Earth Defense Force 2 (PSP)

Earth Defense Force 6 is released recently. I have some interest in Earth Defense Force game since I watch someone play it on Youtube. In fact, I already have Earth Defense Force 4.1 on my Steam’s library. But before I jump to the 4th game. I want to test the 2nd game first: Sandlot’s Earth Defense Force 2 Portable (2011) on PSP.

There’s some good title screen, also informative because this screen portrays the premise pretty accurately which is: player takes role on human special soldier against invading giant ants and spider. So…

Warning: If you have Myrmecophobia or Arachnophobia, you definitely must not play this game.

Anyway, the game is not translated to English. But I don’t need to worry about that because there’s no way a game about killing giant insects from outer space, has complicated text or instruction, right? For example, in this main menu: upper menu is “New Game” and lower menu is “Load Game”. See? The language barrier is not that big of deal.          

 

There’s prologue after I enter my name. With this image alone, you probably can guess the story, right? Basically, bunch of UFO drops giant insects on earth and they attack humans.    

 

However, world peace returned with the help of EDF. In 2018, EDF is re-established and on the same year special force of Pale Wing is formed.

 

In 2019, emergency situation occurs. There’s urgent message from UK. It says “Throng of giant insects appear in London”. The last line says “The earth was already polluted…”

I don’t know the meaning of the last line. Everyone knows earth is polluted by those schmucks who don’t care about ecology or whatnot. So, the inclusion of giant insects makes the pollution problem worse, somehow. Perhaps their feces (where they get after eating people) will add more methane gas released to atmosphere besides from Cow’s emission. We can’t let that happen! We have to safe the earth and that’s what being in EDF is all about!

 

Now, I have to deal with these menus. They remind me of room setup in Soul Nomad & The World Eaters. Here’s the menus: The garage is start the mission. Armory is equipment setup. Meeting room is save game. Server room is setting option. Command control room is multiplayer menu. Lobby is exit to main menu. These menus are not bad. As for 3 lines of word from top to bottom: Character’s health (hitpoints), weapon acquired, and mission completion rate. There are 2 numbers on each stats because there’s separated stats for each class: ground troop and pale wing that I mentioned before. 

 

You can change your class in equipment setup. For now, I stick being the boring vanilla ground troop. My initial arsenal is assault rifle and bazooka.    

 

Selecting “starting mission” or the game calls it “sortie”, brings you the available mission then you get to choose the difficulty. Next mission is unlocked after finishing the previous mission. The harder the difficulty you get the better weapon you can get. However, weapon drop is a chance and not guaranteed to get. I won’t push my luck from get go so I choose the normal difficulty.

So, the prologue is right. London is swarmed with giant alien ant. I hope museum ship HMS Belfast is fine. If you comment “Haha! Japanese is weird to think that alien is in form of giant ant”, I have to rebuke you right there.

In Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (PSX)...

 

Here’s giant alien ant (that can shoot laser) in Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense on Playstation 1. I mentioned it a bit in when I review Cloverfield. I’m certain this combat vehicle game is made by an American company: Luxoflux Corp. There’s theory that before grey small men that we all know, American’s concept about alien or creature from outer space is giant ant. Or Flatwood Monster. I don’t have solid proof of that other than this screenshot. Maybe you can find the evidence of giant ant as alien in very old American movie. By you, I mean me personally.

Regardless, I believe the concept of giant alien ant is the basis of Warhammer 40K’s Tyranid races, Starcraft’s Zergs or even Xenomorph. Anyway, back to London’s crisis in EDF 2 Portable…

I’m located in the middle of the bridge and there’s some big distance between me and the alien swam. The basic strategy is: use Bazooka as main attack method. When there’s ant that close to me, I use the assault rifle so I don’t get hit by bazooka’s explosion. Kind of like strategy for Soldier in Team Fortress 2.  

The control is D-pad to move forward or backward and turn left or right. Square to fire my weapon. Cross to jump. Circle to switch between weapon. As for triangle…to fire upward slightly. Not sure what it’s for since my aim is automatically change depend on enemy on crosshair. Start button to pause the game and bring the pause menu. Select button to enter/exit vehicle, like a tank besides me. I know what you think. “Why not use the tank?”. I’ll do that very soon.

