But it is better
Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is an enhanced and extended version of EDF 2025 adding more levels, including a giant mech versus monster fight, a first for the series, though a majority of your time will be spent blowing up giant bugs on foot. Each class that is available has some small added abilities as well to enhance the experience, although mostly minor things such as being able to dodge roll through fences.
I’ve been a fan of EDF since Xbox 360’s Earth Defense Force 2017, and frame rate dips have been a constant in the series. XSEED Games hoped to remedy that with the PS4’s Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair, but it has failed.
After a brief hands on with the game today on the show floor at E3, it was obvious that the frame rate issues persist, although not nearly as bad as before. Running at 1080p and targeting 60fps, I’d say I still saw dips to around 30fps — if not lower — during explosions when there were many bugs on the screen. As the game is already available in Japan, it is doubtful frame rate issues will be fixed for the localized version. That being said this is still the smoothest EDF I’ve played, as previous titles had some atrocious frame rate issues.
Still too early to tell if the added content and somewhat better frame rate are worth double dipping for, but fans of the series are used to it at this point and will probably pick it up regardless. If you’re new to the series, this is a good place to start, especially if you have a friend for split screen co-op.
