Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain Reviews
I personally think Earth Defense Force: Iron rain is pretty good, maybe not so much my style of gaming as I didn’t feel the “nag” of wanting to go back and play it more like I usually would with many other games, the storyline is nice but I also think if I were to play the previous games I would understand the game and enjoy it more! I am going to give this game the thumb culture silver award as it did open my eyes to a whole new genre of gameplay, I just didn’t have the ” I NEED TO PLAY NOW” feeling towards it.
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain shakes up the series at its core, and still manages to be a decidedly great EDF game. Character creation and the PA-Gear fit right in and offer a newfound sense of personalization and freedom, while the grim presentation and heightened difficulty will keep you engaged throughout. It's a real gem.
With a new coat of paint and a shift in mechanics, Earth Defence Force: Iron Rain sets itself above previous EDF games. There have been some major changes within this title, such as the customisations, abilities, unit types, pick-ups, and loadouts, but once you get used to them, it feels like this way is much better than the old way. The visuals have not only had a coat of paint, but they’ve had an undercoat and at least three layers placed on top to make them look great during gameplay. The addition of subtitles made me happier than you can imagine as more people can now enjoy the story, even if it does get a little generic if you’ve played all the previous games.
The way Yuke’s works with a series as peculiar and unchangeable as Earth Defense Force ends with a positive balance: different and with a unique personality, Iron Rain preserves the spirit of the originals.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It is still very much good old fashioned EDF fun and its refined fun at that. However, being punished for using your hard earned and awesome gadgets by deducting money from your mission rewards is purely anti-fun and the complete disconnect of the on-screen action in multiplayer is unacceptable and disappointing.
As fun as it can be on occasion, Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is too flawed for me to fully enjoy. The heaps of technical issues and unbalanced and repetitive missions, combined with a fairly dysfunctional online mode, make Iron Rain an unfortunately bland mess.
One of the best and worst things about Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is that it continues to use a tried and true formula, only changing a few necessary elements, and adding in a few minor ones to make itself really stand out from the rest. While it sounds as shameful as it could be, it isn’t, and it’s a welcome change in a series that had begun to grow stagnant over the past few releases.
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain continues the EDF tradition and lets you have fun blasting away thousands of alien monsters. Everyone might have their nitpicks, like repetition stemming from failing missions, but Yuke’s did just enough to advance the series. I hope that they have another chance with the franchise in the future.
EDF is probably never going to reach the heights of the mainstream, and that’s all right. It trying to be different from other games is exactly what makes it appealing to certain gamers. For the time being, being aware of its strengths and weaknesses are good enough for now.
Despite the disappointment I, as a veteran EDF trooper, endured at first glimpse of Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain in action, it soon grew into one of my favorite EDF games in the series, right behind EDF 4.1 and 5. And even with the reduction in the enormity of enemy swarms, it still offers the fun and frantic bug genocide that only the EDF really knows how to provide. Now, not all fans or newcomers will value the compromises Iron Rain makes; however, it cannot be denied that this spinoff was a necessity. In time, it may prove to be filled with a lot of great ideas that progress this underappreciated franchise in profound directions.
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is more of the same Earth Defense Force, and that’s great for fans. You will still spend your time battling giants, trying the save the Earth from certain doom. Even for how cheesy the acting can be, for how slow it feels, and for how janky the animation looked, I still had fun doing it.
It’s a different kind of EARTH DEFENSE FORCE, but not necessarily a bad one. IRON RAIN carries on the B-movie schlock in a new series, all in good fun. It’s like the newer Starship Troopers movies, they have newer CGI but it’s still not that great, and it has changed many things about it that you’re used to. You still watch of course, because it’s a good time. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE: IRON RAIN is bug-squashing fun at its finest, with some changes to core systems you may or may not like.
Iron Rain echoes Insect Armageddon as a spin-off that tries to take the well-loved series in a new direction. Unfortunately, it drained out a lot of the charm that made the older titles so fun to begin with.
Overall, Earth Defense Force: Iron Raid is rather lacking as a whole. While the gameplay is ok and I don’t particularly mind repetitive stages (heck, I finished Robotron 64), some of the unfair situations you can get into really put a damper on it. While not unplayable, the combination of choppy frame rates and frustrating mechanics leave you feeling like Iron Rain can often feel like more of a demo than a full game. While I would recommend picking it up if it’s on sale or packaged with something else, I would be a little more reserved about getting it flat out, unless you’re a fan of the series or are looking for a multiplayer game to play with your friends.
EDF: Iron Rain is a game that the even fan of the genre can not unseen the technical and artistic weaknesses.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Is this an EDF game that EDF fans will enjoy? Honestly, I ended up feeling fairly disappointed. Which is a shame because I think there are a lot of neat ideas here. Weapons feel rather underpowered across the board, and enemies just have far too much health for their own good. Couple this with incredibly annoying AI, and it’s just a very frustrating experience. Suffice to say, it’s pretty lackluster compared to the mainline EDF titles. The game took me 10 hours to beat, though I put about a total of 30 into it with harder difficulties. At a $60 price tag, I can’t really recommend it. A sale might make this a more tempting offer. Overall, if you’re looking for a good EDF game, I’d give this a pass and look into the mainline titles instead.
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain improves on class and loot mechanics but fails at delivering an entertaining level design. The new war movie inspired presentation falls flat compared to the previous B-movie horror aesthetic.
Iron Rain is a decent spin-off which focuses on a more Western Market. Although the game has a better story driven campaign and upgrade in terms of graphics, it delivers less of a comical arcade experience than the original titles do.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
With a different developer, Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain brings a lot of new elements to the series that can revive or break a certain nostalgia and familiar style of its veteran fans. Still, it's still a fun EDF-esque game and a great way for newbies to get their first taste of Earth Defense Force.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is definitely a very different experience to past games in the series.