Meanwhile…

 

I tested the first EDF with title: Simple 2000 Series Vol. 31 The Chikyuu Boueigun. As you know (or not), Simple 2000 series is a series of simple game released in PS 2, usually exclusive in Japan. While Simple 1500 series is games for PS 1. The premise of this Simple 1500 or 2000 series, usually a game with simple concept and can be described as B-grade quality. The series ranges from Mahjong, Reversi, or other board game. But then there’s: The Sniper, Oneechanbara, The Maid and Machine Gun, and The Chikyuu Boueigun which become EDF we know and love. I might try The Maid and Machine Gun in future because I love machine gun and the maid part is just a bit extra to me. I mean personally I’m not so crazy into maids even though I see lots of them in Azur Lane. I feel they’re just ok. Not go above that. 

Anyway, the menus are much simpler in this first instalment because -you know- the game still in Simple 2000 series so it’s supposed to be kept simple. I like that they add other class “Pale Wing” in EDF 2 which considered pretty complex addition and certainly set apart from the prequel simple game.

Both The Chikyuu Boueigun and EDF 2 starts with a level with swarm of giant ant and tank besides me. Also, the uniform for the ground soldier looks similar to what Ultraman’s colleagues wear. You know? Those people who talk around Ultraman person, and fighting gigantic monster uselessly either with weak laser gun or futuristic yet useless aircraft. I feel dumb to be associated with those guys. Anyway, back to EDF 2.

 

The tank’s cannon is certainly more powerful than the bazooka. It deals more damage and creates bigger explosion. I like seeing ants fly high because they’re blown by my explosion. The radar is pretty helpful. Red dot represents enemies. Green dot represent item that you can pick up. It ranges from healing item, armor that can increase your maximum health after completing mission and the most important: new weapon! As for white dot. It represents civilians. There’s no penalty for civilian casualty so you might as well as ignore them. I mean look. They’re in the way of my giant insect eradication. It’s their damn fault to be in there

 

I accidentally destroyed my own tank because I shot an ant very close to my tank. But I can defeat those ants with my bazooka just fine. Here comes the very crucial part: collecting the loot. I’ll be kicked to the base nigh immediately after killing all enemies. I have to let some of them alive, so I have enough time to collect these loots. I wish I can run faster. I can hear their breath behind me. It’s not pleasant to hear.

 

I fell down from the bridge but luckily Thames River is only stomach-height. Otherwise, I will be drowned. Skimming through ant swarm, is already bad experience. So, I defeat all enemies and mission cleared. However, no fanfare to mark the mission is over. Only old horror movie’s music can be heard here. I’m extremely disappointed.

Demoman_mvm_loot_common03.wav. Look at those loots! Unfortunately, I can’t read some of them. I know armor items that I mentioned before which increases my maximum health after successful mission.

One of the loots is slightly stronger bazooka than the initial ones. Not bad.

Here you can see the specification stats of highlighted weapon. From top to bottom: Ammo capacity, fire rate (projectile/second), attack power, reload time (second), explosion range, accuracy, and lastly projectile range. Then there’s bit of trivia below the specification stats.

It goes without saying that you should read information even the description bit, of any acquired loot that you get.

 

Next mission is pretty much the same with first mission but this time the mission takes place in flat land. No bridge that I can destroy to cut-off the swarm’s path temporarily. Civilians can’t be harmed by my weapon but they block my projectile. So, move away, portly gentleman!

There’s only handful of those ants. Time to focus on gathering the loot. I don’t have ability to sprint but I can roll sideway though. It’s done by tilting analog either left or right. Or by pressing jump while running sideway (holding L or R button). No front or back dodge roll for me in this game.  

 

The map for next mission is so spacious. I bet 2 Olympic Stadiums can fit into this map.

