D3Publisher of America rolled into NYC last week with its small but awesome holiday games lineup and of course, as Earth Defense Force 2025 was going to be there, I had to make sure I got some quality time with the in-progress US localization. I’ve been playing the Japanese PS3 version since mid-July and had some time with the Xbox 360 import thanks to a friend who owns a Japanese 360, so I was more than ready to hop into the US version with relish.

D3PoA had a 360 set up for split-screen co-op play complete with English menus and plenty of enthusiastic voice acting fans of the series will crack plenty of smiles over. The game also has wide appeal outside that dedicated niche thanks to its addictive pick up and play simplicity, five difficulty levels, some amazingly tough missions that range in length and plenty of visual upgrades from earlier games in the series.

Sandlot’s new engine looks great overall, adding sloped terrain, more building variety and loads of NPC citizens running, stumbling and screaming away from the hordes of enemies. While the huge packs of bugs from previous EDF titles seems smaller initially, there are some great maps where you’ll be assaulted in waves by a few types of bugs, giant Hectors, a few flying spaceships and more.

Destructible building are here with a nicer looking effect as building break apart in sections before tumbling down. Bugs also break into chunks now, but can still be launched high into the air with explosives, making for some amusing kills. I noted in some maps there are certain buildings that can’t be destroyed, but you’ll see that this is intentional because these are maps that play almost like puzzles where you need to work around those indestructible structures in order to complete the mission. Let’s just say if you hated spiders in these games, you’ll REALLY hate them here. EDF 2015 also re-introduces enemies from EDF 2 as extremely redesigned versions, but none of the outdoor levels from the older games is here to remind you that you’ve played them already. There’s a similarity in progression and layout in the some of cave maps to both EDF 2 and EDF 3 (EDF 2017 here), but they’re made more challenging thanks to the dev team tossing in some real surprises.

If you’ve never played an EDF game, in a nutshell it’s a deceptively basic run and gun shooter that actually requires a bit of tactical thinking as well as proper use of the over 700 weapons you’ll acquire across the four different classes. In addition to the standard Assault class trooper and the return of Pale Wing (now known as Wing Diver, although she was called Pale Wing Diver a few times in EDF 2 on the PlayStation 2), two new classes, Air Raider and Fencer make the game even more challenging as each character has its own strengths and weaknesses. Air Raiders make for great assist characters in co-op and online games as tallying up kills allows them to call down airstrikes, or have assorted vehicles dropped in. In solo play, he’s initially tricky to master, but as you unlock better weapons and assist gear, he becomes quite a formidable hero to play as.

Fencers are beefy, well armored and painfully slow moving characters that can pack up to four weapons into battle but take some time to get to the fray in many maps. That said, they’re stellar with a huge hammer, shield and ranged weapons that deal out plenty of damage and can be lifesavers in the more packed maps with dozens of bugs, huge robots and a few surprises waiting to be discovered and demolished. The stock Assault class moves faster this time out (a great thing with the new enemy AI ramped up significantly on the harder difficulties) and Wing Diver’s energy-based jet pack and weapons more than compensate for her low armor. In fact, she’s probably the best character in the game in terms of being able to grab pickups on the more hectic maps as levels end as soon as the last enemy is dispatched. Using her mobility to jet hop around the map with one or two enemies still kicking in solo or co-op play will net plenty of weapons and armor upgrades for you “farmers” out there.

I stuck to my gal Wing Diver during the six missions I played with D3PoA’s Miki, who was a great guide through the different maps. When I told her I was also playing the import PS3 version and had completed it with two of the four characters, she asked me how I liked it and I noted that it was a solid game, but shipped with a series of bugs that were peskier than any of the new enemies created for it. She pointed out that yes, the problems that plagued the PS3 version are being addressed (meaning the game should arrive in US stores with both patches plus hopefully any other fixes developer Sandlot can add) while also noting that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will indeed get the DLC from Japan at some point post-release. That made me quite happy to hear, as in quite a few other titles from other publishers, DLC often never gets localized and is usually incompatible with other localized versions.

In my goggle-eyed excitement I’d forgotten to ask if that D3P Web Shop Bonus DLC would be part of the US content, but I may as well be surprised by something (or not surprised if we don’t see it here). So far, EDF 2025 is shaping up to be a real winner as well as the best game in the series to date. February 2014 may seem like a while to wait, but if it means the PS3 version will be as good as the Xbox 360 one, that’s a wait that’s welcome. As far as digital or physical, D3’s Michael Cerven has confirmed that the game will be available on both, but the exact date for the downloadable version has yet to be set. I’m guessing that’s due to SCEA and Microsoft wanting to focus on PS4 and Xbox One content, what with those systems being what they’ll want gamers to be eyeballing whether or not they got one during the holiday season this year.

With a suite of online modes on board as well, the aforementioned couch co-op and a solo campaign that’s going to deliver dozens of hours of play if you want to unlock every last bit of content, EDF 2025 is sure to be the best game in the series to date in terms of sheer amount of content. Keep an eyeball on this one, folks… it’s going to be almost as big as that sky-filling final boss you’ll need to see to believe. Just to gape too long at it… it’s trying to wipe you out, you know…

Screenshot Gallery/Press Release