Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is the worst EDF game and it isn't even close. Well, it's sorta close, I guess, since Insect Armageddon is a steaming pile, too, but Insect Armageddon wasn't just straight up insulting to series fans the way Iron Rain is. In an attempt to Western-ize the series and make it mainstream, Iron Rain basically sucks all the fun out of everything in favor of dark and gritty blandness and it freaking sucks. Old fans won't like it. New fans won't like it. They really screwed up. Read more and watch gameplay here.
To me, the appeal of Earth Defense Force is just how crazy and over the top it can get. The whole point is that you're fighting hundreds of aliens and bugs and space ships and the scale keeps ramping up just as you thought it couldn't get any more nuts. Earth Defense Force 5 is the pinnacle of the series and everyone should play it.
In EDF Iron Rain they thought toning all of that down and making it more realistic was the key to making it more appealing. Dozens of enemies instead of hundreds. Dark gritty visuals instead of brightly colored bugs spewing neon colored blood across the map. A serious story instead of goofy soldiers singing the EDF theme song. They even screwed up the core gameplay and shooting giant bugs isn't even fun anymore. They couldn't have gotten all of this any more wrong.
I freaking hate EDF Iron Rain.I reviewed it last year and I explain in much more detail why it's so garbage there, so please read it. Definitely don't buy Iron Rain, though, for any price. It isn't worth it.