Sandlot thoughtfully put a hover bike for this map. It travels pretty quick but the aim is iffy. If I move forward, the bike will lean forward thus the aim becomes too low. If I move backward, the bike will lean backward thus the aim becomes too high. I like motorcycle in Jungle Strike, but this bike is too tedious for combat. My tips: just use it as fast transportation, dismount at combat area, and use your infantry weapon. Kind of like dragoon in Napoleonic era. Besides the machine gun on the bike is not so powerful.

I accidentally destroy a building and it falls like made of matchsticks. Demoman_sf12_badmagic11.wav

 

There’s still long distance to next giant swarm so I have time to shoot civilian. Don’t worry. He backs up after fall for a while. I thought my gun is normal M-16. But apparently not. It’s M-16 that can only damage giant ants and barely harm a human.

 

I destroy another building. I’m sorry! It’s not my fault that the hit detection for this rocket is quite demanding. You can’t hit those giant freaking ants in their scuttling leg because it doesn’t have hit spot. You have to hit the projectile in their torso. I mean sure, it’s quite believable that the legs are so thin that ignore my rocket. Maybe. But if their legs were included as viable hit spot, my game experience would feel much better. I’m just saying.

 

Eventually, I can finish the mission and I have enough time to destroy this utility pole which also fall down like made of matchsticks. What’s wrong with this town? Am I tasked with saving gigantic town project made of matchsticks which designated as new UK’s tourist spot? I don’t think it’s worth to defend for. Let alone giant ants, a single spark of fire can destroy this whole tourism spot!

 

I get this unique version of the assault rifle. It has very significant smaller bullet capacity of 10 bullets compared the original assault rifle: 120 bullets. However. it has more attack power: 65. Meanwhile the original assault rifle is 10 damage power. Here’s the calculation. The original assault rifle has total power: 120 x 10 = 1,200 points. Meanwhile the modified version has total power: 10 x 65 = 650 points. Mathematically, this rifle has 54% power of the original rifle. But I feel like I’m into weapon that has significant damage than bigger bullet capacity. I mean sure, I have to reload often but each bullet counts bigger to kill enemies. Also make them dead faster. 

I notice the correct geographic shape of Indonesia archipelago. This game deserves extra credit from me.

 

On next level, I try to destroy a house by ramming my tank and it doesn’t work. Soldier_sf13_magic_reac03.wav  

I know that I shouldn’t fooling around while there is large group of enemies within my radar. But I have no idea where they are. They don’t actively attack me or anything. Maybe I have to go closer to them first.

 

So, I have to hit that gigantic ant hill to trigger these winged ants. I think this tank is not suitable to deal with flying enemies. I can move the cannon by moving analog stick. But it’s more efficient to deal with them by foot than using tank.

 

I got this multiple rocket launcher from previous mission. Actually, it’s weaker than the single rocket launcher even though it launches homing missile.

 

However, the strong assault rifle shows its prowess here. Since the projectile of rifle is faster than the homing missile, the assault rifle is more accurate. Should you want to test a weapon, you should carry a reliable one in case the tested weapon sucks.

 

I get another variant of assault rifle. This one has double the capacity but half the power of the original. Big no for me. I stick with the powerful one.

 

Because I have more weaponry, I dare myself to replay level 2 with Hard difficulty. Even though over 50% of the weapons are unreliable. Or at least not to my liking.

You probably think that I should play next levels to get more suitable weapon. But you see, I’m impatience bastard. I like to push my luck to finish a hard mission and eventually get much stronger weapon.

 

Oh whoops! I blow myself with my bazooka. It goes without saying that the more powerful the bazooka, the more damage I take if I hit myself with it.

 

I find this weapon. It’s on “Special” category. Let me see. So, this weapon called Reverser M1. It sprays nanomachine that can heal teammates and vehicle but I can’t use it to heal myself. Also, the ammo is limited and I can’t reload it to refill its ammo. This weapon will be good for multiplayer. But I play the game solo mode as always.

 

I dare myself to replay the level 2 in Hard difficulty. I think AS-18D is saving my life because I can kill enemy faster with it and destroy a tree in process. Sometime, having more powerful gun is better than gun with larger capacity.

 

Engineer_mvm_loot_rare04.wav. I got some Sniper Rifle (SNR-227) and shotgun (SG-5). If you wonder why I can find these guns from dead giant ants, probably those ants ate their owner along with them (unintendedly) and somehow they’re still in good condition even after stored within ant’s digestion for hours.

