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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.
Earth Defense Force 2017

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 55 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 24 votes
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Game Info
Publisher: D3 Publisher of America
Developer: Sandlot
Genre(s): Third-Person Shooter
Players: 2
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Release Date: March 20, 2007
Summary
(Also known as "Earth Defense Force X" and "Earth Defense Forces 3" [JPN] ) This arcade-style third-person shooter equips players with an extensive arsenal of diverse weapons, pilotable vehicles and loyal teammates in order to defeat a wide variety of attackers ranging from gigantic ants and spiders to robots and monsters standing more than 20 stories tall. Earth Defense Force 2017 lands players on the front lines of an onslaught of extraterrestrial invaders, with non-stop swarms of hundreds of enemies on screen at once. Gamers aren’t alone. Not only do they have more than 150 weapon variations to choose from - including assault rifles, rocket launchers and flamethrowers - but they have the support of AI-controlled Earth Defense Force teammates who battle beside them throughout the game. Players can also join forces with live teammates in co-op mode and battle together. Fighting within a wholly destructible environment where bridges, skyscrapers and other structures can just as easily be destroyed by friend or foe, players can either save their world or demolish it in the process. With more than 50 missions to complete and a seemingly endless barrage of attackers, the Earth Defense Force has their work cut out for them. [D3 Publisher of America]
Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats
Also On The Web: Official Website
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Gaming Age
Whether or not you dig the Ed Wood production values, it's hard to deny the massive amounts of action, adventure, and mind-boggling fun that can be had in the fulfilling campaign.
Read Full Review >Eurogamer
It gives you well over a hundred weapons to try out, masses of difficulty levels, and explosions so big that you'll worry they may crack the front of your television. Earth Defence Force 2017 isn't a complex cocktail. It's a Molotov cocktail.
Read Full Review >AtomicGamer
If you can get past the goofy presentation and dig into the massive battles, then you'll definitely consider this to be $40 well-spent.
Read Full Review >Digital Entertainment News
Regardless of all of these problems, Earth Defense Force 2017 is still wonderful, stupid fun that manages to surpass its lowly production values and shoddy appearance to become a surprisingly superb game.
Read Full Review >NTSC-uk
No game has gumption like EDF. No other game has the balls to make the most basic enemy an ant the size of a bus. No other game lets the player get away with such wanton collateral damage. No other game has the audacity to throw so much at you and fill the screen with such massive explosions that your neighbours will think aliens really have invaded and will hide in their cellars. The sheer spectacle is a sensory supernova.
Read Full Review >Gamestyle
Earth Defence Force 2017 then is a rarity that comes along far too infrequently. A cheap game that sacrifices graphical flare for good old fun and destruction. Well worth the asking price.
Read Full Review >GameSpy
It's a unique, well-realized action game that's like nothing else on the 360. If "EDF2" didn't exist, we'd like it even more.
Read Full Review >Games Radar (in-house)
A corny, geeky dream come true that's destined to be an underground classic.
Read Full Review >Game Informer
Earth Defense Force may not have the serious tones of today’s triple-A juggernauts, but its quality gameplay and refreshing premise shows that a B-game can be every bit as entertaining.
Read Full Review >1UP
If there's a heaven, I think it's full of giant spiders and rocket launchers. It's a place where skyscrapers collapse if you breathe on them too hard and you never run out of ammunition. When I die, I want to go to Earth Defense Force 2017.
Read Full Review >Armchair Empire
Earth Defense Force 2017 overcomes its weaknesses by being brainless and ridiculous fun. It’s as simple as that. Play, have fun.
Read Full Review >GameDaily
Even with the frame rate hiccups and the lack of online support, Earth Defense Force 2017 succeeds tremendously, thanks to its devastation and non-stop action. This piece of sci-fi cheesy goodness fits right in with Microsoft's meatier games -- very appetizing.
Read Full Review >Pelit (Finland)
An outrageously corny and a massively extravagant shooter that delivers plenty of short-lived fun, but the severe repetition and absurd length of the game eat away at the spirit of the fast-paced shooter. [Jan 2008]
Games Master UK
Unashamedly quirky retro fare that's putting the fun (and ants) back into gaming. [June 2007, p.73]
Game Chronicles
If Earth Defense Force 2017 were a movie, Ed Wood would have directed it. It would star Bruce Campbell. The folly artists would be hard at work with the pots and pans of your average kitchen. The special effects would come courtesy of the cheap toys and props of your garden-variety dollar store. This is a “B” movie from start to finish, it’s about as cheesy, hokey and ridiculous as they come and it’s totally awesome!
