Good news, folks! D3 Publisher has just announced that Earth Defense Force 2025 has gone gold.
If you're somehow unfamiliar with the series, Earth Defense Force 2017, the first game in the series released in North America, was a glitchy mess. The graphics were crap, the voice acting horrific, and it was brutally difficult to get through. At first look there's no explanation why it ended up being such a cult hit, one that spawned sequels and the love of gamers around the world. Play it for just for a little while however and you'll fast become a true believer, as you're offered the opportunity to kill thousands upon thousands of giant insects in a full-destructible city. It's like playing a Godzilla game as a soldier, if the soldiers wore super-powered armor and Godzilla was actually a swarm of gigantic ants and bees. When a game is this much sheer fun, you don't need anything else.
2011's Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (developed by American dev Vicious Cycle Software) improved the game in almost every way, upgrading the graphics and increasing the number of enemies while giving you different classes of units to control. The most fun of those was certainly the Jet Armor, which gave you a jetpack to take the fight right to the more nimble insects.
Now Earth Defense Force 2025 is almost upon us, coming from the original developers of the franchise Sandlot. There are now four classes in the game- Ranger, a foot soldier who can use one of the many new vehicles; Wing Diver, an airborne class armed with alien technology and jetpacks; Air Raider, a support class that can call in air raids and protect fellow soldiers with shields; and finally Fencer, a heavily-armored class that's almost a tank itself, coming with a shield, limited jump jets and melee weapons like hammers and spears. To go with all of those classes are 700 weapons (!) to kill things with. Get tired of those and you can use one of the many new kinds of vehicles, from tanks and ambulances to helicopters and mechs. The enemies will once again be a mix of giant insects (ants, bees, etc.) along with robots units like giant airships and motherships- just expect everything to be even bigger and prettier. Four players can team up to fight the good fight online.
As many games are wont to do these days, they already have planned DLC in the works. These so-called Mission Packs will be available as a bundle or can be picked up individually. They include-
- Special Ops - Will feature 5 new missions for $2.99 and be available on February 18.
- Mutant Rampage - Will feature 20 new missions for $8.99 and be available on February 25.
- Beyond Despair - Will feature 20 new missions for $8.99 and be available on March 11.
Earth Defense Force 2025 itself will be available on February 18th for Xbox 360 and PS3. Millions of insects will die that day, deservedly so. Make sure to help the cause.