 

I try replay the first level in hard difficulty and I’m not doing good. Maybe I’m too reckless and jump into Thames River to collect loot too soon and I get overwhelmed pretty instantly. That’s not me in the middle of dodge roll, by the way. One of those ants headbutt me so hard that I fly ridiculously. Embarrassing! Let’s try again.

 

Medic_mvm_loot_godlike01.wav. I get more loot this time around! I get more loots in first level probably because there’s more enemies than in 2nd level. So, I can say that 2nd level is easier than first one even though there’s bridge that you can cut off to secure your position temporarily.

 

One of loot that I got is this bazooka that can fire 3 rockets at once. SO FREAKING AWESOME! I don’t care how or why this bazooka can fire 3 rockets with Contra-ish pattern (one straight and 2 diagonal sides. I’m just glad I got it. I don’t think I need tank anymore. Why use single cannon when you can fire 3 rockets at once? To be honest, the rockets travel slower while the tank’s cannon produce bigger explosion (than 1 rocket). But I’m feeling it. I keep using this crazy bazooka and I love it.

 

As expected from shotgun. It’s powerful in close range. Too powerful even as I kill giant ants just with 1 shot. Giant ants are pushover compared to Tyranids or Zergs but you get hurt badly if you get surrounded by them.

I’m getting absorbed into this high-risk high-reward replay. In this occasion, I just want to show you the healing item. It’s called EDF Aid Kit which resembles delicious canned food.

More loots later…

 

I’m eager for powerful weapon during this mission replay. But I didn’t expect I can find flamethrower and my heart fill with utmost joy although it resembles super soaker! Pyro_laughevil02.wav.wav

 

There’s the humongous ant nest. You can hit it from this starter point if you have the suitable weapon. This is where weapon’s range comes into play crucially. Bazooka has enough range for this task but I currently use the one with slow projectile. So, it takes some times to trigger the winged ants. Also. Hello, Shirou Emiya! Can you and blue Saber help me here? No? Ok, then.

After killing ants for stronger weapons…

 

Fine, I have to move on to next mission. Unlike in previous missions, this one takes place in indoor area. I feel like an idiot to take sniper rifle to this narrow place.

 

Then I test this grenade launcher and I hit myself with it because there’s so little space around here. Enemies in Medium difficulty can barely hurt me but my grenade sure can defeat me. Now I feel like complete idiot. Demoman_negativevocalization04.wav

After hitting retry option…  

 

I was stupid to bring sniper rifle in this tunnel but I can show you how to use the scope. It’s done tilting analog joystick up. There’s only 1 zoom in view. Every sniper rifle has specific degree of zoom view. You can see the zoom capability from the weaponry menu.

 

The tunnel leads to relatively spacious cavern. I try using the grenade launcher but I get hit by it, again! But it doesn’t matter. I already kill all the ants. The game generously call it win even though my health reaches zero after finish the mission.  

 

Next mission takes place in outdoor again. But this time it’s night time and it doesn’t change the gameplay at all. In this occasion, I use the sniper bazooka! It deals very high damage and creates larger explosion, with the cost of ammo capacity that only 1 rocket. It also has scope! Although the zoom view is not that far.   

 

This mission is bit strange. Initially, there’s only me and panicking civilians. After some time, huge explosion happens! Demoman_specialcompleted11.wav

This probably adaptation of that scene in Independence Day, where huge UFO blasting huge laser.

Then small flying saucers appear and attack me. I try to use this chopper that parked near Buckingham palace but it won’t fly. Fly, you stupid junk!

 

Forget that stupid trash! I can deal with these flying saucers myself. There’s also tank, indicated by grey dot on radar. But as we know, tank is not suitable to deal with flying enemies. On the other hand, this sniper rifle is excellent against these UFOs. You may not understand how sniper rifle is good in this situation. I forget to tell you that this sniper rifle has rapid fire rate. It resembles the automatic sniper rifle in Terminator 3 - War of the Machines. This sniper rifle may have same function with the limited-magazine-yet-powerful assault rifle but this sniper rifle has scope. Besides it has higher level. Generally, higher level weapon is stronger than the lower level weapon.

