The last mainline game in the Earth Defense Force series was released in the summer of 2019 for PC players, close to 18 months after PS4 players in Japan got the game. It was a slight improvement over the last mainline game in all areas, but it also retained everything that people loved about the series. In 2022, Earth Defense Force 6 released on the PS4 and PS5 in Japan, and the early buzz was good. After two long years, EDF6 is finally available in North America, including the PC release.

There's always been a loose story associated with the series, but EDF6 marks the first time that a sequel is directly tied to a mainline game. The great war with the aliens lasted for two years, and humanity was victorious after the aliens retreated. However, the victory was pyrrhic, as the human population was reduced by 90%. Three years after the war's end, the aliens have seemingly returned, and as the hero of the war, you pick up your weapons and return to the fight to protect what is left of humanity.

There are two interesting bits you'll notice about the narrative. The first is that EDF6 isn't funny, at least initially. The opening level takes itself seriously, despite the purposefully bad voice acting. The first level conveys this tone well, and the next few levels have a more somber tone as your teammates randomly reminisce about lost family members or lament about hunger. Things become more somber when your commanding officer warns about not hitting civilians and another teammate reminds him that no one lives in the city anymore. The dialogue in those first few levels give the impression that it's going to be a very bleak game.

A scientist befriends you at the beginning of the game, and he'll tell you about how he lost his family and how he develop weapons for you. He's also the only one who recognizes you as being the one who saved the planet. After the first level, he only speaks to you and ignores everyone else. He's strange and mostly harmless, but makes the story more intriguing because he makes you activate a time machine that returns you to the early months of the alien war. Once you go back in time, the vibe of the game changes, and everyone is as hopeful and goofy as in the series' previous mainline offerings. The tonal shift is sudden, and while the initial vibe can be a tad depressing, it elevates the familiar cheesy vibe. It emphasizes how much the tone dictates the overall enjoyment of the game, since it feels more fun once you go back in time, even though the gameplay doesn't change at all.

Speaking of gameplay, it remains largely unchanged from the previous mainline titles. You start by choosing between four different character classes. The Ranger is a standard soldier, while Wing Diver is the only character capable of flight. The Lancer lugs loads of heavy weapons around, and the Air Raider is a support class character that relies on vehicles and drones to fight for him. No matter which class you choose, you'll always have access to an array of weapons, but you can only carry two at a time, and most of the guns come with unlimited ammo.

You'll need all the ammo and weapons you can get your hands on because the game loves to pit you against hordes of creatures. Unlike past games, you'll actually start the game by fighting large bipedal frogs, wasps with metal stingers, and circular-headed androids. It takes some time before you get to the familiar bestiary of ants, spiders, flying drones and the like, but EDF6 also isn't afraid of adding new enemies to the mix. Green building-eating ants and flying frogs are just a few of the new creatures you'll have to blast apart, and the game has no qualms about combining all of these things during a fight.

If you're looking for changes beyond new weapons and creatures, you won't find too many. The weapon count can easily hit the thousands, and you'll rely on lots of farming to get all of them and health upgrades, since they're all random. The most notable change is the ability to carry throwable weapons in your arsenal without occupying a weapon slot. As a Ranger, for example, that means carrying napalm charges with your assault rifle and rocket launcher. You also have an infinite supply of throwable weapons unless otherwise noted. Another change is that you'll see damage numbers appear above the weapon HUD when your shot harms an enemy. You can joke that the numbers feed into a dopamine rush, but it is useful if you want to know whether you're hitting a damage spot on an alien or armor.

The lack of any major changes might seem like a big negative for any other game, especially one that isn't part of a yearly or bi-yearly release schedule. However, this is a series where having too many big changes at one time has proven to be detrimental to the game's enjoyment. We've seen it occur with the spin-offs like Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain, which looked great and had a more sensible economy but also made the enemies less numerous and more difficult to fight. The winning formula seems to be implementing changes that are small but welcome, while beefing up the game's overall length. EDF6 easily accomplishes this by having 147 levels in the campaign, with medals given for each class and each of the five difficulty levels. It's a safe approach that most fans will appreciate, making the game's comparison with something like Dynasty Warriors very apt, since that series also goes for minimal changes per game lest they risk alienating the fan base.

Multiplayer remains the best way to enjoy the game, especially since it means that more people will be able to gather the multitude of items that drop and get scattered all over the battlefield after any skirmish. Local play is available, but it's limited to two players, while online play doubles the player count to four. You still can't mix and match online and offline play, though, nor can you engage in cross-play, which would've ensured that online games would be easier to find. The online performance is good if you can find a game, as the lag is minimal at best and isn't enough to ruin a heated match.

The sound is on par with previous series entries. The music is generic yet good sci-fi fare, but the sound effects are loud enough. As mentioned before, the voices are purposefully bad, and the lines are absolutely cheesy, but therein lies the charm. Any improvements to that would actually make the game worse in the eyes of many fans.

Graphically, EDF6 is no different from the last title, a sentiment that's reinforced by the fact that there are plenty of environments and assets taken from the previous mainline title. The models are fine but nothing spectacular, especially when you see some of the humans move their mouths, and the texturing and modeling are very good on the creatures. The environments display a little more texture pop-in than before, but at least it only happens for a second during the level's initial load. The explosions don't look too extravagant, but at least there's loads of blood and exoskeleton chunks whenever you fire at the aliens. The PC benefits from having the hardware to withstand any number of objects on-screen, so you can fill up a 4K display with loads of creatures and particles, and the game never shows any hint of slowdown. The only thing it doesn't do is contain any ultrawide resolutions, so you're always stuck with a 16:9 screen ratio.

Considering the history of the series from a technical standpoint, EDF6's performance on the Steam Deck is quite good. The game hits a resolution of 1280x720 with the black horizontal bars not being too noticeable even on the LCD version. The game barely has any graphical options to change, which means you're going to be stuck using the Deck's settings if you want to get the battery life beyond two hours on a full charge. The game does hit 60fps, but the frame rate fluctuates wildly in tune with the amount of action on-screen. Even during some really busy scenes, the game doesn't drop below 40fps. More importantly, it never feels like the game slows down, so there aren't too many times you'll notice that drop unless you keep MangoHUD present.

In the end, Earth Defense Force 6 maintains the status quo set by Earth Defense Force 5. The initial tone might be an immediate cause for concern, but the quick pivot to more familiar elements reinforces the idea that the team still understands what makes the game appealing. The gameplay changes are mostly miniscule to the point where only the keen-eyed will notice too many things different beyond the bestiary. With a presentation that also remains unchanged, the game lives up to the ideal that it really is "more of the same." That's exactly what most fans want, and they'll certainly be most excited to get their hands on this game. For those hoping for some kind of evolution that doesn't rob the game of what made it a cult hit, there is little hope of that happening anytime soon, considering how divisive most of the past entries were.

Score: 8.0/10