EARTH DEFENSE FORCE: WORLD BROTHERS 2

The game was provided by D3Publisher for review. Thank you!

There are games that you play to get fully immersed into an incredible story and world, and there are others that are perfect for mindless fun. When it comes to the latter, there are a few games that really shine for me, and one of those is the Earth Defense Force series. I love the entire concept of running around on a map and using tons of different weapons to destroy giant aliens. While the mainline series is a classic in its own right, there are a few aspects of it that I would change for my own personal enjoyment. What I didn't expect is that Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, a more comical and voxel spinoff of the series, would actually solve a lot of these issues I have and be a more enjoyable experience overall.

Thankfully, the game does keep a lot of the same gameplay elements and overall feeling the mainline series has. Just like the other games, you will be running around in third-person, shooting different aliens. You are a bit overpowered and use your guns to demolish giant insects or robots in a 1 vs 100 situation. It's a ton of ludicrous fun, and the changes in World Brothers 2 make it a more engaging experience in a more distinct way.

As you complete each mission, you will gain new teammates, which unlock new characters to choose from, new weapons to use, and new accessories to equip. Each character has three unique abilities to use in-game, with two regular abilities to use and a special one that charges up over time, as well as different types of weapons they can use. This is in contrast with the mainline series, which doesn't have abilities, and you get new weapons and more health/armor by picking up crates that enemies drop. It's a nice change of pace from the main game, and you can replay missions to get new weapons and duplicate characters, which level up their skill and allow them to use more weapon types.

Since you can go into each mission with three other teammates, there can be a great variety of guns and abilities that can be utilized. You can actively swap between all three of your teammates, and it's a lot of fun. I found myself switching to using the abilities to kill off the aliens and maximize my strength to accomplish the mission. I really like that the abilities exist in general since I feel it changes up the pace of the game instead of it just being a shooting fest. Each one feels unique, ranging from being able to jetpack upwards to dodge rolling to making lighting come out of your hands to shock and kill off groups of aliens around you. Then there are the special abilities, which charge up over time, and adding those into the mix makes it even more interesting to play.

There are a ton of missions in the game, each with three difficulty settings, and they can all be replayed to get new weapons and level up or get new characters. And with the game being completely co-op playable, it is a perfect game to play with your friends. Trying to coordinate and use specific abilities and different weapon types together is going to be a good time.

To play online, you will need to install Epic Online Services, but if you plan to play on your own, you can still play the game without installing EOS. I was able to cancel EOS and look at rooms and access multiplayer; though you do still need to link your Epic Games Account, you can still play multiplayer without installing EOS. You can install it if you want to utilize crossplay, though. The store page mentions that you don't need to link an Epic Games account, but I didn't see any way around linking one, just around installing Epic Online Services.

Two of my biggest complaints about the mainline Earth Defense Force series are its story and visuals. They do the job, but they don't go over and above to impress. However, I felt the opposite for World Brothers 2. The visuals are voxel, so they are a bit blocky and look closer to Minecraft, but it is also much more vibrant and colorful. I really love it, even if it does look less realistic, and everything stands out nicely. I also like the variety of locations you can go to. Beaches, caves, and even Egypt and fighting around the pyramids are all places to go to, and it's nice to change up the locations often for more repetitive games like this.

The story itself is also a bit more fleshed out, and I found it very appealing. After the Dark Tyrant was defeated in the first game, peace was brought back to square Earth, but it didn't last long. A gigantic being named Gaiarch emerged and shattered the plant into different pieces. Now, you have to lead your team to save Earth again.

It's a ridiculous tale, but I absolutely loved it. Developer YUKE'S got to go a bit more crazy and ridiculous both with its story and characters, and I love it. The entire premise of the game is quite hilarious, so taking it further by being able to play as a Vampire or Koala and having ridiculous abilities like singing to heal all make sense within the confines of the game, though most characters are inspired by the previous EDF titles. I also did like the voice acting in-game, along with the script having some nice humor too.

And thanks to the Steam Deck, it's a very portable-friendly game, too.

EARTH DEFENSE FORCE: WORLD BROTHERS 2 - Steam Deck Performance

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a joy to play in general, and that extends to the Steam Deck. It can get quite intensive in some missions, and especially when you get close to the action, but with some changed settings and compromises, this will be a great experience to take with you on the go.

Recommended Settings

For playing World Brothers 2, I ended up preferring pushing visuals to their limits with a framerate restriction. It was awesome seeing the game in all of its glory, and with a 40 FPS lock, it felt very smooth with a low battery drain in most scenarios in missions. Even when the battery does spike, and the framerate drops slightly, I didn't feel it at all, and I was able to keep playing with ease. The battery itself didn't spike that much, so most areas will stick to around 12W - 15W drain. This is definitely my favorite way to play, thanks to the decent battery life, fantastic visuals, and relatively smooth gameplay.

60 FPS Settings

Next, I really wanted to find some possible way to play the game at 60 FPS. This is a bit difficult in general, as action can get very packed and cause drops, but we can mitigate this with some graphical compromises. To make everything stay as stable as possible, I did have to lower all the settings to their lowest, except for Textures. There may still be some drops here and there, but it will stick to 60 FPS almost the entire time, and it feels great!

I was going to make settings for battery life, but unless we sacrifice a lot of settings, we will still have some drops when the action gets really heavy. For a game like this, I would say you need the power for when things get hectic, and with the recommended settings geting lower battery drain in most scenarios, I found this sufficed in general.

Accessibility

As for the settings, we can change camera sensitivity and inverting, toggle auto-aiming and vibration, rebind controls, toggle camera effects, screen shaking, showing damage, subtitles, and change audio sliders.

The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, so there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, but we do have controller and cloud save support. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is exactly what I was hoping for in an EDF game. It still has the addicting, manic gameplay loop that I have come to love, but it adds an enjoyable story with gorgeous, vibrant visuals with a variety of locations. I do miss the old weapon system where we would get and level up new weapons quicker, but I love the quirkiness and humor injected into the game. It is repetitive with not a lot of gameplay variety, but the abilities and different characters. And with how well it can run on the Steam Deck, this is a fantastic game to take on the go and play with your friends.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.