 

Next mission takes place in same spot as level 1. But this time the enemies are that giant robot with very long legs like the one in H.G. Wells’ “The War of The Worlds” book, instead of giant ants. I can aim at one of them from distance but sadly can’t hit them because this sniper rifle’s range is too short.

 

By the time they’re within my sniper rifle’s range, they already bombard me and the bridge that I am on. I instinctively sing “London bridge is falling down” even though this is not the London bridge. Even though I don’t look good in this moment, their bombardment deals little damage to me because the difficulty is Medium.

 

The other weapon that I carry is another Grenade Launcher and it’s practically useless here! I can only hit the enemy in the body and they ignore explosion on their long legs. Why I keep using useless grenade launcher? I used to be pretty adept at Demoman in Team Fortress 2. That’s probably the reason? On the other note, I like the green smoke coming out of the grenade so you know where it lands.

Correction: Every grenade launcher or hand grenade has 2 type of detonation: impact and time. Impact type grenade will immediately explode when hit enemies or ground. I consider this one is the best. Time type grenade will explode after some time (depends on time detonation data on weapon information). I try using time based grenade launcher when i'm about to get surrounded and it works quite well although i have to wait for a while. I don't have to worry to hit myself when i throw grenade on to approaching giant ants while walking backward unlike when using bazooka.

 

I replay this same mission with Hard difficulty. This time, I carry the sniper bazooka and it works much better than the snipe rifle. But I still keep the rifle for when they are too close for my bazooka.

Then I replay another mission…

 

Finally, I can use the chopper. To fly I have to press jump button rapidly. So dumb. Moreover, I have the same aim problem like with hover bike. My aim becomes too high if I fly backward and my aim becomes too low if I fly forward. Though, I manage to fell some UFOs with the goddamn chopper. 

 

A weapon box got stuck on the house? No problem! Just destroy the house. No penalty for any collateral damage as long as the mission completed. Sorry! I get easily distracted with loot hunting. Let’s move on to next stage, then.

 

It’s the same long leg robot as before. But this time, they’re rampaging in the middle of city so you can’t casually snipe them from afar like before. Although the civilians can provide you with distraction so you have little bit of time to snipe the enemies safely.  

 

For the 10th level, we get first encounter of giant spiders. If you have arachnophobia, you better play the game up until 9th level only for your mental health’s sake.

 

The difference with giant spider compared to giant ant, they spit web. Some giant ants sometime pause for a while and then fire acid from their butt abdomen while the rests of them are eager to headbutt me. As for giant spiders, they’re more freaking aggressive. They want to get close to me while spitting web at the same time. I see one of them hopping which ant can’t do. Fortunately, this is medium difficulty and I get this stronger multiple rocket launcher from hard difficulty mission. I should be fine.

I’m done showing you 10 missions. But before finishing this article, I like to show you the Pale Wing class which is more or less Wing Diver in EDF 4.1. With purple skirt and brown hair, this Pale Wing soldier reminds me of Yuna from Final Fantasy X. Pale wing has Plasma launcher which is equivalent to ground soldier’s bazooka. The difference is the projectile is more futuristic looking. Also, Pale Wing don’t get stuck in reloading animation when the ammo is depleted. Instead, the pale wing energy bar on right side, will be drained.

 

Another Pale Wing’s initial weapon is this Rapier that can shoot around you in short range and it deals heavy damage. Plus, it doesn’t consume energy much. Rapier is the best short-range weapon hands down.

 

The most important thing as Pale Wing, you can fly around by holding jump button. Kind of like the chopper’s control but way better. Naturally, flying will drain the Pale Wing energy bar. There’s so much benefit of being Pale Wing such as: no reload animation, best short-range weapon, and ability to fly around. Kind of wonder why you choose ground soldier over Pale Wing. Ground soldier’s advantages are able to use vehicles and have bigger health. But those are kind of moot.

