload button. All the weapons must be reloaded, but this is not under your control, it simply occurs when your magazine is emptied. You get used to it, but it's very jarring at first. Secondly, there is no auto saving. In order to save your progress, you must do so manually in the hub menu between missions. This can lead to hours of progress being lost simply by absent-mindedly turning off your machine. Finally, rounding up the last few stragglers in a mission can be rather tiresome, as the maps are very large and the AI doesn't home on you until you get quite close or shoot it or one of its chums (don't worry, there is a radar). You can however use this opportunity to pick up armour and weapon drops.

And now come the significant differences between the two sequels. Most obvious of all is that the Xbox 360 version is technically more advanced, although it extends little beyond the graphics, which incidentally are not at all bad in either game considering the price with near-endless draw distances. High Definition does a lot for 2017 though, everything that's big is twice as impressive and overwhelming. Another advantage of 2017 is the presence of team mates who accompany you into battle. Although you don't have any direct control over them, it's a good idea to watch their backs as they do inflict a decent amount of damage on the enemy, as well as draw some attention away from you.
The PS2 predecessor, while equal in scale, doesn't really come across as impressively, mostly due to the poor PAL conversion. No 60Hertz NTSC mode here folks, and it's even bordered for your squinting pleasure. There are also some very obvious localization errors in the menus and manual. Very, very cheap release this. Still, it's a ten pound game.

What makes the PS2 game worth considering, is a girl with a Jet Pack. Every mission can be played with this new character, and it changes the game. As well as being able to fly, 'Pale Wing' has an entirely different selection of weapons, focused on lasers and energy blasts rather than your usual bullets and missiles. Both the jet pack and the weapons however, are limited by a recharging energy bar not present when playing as infantry. These differences are pretty major, you're now able to fly from skyscraper to skyscraper and even land on flying enemies and use them as vantage points! In addition, a selection of indiscriminating short range weapons make manoeuvres that would have been suicidal as infantry, now a preferable strategy. The energy bar balances these abilities very effectively. It's very odd indeed that they abandoned all this for the third game.

Global Defence Force has a much more classic 50s B-movie theme, with flying saucers and War of the Worlds style robots. The first thing you'll see are giant ants the size of buses crawling over Big Ben. In 2017, everything looks like it's made of tin foil and the enemies are of a more modern science fiction variety. Perhaps 2017's greatest advantage over GDF is its voice work. Decent voice work? In a budget game? Honestly, it's really quite good. The original version of EDF2 in Japan had radio chatter, but D3 haven't bothered to translate or even subtitle it, it has in fact been completely removed. 2017 on the other hand thrives from it. The way your superiors issue ridiculous orders, and the intentionally clichéd way in which they describe everything creates some classic comedy moments, and the things your team mates say to each other are simply hilarious.

All things considered, Earth Defence Force 2017 is the best bet for newcomers to the series. There are fewer things that have to be forgiven, and it conveys the overwhelming nature of the game much more coherently. However, after playing 2017, should you want more of this, Global Defence Force has a lot to offer. If not simply for 70-odd more missions, but for Pale Wing, who freshens the experience a great deal.

Earth Defence Force 2017

Platform: Xbox 360 | Developer: Sandlot | Publisher: D3 Europe | Released: March 30th 2007 | Price paid: £21.99 | Bought at: Gameplay.com

Global Defence Force

Platform: PS2 | Developer: Sandlot | Publisher: D3 Europe | Released: June 29th 2007 | Price paid: £9.99 | Bought at: Play.com