Read Full Review >Xbox World Australia
There's two ways to interpret Earth Defence Force 2017: you can love it for its campy B-Grade trappings, or dismiss it as a crap quality game and go back to your Gears of War.
Read Full Review >Play Magazine
The game aims for a classic War of the Worlds/Them/Godzilla vibe that no game has attempted to capture in years, and it does an excellent job of it. [JPN Import; Feb 2007, p.81]
Firing Squad
It's a surprise that a Japanese import title with a relatively low price is as entertaining as this game turned out to be.
Read Full Review >PALGN
Earth Defence Force 2017 might be a little rough around the edges, but it offers non-stop action on a breathtaking scale.
Read Full Review >GamePro
As fun as hurling dozens of rockets at a time into a swarm of giant alien ants is, it will get boring after a few hours. If you're up for a shallow yet addictive and gratuitously violent shooter, you can't go wrong with Earth Defense Force. Just take a break every few hours and read a book to rebuild some of the higher brain function you just lost.
Read Full Review >Electronic Gaming Monthly
This is what gaming is all about: simple controls, nonstop action, and buckets of fun. [May 2007, p.84]
GamingTrend
Don’t dismiss this game just because it is a budget title, it’s definitely got some hook to it. If these guys had a bigger budget, this would be a hit.
Read Full Review >GameTrailers
A bit similar to "Crackdown." The sum of its parts doesn’t really equal anything outstanding. In fact, it’s downright crap in some ways. But when you actually play it, you’ll find yourself coming back for more…even if you’re not totally sure why.
Read Full Review >GameSpot
As archaic and clumsy as it can be, Earth Defense Force 2017 succeeds because of what a ridiculous bit of dumb fun it is.
Read Full Review >TeamXbox
Part of what is so incredibly endearing about this game is that it’s so technically abhorrent. You’ll feel like you’re playing something from Xbox Live Arcade, but the fun factor is where EDF 2017 makes the leap to a standalone title.
Read Full Review >Worth Playing
Objectively, it's not hard to tell that Earth Defense Force 2017 is poorly made compared to the vast majority of 360 titles, although the localization is quality work on D3's part. What makes it so compelling to play, despite its many obvious flaws, is that the gameplay formula is by itself amazingly addictive and satisfying regardless of the graphics.
Read Full Review >ZTGameDomain
Recommending this game isn’t hard, in fact I can’t think of a reason not to buy this game. With a nice price, fast-paced action, and tons of giant bugs to demolish this is one of the most satisfying experiences on the Xbox 360 to date.
Read Full Review >Yahoo! Games
Go ahead and say that EDF is repetitive, but we had more fun trying out the 150 weapons than in almost any other recent shooter. Every level is packed with pure, nerdy fun, and the five difficulty levels prodded us into taking new weapons back into early levels to see how we'd fare. Weak-kneed animations and silly dialogue made it that much better, just this once.
Read Full Review >X360 Magazine UK
So steeped in wacky old-school charm that any flaws are promptly washed away in a sea of explosions and giant ants. [Issue 18, p.97]
VideoGamer
Speaking of destruction, every building in the game can be destroyed - something which was quite a surprise at first, after a stray missile missed its target and downed a building a few hundred metres in the distance. This combined with the complete bombardment of enemies makes for a game that constantly brings a smile to the face of players.
Read Full Review >Boomtown
This is a slice of simple fun, and a better one you’ll be hard-pressed to find, but it’s simplicity is just a little too basic to hold your attention for long.
Read Full Review >netjak
You are going to want to hate it, but the simplicity and mindless fun behind it will probably have you coming back.
Read Full Review >GameZone
Players will be able to tell that this game had a low budget, because almost every area of the game needs improvement. Even though this is the case, this is an extremely fun game to play with your friends just because you want to kill everything in sight and protect humanity from extenuation.
Read Full Review >IGN
It doesn't hold a candle to some of the more technically savvy games on Xbox 360 and that may be more than ample reason to give this one a pass depending upon your tastes. For good mindless shooting, this game delivers.
Read Full Review >GamingExcellence
When I played the game in front of a few friends, they were constantly screaming at me that I was getting surrounded by ants and yelling "constructive" advice in my direction. Any game that can elicit that sort of reaction from an inactive audience must be doing something right.