After some loots later…

 

Pale Wing’s weapons drain the energy bar except for this plasma grenade but it takes time to charge new one. Unlike conventional hand grenade that use by ground soldier, this plasma grenade is weird. It travels pretty slowly and eventually creates big powerful explosion when it touches ground or any enemy. Because it’s slow as molasses, it’s unreliable weapon. I only use it as secondary weapon

 

If you think bazooka that fire 3-way rockets, is ridiculous, how about this Ixion 5Way that fires 5-way plasma balls? It’s pretty funny yet useful weapon although the projectile doesn’t explode like rocket.

 

I also got laser sniper rifle but it drains my energy too inefficiently.

 

This Ixion weapon is very ludicrous. It fires a jumble of laser that surprisingly inaccurate. Even when they hit enemies, the damage power is unsatisfyingly low.

 

On the other hand, I have focused version of Rapier. It deals very high damage but within concentrated area. Just so you know that during Hard difficulty missions, I still using the first Rapier and surprisingly it works very well. Ok time to stop.

 

You probably know that Sandlot’s Earth Defense Force 2 Portable (2011) is pretty fun game. It’s past the simple version of itself by including Pale Wing class, WLAN multiplayer mode, and wild variety of weapons. The control also simple. The auto-aim is quite troublesome though. If the enemy is on the ground, the auto aim is fine. But when enemy is flying or crawling on the side of building or cave, the aim can be wild. I don’t think the other shoot button won’t help in that situation. This game should support keyboard + mouse for the best aim however it’s released in PSP. Using analog to aim seems the simple solution. But the problem is analog and direction pad are located on the same side, which is left side. It will be awkward to control. So manual aim is no go and we must accept the auto aim as it is. The health is kind of useless stats because as long as you keep distance with enemies, you’re fine. There’s some occasion enemies use ranged attack but that’s about 35% part of overall battle. When enemies surround you, you most likely defeated instantly with barely chance to recover. I can conclude collecting armor to raise maximum health is not that important. On the other hand, obtaining stronger and more useful weapon are the main key to success in this game. Although some of weapons are not so suitable, downright bad, or just entirely joke. The weapon drop is entirely random but I’m down with that. The homing missile’s accuracy is fairly bad because it can’t turn sharply as needed to reach enemy at certain angle. The enemy’s ai is simple. The giant insects will approach you in swarms. But some of them has intelligence to flank you. As for the tall robots and flying saucers, they will approach you within some distance so they have better aim at you. But luckily, their shooting is not 100% accurate. There’s some miss on it. Plus, you can dodge roll to avoid their bombardment. I’m still thinking giant insects are lot harder to deal because of their sheer number. The most useful vehicle is tank because its cannon can create powerful and big explosion, excellent for dealing swarm of enemies. Hover bike and chopper are pretty much useless except for faster travel. Most mission use same map and can make the gameplay feels repetitive. However, missions last relatively short, either you dominate enemies easily or enemies defeat you easily. There's fun to be had when i destroy buildings and gun down civilian. The music kinds of bland and often obscured with radio message contains mostly people cry for panic with little bit of gunfire sound and also the voice of your higher ups tells you about worldwide situation regarding the aliens or current mission situation. Obviously, the voices are in Japanese. I can only understand “Help me!”, “Don’t come near me”, or “Open fire!”

 

I can’t give recommendation to Earth Defense Force 2 Portable (2011). Why do you want to play it other than to satiate curiosity of older iteration of the game series? It goes without saying that you should play Earth Defense Force 4.1 instead. It’s easily accessible through Steam or other gaming platform. Plus, it has English translation. Also, it’s improvement over the 2nd EDF. If you’re willing to listen, I have some kind of suggestions to improve this game. Like money reward upon successful mission that you can use to purchase various upgrade such as health, movement speed, or Pale Wing energy bar. Getting weapon randomly to make your character stronger, can be tiring and monotonous. Then there’s special equipment, accessories, trinket, or whatever you call that small extra equipment. When wearing it, it will boost your specific stats like extra damage when using Rapier type weapon or extra bullet capacity on bazooka. You can obtain it from random drop on dead enemies. I don’t know whether this kind of improvements implemented in EDF 6. I hope so.