Look Out, The Earth is Exploding Again!
HIGH Absolutely dominating bosses with a genocide gun.
LOW No unlocks for beating the highest difficulty? Shameful.
WTF Wait, are we playing Space Invaders?
It’s a good time to be a fan of Earth Defense Force. This third-person shooter franchise has offered players a chance to throw down with hordes of giant insects and killer robots for over two decades, including two very different titles released this year.
First came Earth Defense Force 6, a time travel romp that was (perhaps) the largest third-person shooter ever made, and now comes World Brothers 2, a zany comedy shooter that brings back every enemy that’s ever been in the series and throws them all at the player — which is exactly what the first World Brothers did a few years back, but if there’s one thing the EDF series has proven time and again, it’s that more of a good thing can be a great thing.
World Brothers 2 is again developed by Yuke’s, the team responsible for the underwhelming Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain. Their attempt at a more grounded and plot-driven EDF was a mixed bag, and World Brothers was as different from that as one could imagine while remaining in the same genre. Suddenly players had gone from slogging through ultra-realistic, post-apocalyptic hellscapes to bouncing around colorful voxel-based maps, rescuing comrades and blasting enemies into tiny cubes. It didn’t have the narrative heft of Iron Rain, but no one expected anything more than cute combat, and that’s exactly what they got.
In Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, it finally feels like the developer has found the right mix of elements from these previous spinoffs — all of the adorably violent gameplay is still there, but they’ve managed to weave in the storytelling that drove Iron Rain, offering a deeper and more impactful narrative to motivate players through the hundred-plus levels it offers.
While it may seem a little strange to single out an EDF story for praise, WB2 earns its accolades by offering a narrative packed with entertaining characters, innovative threats, and genuinely thrilling action setpieces. I won’t spoil late-game revelations, but this is an EDF with a message, and one that manages to be authentically touching in the last few missions. I don’t know if that’s something I’d ever anticipated or asked for, but I’m glad they managed to pull it off.
The action is, as ever, flawless. Just like in World Brothers 1, the player controls four members of a squad, switching between them at will — unless they’re playing online co-op, when they can only swap to computer-controlled characters — and race through compact levels, blasting away at enemy hordes. There are dozens of characters to unlock, each one armed with a unique weapon drawn from the franchise’s history, as well as a movement ability tailored to WB2‘s frenetic pace. Where EDF heroes are realistically slow human soldiers methodically plodding their way through battle scenarios far beyond their scale, WB heroes are demigods who freely bound over buildings, sprinting into and out of danger as enemies swarm around them.
World Brothers‘ gameplay structure feels completely different than the main series. It’s built around encouraging the player to test out every possible combination of powers, and making the whole experience far more accessible to single players than the main series does. By letting the player build any squad they like and ensuring that missions are just a few minutes long, the developers create an atmosphere where there are no wrong answers, just brief setbacks.
Happy with the squad but discover that loads of flying enemies appear halfway through a mission? No problem, just drop out the menu, swap out a melee character for one with homing missiles, and get back into the action in just a few seconds. Like one character’s weapon but prefer another’s super technique? No issue there, just leveling characters up adds the ability to use weapons from different classes.
When first unlocked, a character may only be able to use assault rifles — but with each gained level, they unlock use of another weapon class. At level eight, any character will be able to use any weapon in the game. Boxer with a sniper rifle? Why not! Air support character with a laser sword? Worth a try!
WB2 is so dedicated to accessibility that there’s even exclusive weapons based on map type — some characters have a super move based on calling in an air strike, which logically can’t happen while in a cave or underground base. Bring an airstrike character to one of those maps and the game gives them a replacement super — a hugely powerful missile that can take out whole crowds of enemies at once. The only priority here is putting as few obstacles as possible between the player and having a good time, and WB2 succeeds at it.
By discarding all of their attempts at being the ‘serious, mature’ version of EDF while maintaining their passion for storytelling, Yuke’s has created something truly special in World Brothers 2. It’s a game that embraces the absurdly over-the-top nature of the franchise while offering a story that increases the player’s emotional investment — something that the main series, with its apocalyptic stakes and angry space gods, has never managed to accomplish. Does that necessarily make it the best in the series? I don’t know if I’d go that far — but I can say that it’s the most player-friendly by far, and a perfect jumping-on point for anyone curious about gaming’s most epic action.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Yuke’s and published by D3. It is currently available on PS4/5, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC.
Approximately 45 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 5 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Violence. It’s weirdly-coloured insect blood. I think the kids will be fine. Seriously, this is the rare intense action game that almost feels like an all-ages kind of thing. Except for the scariness of giant spiders, of course.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no audio cues that will affect gameplay, and all dialogue is subtitled. Subtitles cannot be resized. All you’ll be missing out on is incidental character dialogue during missions. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.
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