Rating
Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair
This updated version of Earth Defense Force 2025 marks the series first current-gen appearance. It sports improved performance, new content amounting to more than 50 percent of the original, two-player local co-op, and four player online co-op. The game is also being ported to PC "It's a fight for the future of the planet between the Ravagers, a ...
Details
- Released
- April 1, 2015
- Developer
- Sandlot
- Publisher
- XSEED Games, PQube, D3 Publisher
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Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
If I were to stick with a single installment going forward, this would be the one. Some of the upgrades fall short of expectations, and a good deal of the content is overly familiar at this point, but The Shadow of New Despair still represents the series at its best.
The wild sci-fi action game Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is a complete reimagining of Earth Defense Force 2025 (known in Japan as Earth Defense Force 4) complete with silky-smooth frame rates, beefed-up graphics, and tons of new and rearranged content.
The price point is going to be the big killer for this game. It comes in at $49.99 when it seems like it should be a 30$ game. Overall at the price point, I just can't recommend it to anyone who isn't big into the franchise already.
I highly recommend playing Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair with a friend or three. And then, only if you’re all fans of incredibly cheesy science fiction films. If you can get the right group together, the fact there are over 100 levels to play through means this will be a lot of long-lasting fun. The team behind this game knows exactly what it is trying to deliver, and in terms of the pacing and explosive combat, Earth Defense Force usually delivers nicely.
Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is not an enjoyable game thanks to the ugly graphics and repetitive nature of the gameplay. It does not help that enemy types and levels are reused over and over again too.