Earth Defense Force 5

[Sly Reflex]

Don't underestimate shotguns. They're pretty rad for taking out big waling enemies.

[AndyKurosaki]

I haven’t used them yet,currently I’ve rocked a machine gun,and rocket launcher. Though I had to change to a sniper rifle when the red drones were introduced,as I couldn’t hit the damn things.

[Sly Reflex]

When you get the Eagle assault rifles will go out the window. I've just graduated to another shotgun that does less damage per shot but I can fire it faster, I was using this shotty and it could only fire once every 2 seconds or something, but anything that you hit point blank disintegrated like I was playing a Gears of War game with the Gnasher. If you were under an enemy and you shot them you sent their giblets into low orbit, it was fantastic.

[AndyKurosaki]

I guess the only reason I haven’t tried shotguns yet is their lack of range. But having said that,most times you’re swamped by MONSTERS anyway,so range is less of an issue.

 

Did a mission where the intention was to attack an alien stronghold,only for it to go “NOPE”, raise up on mechanical legs,and send the mission flying out the window. It was absolutely glorious,a right “ohhhhhh bollocks” moment,leaving me dodging massive cannon blasts,and drones,and those bloody frogs that can fuck right off.

 

Brilliant game.

[Sly Reflex]

I was wondering how they could make the game more bonkers because 4.1 was pretty crazy and I was thinking EDF had maybe done what Saints Row did and made it impossible for it to top itself. Then shit like that happens and it's like "Oh!" and it just carries on with crazy stuff like that and you wonder where the madness will end.

[AndyKurosaki]

Definitely. I’m learning to pay attention when it tells you to retreat now. Going “sod that” may be admirable. But then you start getting bombarded by frogs,and go “Hmm. Actually,maybe legging it isn’t a bad idea”?

[Sly Reflex]

Mission 81 is AMAZING!

[AndyKurosaki]

I’m not even close to that yet,nearly at 40 I reckon,somewhere like that anyway.

[Sly Reflex]

When you get to it you'll know it. 

[AndyKurosaki]

Reached Mission 40,they’re proper throwing out everything now. Absolutely loads of enemies on screen,with zero slowdown whatsoever. 

 

Had to do a couple of missions on Easy,as they were too overwhelming,and the AI squad mates were fuck-all help as they’d charge in and get killed pretty quickly. 

[Sly Reflex]

I went from 93 to 107 tonight. It's been a bit tricky and there's been some close calls, but we've managed it.

 

Hilariously some chancer joined the game while we were on 206. I'd already decided to call it a night but he waited patently so I assume he was looking to finish off the game. When I got back to the lobby it was an Air Raider with 206 armour and about 0.02% complete. AKA get to fuck, idiot.I'm getting bodied at the levels armour cap and I have something like 1600 armour now.

[Sly Reflex]

Only 2 missions to finish off normal now. Actually failed 110 before I had to take a break, but I have an understanding of what needs to be done next time I have a pop at it.

 

The story, despite being kind of terrible is still miles better than Dragon's Dogma. It's at least cohesive even if it is a bit out there. Undertones of social commentary as well, I don't think anyone goes into an EDF game and expects to be lectured on that topic.

[Sly Reflex]

Well the last few bosses are quite something. Laughed my head off at the stuff that happens in 111. Could have done with being a little shorter though, I appreciate the B movie mentalness but those last few levels go on for too long.

 

I've seen a few lobbies where the timers are hitting 50 minutes and up for certain missions, that's way too long. Maybe those times will come toppling down as people get powered up, but there's been occasions where I've been in a mission and it just keeps going on and on.A lot of the time it's just epic, but there's the occasional time here it's like "Damn, will you fucking stop, I want to move on with it!" sort of thing.

[AndyKurosaki]

I had that feeling with the first time you attack a mothership. I had to take out all the laser cannons underneath it to get to it’s weakspot,as they were absolutely battering me. And just when I was getting somewhere, a ton of frogs dropped down. Meaning I had to leg it,as they drain your health so fast. 

