Sometimes you’ll come across a game which is unlike any other and defies comparison to any games that have come before. Then there’s Earthfall.
There’s no getting away from it; Earthfall is what happens if you substitute the zombie hordes in Left 4 Dead for Aliens. But that’s no bad thing, Left 4 Dead and its sequel were great games, but can this alien shooter live up to its inspiration?
The story is pretty generic, aliens have landed and taken over Earth. A small band of resistance fighters are left to fight back and, yep, your character happens to get mixed up in the resistance. Cue plenty of world-saving quests to gather tech and, mostly, shoot as many aliens as possible. It’s fun and does, occasionally, lead to some tense situations but it won’t win any awards.
As you may have guessed, this is a game which is far more fun with up to 4 players working together. It riffs of exactly the same vibe as Left 4 Dead in that you can work successfully as a team, healing, covering each other’s backs and choosing weapons carefully so you get a good range to fight off the different alien types.
Initial waves are few and far between to give you a bit of a chance to try out the weapons and systems, but soon build up into a huge horde aiming to overwhelm you. As a defence, you can dive into buildings like garages or some houses and place shields over the doors to allow you some breathing space. These allow you to enter and exit without the aliens getting through but standing still for too long won’t get you anywhere.
Some of the environments are well thought out, with buildings that allow for small alleyways where you can easily get ambushed and roof spaces to walk along (sometimes used as a simple puzzle to gather something important), others are more generic. The barriers and, later, turrets you can place do help to add a unique twist, though.
Despite its generic nature, Earthfall does have one thing in its favour; it’s fun. It doesn’t pretend to be an ultra-realistic shooter with complicated weapons or tactics, it falls more in the Doom camp when it comes to dispatching the alien scum. Guns are easy to find and use and there are a wealth of different types. All are satisfying, though the aliens could have done with better death animations at times. Whatever task you’re undertaking, it’s the frantic alien shooting that provides the entertainment here.
Earthfall isn’t ground braking or original but it is fun and this is possibly the only thing you need to take away from this review. If you’re looking for a new co-op shooter then you could do much worse than checking this alien shooter out.
Earthfall
Pros
- A fun romp in co-op
- Some interesting set-pieces
- shooting aliens never gets old
- Good use of barriers
Cons
- Very familiar to Left 4 Dead fans
- Aliens are too generic
