Global Defence Force

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Global Defence Force
Developer(s)	Sandlot
Publisher(s)	D3 Publisher Essential Games
Aspect ratio	480i (SDTV)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release date	JP July 28, 2005[1] EU April 13, 2007[2]
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Co-op
Rating(s)	PEGI: 7+
Media	CD

Global Defence Force (Chikyū Bōeigun 2 (THE地球防衛軍2, Chikyū Bōeigun 2^?)), also known as Earth Defense Force 2, is a PlayStation 2 third-person shooter video game developed by Sandlot. The game was originally published as Chikyū Bōeigun 2 in Japan by D3 Publisher, as volume 81 of the Simple 2000 series of budget games.^[3] It was later released in Europe by Essential Games, the brand created by D3 Publisher to publish Simple 2000 series games in Europe.^[4]

Players assume the role of a soldier and fight B movie styled giant ants and War of the Worlds type robots amongst other enemies.^[5]

[edit] Gameplay

The PaleWing soldier flying with her jetpack whilst attacking giant ants with an electrical weapon.

The game is a third-person shooter featuring large play areas and waves of mecha and giant bugs. Players control either a foot soldier known as a 'Storm 1' unit who uses somewhat conventional weaponry such assault and sniper rifles, shotguns and RPGs. Or a female jetpack-equipped soldier known as a 'Pale-Wing' unit who uses energy-based weaponry.^[3] Most of the game's missions are cleared by eliminating all enemies present, starting with giant ants on earlier stages and eventually progressing to giant enemies resembling Godzilla.^[6] A number of vehicles such as a tank, helicopter and a hover-bike are available in some missions for players to board and attack enemies with. However, only the Storm 1 unit can use the vehicles.^[3]

A total of 300 different weapons are available between the two characters, but players are limited to carrying 2 weapons during missions. Weapons are unlocked throughout the game by picking up containers dropped by enemies. Every weapon picked up during play will add a random weapon of the character's to the selection, duplicated weapons are discarded. Armor chips and medical kits, also dropped by enemies, increase the character's maximum possible health and recover lost health respectively.^[7]

There are a total of 71 missions spread over 7 environments to play through,^[8] the first mission taking place in London.^[9] Five levels of difficulty are available for each mission, the image of a medal representing each difficulty level. Half-medals are awarded for completing a mission on a set difficulty with either character. Completing the same stage with the other character results in a complete medal. Once a player has collected all the medals for every mission, "Impossible" mode is unlocked. This additional difficulty level does not need to be attempted for the player to gain a 100% completion rating from the game.

[edit] Reception

Split screen co-operative mode. The player on the left is controlling the PaleWing soldier. The player on the right, controlling the infantryman, is driving a tank.

The game received little press attention in the West, due to the game being a budget title. The few reviews the game received were positive.Gamestyle's reviewer Colin Whiteside stated "you will fall into one of two camps - those who have experienced the Chikyuu Boueigun ("Earth Defence Force") series, and those who should stop right now, and go buy one of these wonderful, wonderful games."^[8] Games Asylum's Matt Gander described it as "one of the PlayStation 2’s best budget buys".^[6]

During D3 Publisher's simple series awards 2007, the title received a platinum prize for selling more than 200,000 copies in Japan during the 2006 fiscal year. It was the only title in the range to reach this volume of sales.^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Earth Defense Force 2017
• Simple series

[edit] External links

• D3's official site (Japanese language)