 

That mission took almost an hour,and I was glad to get it over with.

[Rikzilla]

I just watched the final mission on YouTube. Fucking hell ?

[AndyKurosaki]

I can’t even begin to imagine how insane it is. I haven’t watched it,as I want to experience it firsthand. But this game is a relentless barrage of enjoyable one-up-manship. 

 

“Oh you think that mission was bad? Let’s throw even more at you”.

[Sly Reflex]

It isn't how much it throws at you  in the last mission, it's what it throws at you and how the commentary reacts. It's utter lunacy.

[AndyKurosaki]

I’ve hit the mid 70’s,and it’s getting even more insane. Woodlice. Flying frogs. Armoured aliens. Giant wasps and spiders.

 

So often I can’t tell what the hell is going on,due to the absolute carnage of body parts splattered all over the place,which is hilarious.

[Sly Reflex]

One thing I really don't like about this iteration is that the weapon levels don't go up as you go into hard. In fact it resets the levels of which you're allowed t take in, so instead of taking in stuff that's level 25 or so like you can at the end of normal, you're gimped into using all the stuff you've previously used to beat normal. I'll have a look to see if the weapon limits grow faster than normal, because if it doesn't killing shit in the latter third of the game is going to be agonising if your damage output doesn't go up to match how much health they have.

[Sly Reflex]

3 hours ago, Sly Reflex said:

I'll have a look to see if the weapon limits grow faster than normal, because if it doesn't killing shit in the latter third of the game is going to be agonising if your damage output doesn't go up to match how much health they have

 

It goes up, level 111 on normal is level 27 or something like that. 111 on hard is almost double that. I don't know where the weapon creep starts to be noticeable, but it's there. It's still going to be kind of rough though.

 

I played 20 odd missions with the Fencer tonight in hard. I was a bit hesitant to get into the Fencer since he was "fixed" from last game. Let me explain.

 

The Fencer is meant to be slow as fuck. There is a mechanic where you can dash forwards but it has a cooldown. However there was a mechanic in game that would allow you to use a shield to cancel the animation to allow a dash to be pushed, This was called dash cancelling. However it wasn't very good. The community soon found a better way to dash cancel that was unintended by Sandlot, usually by using the javelin weapons you could speed about the map and generally be fast as fuck. It was one of those happy accidents like the Gnasher being the weapon it became in Gears. It was never intended to speed the Fencer up to this level, but people latched onto it because it was 1. A way to make the mobility and productiveness of the Fencer up to levels that was acceptable and 2. It was cool as fuck.

 

The bad news is they've taken all that stuff out. The good news is they've channelled their Saints Row and just spun it out into a focused mechanic.Now you can bound about the level like a big fuck off wrecking ball. The best thing is they've altered it from the spamming R1 > L1/L2 depending on your set up, but now you can weave hits and blasts into your combo. I have 2 jump and 2 dashes which I can reset by using a weapon hit or shot, after which is resets and you can put them back into the feed. So instead of the repetitive motion it's more thoughtful, do you want to clear that hill? Then 2 presses of the L1 will give you the altitude to clear it, then an R1 dash forwards will see you press over it. Because the enemies have a slower tracking on you you can dash side to side and over the incoming fire, let of volleys of long range fire to reset the combo and then when you finally get right up in the face off your enemy you can blast his dick clean off with a shotgun blast and then dance around him filling the rest of his body with buckshot and penetration holes.

 

It's so flexible and fun to use and I'm amazed that it's this good, because whenever I saw anyone demoing the Fencer on the Sandlot streams the guy controlling him was really bad and didn't really sell what he was capable of. It's fucking awesome though, you see all these Fencer players standing miles away from the fight using homing missiles because they have no idea that you can be flying around the map like a heavily armed hockey puck. Who would want to do that when you can launch yourself 100 foot up in the air and then drop down like a comet smashing into an enemy with a big fuck off cyber hammer? It's fun to be an aggressive cunt.