Read Full Review >Game Revolution
It’s not particularly innovative, it doesn’t have ground breaking graphics, but it does what it’s meant to do and is a fun way to spend a little time.
Read Full Review >GameShark
Having hopes of a grandiose, multifaceted sci-fi adventure will leave you extremely disappointed in Earth Defense Force 2017. If you embrace its narrowly-focused action gameplay you’ll have a blast saving the planet one dead alien at a time.
Read Full Review >Gamer's Hell
Earth Defense Force 2107 isn't a great game, but it's a really fun one and unlike the grease bomb you score from the local burger emporium, it won't have any long-term deleterious impact on your health.
Read Full Review >MS Xbox World
It is a very simple game with little depth in terms of story and characterisation and when it works can produce some genuine wow moments. However the poor controls for vehicles and the repetitive nature of the game coupled with some irritating moments of slowdown present a game that lacks a final polish.
Read Full Review >GameBrink
I guess the biggest surprise of EDF3 is that the graphics are actually amazing. The character models, enemy models, the sprawling city, and all the textures look great. The effects are crap and the physics are laughable but the city as a static object looks amazing. [JPN Import]
Read Full Review >Computer and Video Games
Nowhere near as good as the full-priced alternatives - but you're still guaranteed a pretty good time.
Read Full Review >360 Gamer Magazine UK
It's dumb, it's derivative and it's cheap. Yet neither of those are the reason you should consider spending a bit of cash here. Instead, it's the vintage gameplay, the mindless arcade blasting entertainment and an ability to rise above a bedrock of flaws to emerge victorious. [Issue 25, p.56]
Edge Magazine
The illusion of epic-scale warfare remains a powerful and entertaining one, broken most significantly by the player’s need to avoid overexposing themselves to its fundamentally tedious nature. [Feb 2007, p.85]
Game Almighty
If you’re the type who can get behind some solid-yet-repetitive gameplay with plenty of fast paced action, EDF 2017 might be the game for you.
Read Full Review >Official Xbox Magazine UK
Ultimately, the repetition and rough edges do hurt the expeience, but Earth Defense Force's wacky charm will certaily keep you entertained for a while. [May 2007, p.90]
Official Xbox Magazine
Sadly, while mowing through thousands of baddies and flattening entire skylines does hold a certain appeal, your $40 is better put toward other 360 action games. [May 2007, p.78]
XboxAddict
The setting and the scale of EDF set it apart from anything else on the market. Enemies in this game have to be seen to be believed as they tower above everything else in videogames, save for a couple of the colossi from "Shadow of the Colossus."
Read Full Review >My Gamer
Spend about 30 minutes to an hour of time with this game and you will realize that the makers of EDF just didn’t put their all into the title.
Read Full Review >Planet Xbox 360
The excitement of shooting oversized insects grows old rather quickly, and the scarcely earned Achievement Points will most assuredly leave this game on the outside of your counsel more than in it. The lack of Live play is a major deterrent to picking up this simple-minded title.
Read Full Review >Gaming Nexus
The bottom line with this game is that you get what you pay for, and even at $39.99, Earth Defense Force 2017 is simply overpriced. The physics and audio are so last gen, that even after blowing stuff up for some limited enjoyment, you just want to put the game away and play an Xbox Live Arcade title instead.
Read Full Review >games(TM)
As a 3D take on the old-school run-and-gun genre, the mixture of giant enemy hordes and fully destructible environments is often both exhilarating and deeply satisfying, albeit in a very tongue-in-cheek way. [May 2007, p.114]
Xboxic
While almost every facet of this game is atrocious, there is a sort of charm that EDF carries that has so far been unseen on the platform.
Read Full Review >Cheat Code Central
For balls to the wall, mindless shooting this game will satisfy, if you can focus on the destruction you cause and not the technical short comings.
