Review by: Brandon "Trooper" Cackowski-Schnell

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is about one thing and one thing only: killing bugs. Well, technically two things as you kill bugs and robots. Well, bugs, robots and metal bugs which aren’t quite bugs or robots. So make that three things: killing bugs, killing robots and killing bug-robot thingies. Regardless, this is a game about kitting up, prioritizing threats and never letting up on the trigger finger. There’s very little story, no characterization at all, and no real ending, so if you need those things in your game, look elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you’re content with the pure, elegant beauty of trying to kill every blasted thing that comes your way, and coming out of it all alive, this just might be your game.

Earth is beset by Ravagers, an alien race comprised of robots and genetically manipulated Earth insects. The Ravagers are currently on a planet-wide tour of destruction with a stop in the fictional city of New Detroit. As the leader of Lightning Squad, it’s up to you and your two partners, be they real live humans or trigger-happy AI bots, to take on the Ravager menace. Along the way there’s a very brief story about some cube weapon that’s supposed to help turn back the Ravagers, and you have to help find it, but what it all boils down to is going to a waypoint, killing everything that moves and then moving on to the next waypoint to do it all over again.

Unfortunately for you, everything that moves is an incredibly huge amount of things. If you’ve ever kicked over an anthill as a kid and seen how a massive wave of insects reacts to your insect relocation plan, you have a good idea of what the game throws at you. Giant ants, spiders, wasps and ticks are all along for the ride joined by flying gunships, metal insects, giant bipedal robots and huge mutated and robotic forms of Earth insects. During your mission it’s not uncommon to have dozens of ants and spiders on the ground, two carriers dropping additional insects, half a dozen wasps and two bosses, all in the same fight, all gunning for your three person squad. Unfortunately you’re better equipped to handle all of your enemies than the game’s graphical engine, and framerate issues abound when things get hairy, but not to where it impedes your performance.

As there are no mid-mission save points, which can be a source of frustration at the later missions and higher difficulty levels, surviving comes down to picking the right weapon, and proper threat assessment. Rolling with an armor class that compliments your own doesn’t hurt either. There are four armor classes to choose from consisting of a vanilla Trooper class that can zip around the battlefield and revive squadmates in an instant; a Tactical class that employs turrets and radar to help even the odds; a tank-like Battle class that is more exosuit than armor; and a high flying Jet class that uses its combination of jetpack and energy based weapons to put the smackdown on robotic opponents.

Armors are leveled up as you play, with increasingly powerful weapons available as the higher tiers unlock, and the classes all play well off of each other making this a game that can be played alone but is much, much better with a buddy. Part of that is due to the mixture of armor classes, part of that is because of the AI’s penchant for shooting you with a shotgun in an attempt to kill the ant behind you. Yes the game has friendly fire and yes it hurts. Lots.

As you make your way through the missions leveling up your armor and collecting dropped weapons, you’ll amass a pretty sizable arsenal, all particular to your armor class. As someone used to looking at the price tag on a weapon as an indication of how good it is, I found myself far more concerned with the weapon stats in this game as ever before. Do I want to sacrifice power for reload speed or ammo capacity? If I’ve nailed the game’s active reload system with the reload time of this gun, do I want to screw that up by picking a weapon that reloads at a different rate? Rocket launcher or missile launcher? Sure, the missiles home, but look at the damage and blast radius stats on those rockets. You’re given the opportunity to change your load out before every mission, allowing for some experimentation but usually, once you find a pair of weapons that work, you stick with them until the next toy is unlocked. Weapon progression is very satisfying and while the higher tier weapons are significantly more expensive, unlocking them and succeeding in a mission that you had previously failed feels great.