Read Full Review >Hardcore Gamer Magazine
Earth Defense Force 2017 is the action game equivalent of potato chips: no nutritional value, but tasty nonetheless. [May 2007, p.61]
GameCritics
The worst 360 game I think I've ever played with nothing to redeem it. Earth Defense Force 2017 can't even stack up against the recent Burger King games, and those were little better than minigames on a disc coming in at four dollars each. The only possible future I see for Earth Defense Force 2017 is gaining the notoriety as one of those "so bad it's good" games, but don't be fool yourself - it's just bad.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this game is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
max gave it a6:
There is something about this game that is just so much fun, even though you realize it is very repitive and boring. If you were to hear the story behind this game, you would just laugh, because there is none. However, this is a action- packed game with over 100 awesome weapons that are sure to make a huge explosion. You will fight giant ants, spider, and robots.(don't ask) Almost all of the enemys are very dumb, and are no threat to you unless you are playing on a higher difficulty level. The enviorments you play in are fully destructable, buildings including and you can easily spend 10 minutes just wiping out buildings. There are 53 levels in the game, but most of them are extremly short. Throughout some of the levels, you can use veichles to fight the hordes of ants. However, these viechles have horrible controls and deliver no satisfaction. I would only buy this game it were 10 dollars and I would recommend it for a rental, since the game has no replay value.
Jeremy B gave it an8:
This game is horrible. The graphics are bad, the gameplay is meh...the music is crap and the level design is simplistic. And if I have friends over to my house, there is no other game I'd rather be playing. It may be a bad game, but it is a fun game. I'd never recommend it for the single-player crowd or for people who check to see if a game is in 1080p before they buy it, but if you just want to get a few friends over and have a stupid fun time - there is none higher.
Matt gave it an8:
Ok, it doesn't have a story, or decent graphics, or high production values but what it does have is fun. This is one of the best local co-op games on the 360. It's simplicity is it's appeal. There are no complicated controls or concepts to master. You shoot anything that moves and even stuff that doesn't and you do it over and over again. It may sound repetitive and it is; but you will have a smile on your face for every second you play it.
Adrian H gave it a9:
I originally bought this game out of a bargain bin for $20 because I wanted something with local Co-op to play with my brother. Now, more than 60 hours of playtime later, I'm still having an absolute blast. This game probably isn't for everyone - it's very much an old school game with new school graphics. Simplistic to a fault and low budget and campy in all aspects, I think many people will play 3 levels at Normal difficulty and think it's a second-rate shooter. But the more you play, the bigger the bug swarms and the more ridiculous upgrades to your weapons, things just get CRAZY. There is absolutely nothing better than taking out a dozen bugs with one rocket (along with an entire city block) and watch the explosion propel them a mile away.
Sean C gave it an8:
The first thing that needs to be said about this game is that it's not for gamers who like flashy graphics, amazing cinematics, strategic gameplay, and high production costs. This game is for those who love to sit back and senselessly murder ridiculous enemies with an arsenal of guns specially designed for pure enjoyment. There are over a hundred weapons to be gained, each of which differing from the others drastically, in several different categories. You have missiles, grenades, rockets, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and "special weapons". There are also several vehicles to pilot that are ridiculously fun to use after you get past their rather annoying controls. You never get stuck on one part for too long, and, with such a large amount of levels, playing through this game multiple times is very fun. Overall, for the gamers like me who just enjoy having a good laugh and some casual fun, this is a game well worth the cost (which isn't that much).
Wyatt G. gave it a6:
Only a small number of retailers carried this game in Australia, but I thought it looked fun and the co-op play appealed as I have 2 sons and it is a lot more fun playing with someone else. I have played the game through in full and on the whole I enjoed it. The best part of the game is the huge range of weapons you have to choose from (and there must be hundreds of them, although you will end up only using a fraction to get through the missions) and the huge number of bugs and robots you get to eliminate. Also the ability to blow up complete buildings with 1 rocket never gets boring ! There are 53 missions in total, some are short (less than a minute) whilst other will take longer. The missions are fairly varied in their locations although the aim is the same...blow the crap out of anything that moves (including your team mates if you want to !). There are 5 difficulty settings, with the harder ones being really challenging. The only reason to play the game more than once is to unlock new weapons that are available only on the harder levels and new achievements. Having said this, the pick-up and play factor of this game is fun and if you have some friends around it is a good game to play in co-op and swap the controllers around after each mission. The graphics are last-gen and the voice acting is so woeful that you will laugh. Apart from the story you can also play 1 on 1 multiplayer which is good for a bit, but you can't help but wonder why their is no online multiplayer as the game appears to be tailormade for it, and without it the lasting appeal of this game is not what it could have been.
Darren D. gave it a7:
A good game for a while and then the difficulty makes the game drag on longer than it should. A bit like bullet witch in the fact you have to play through all difficulties to get all the achievements and becomes boring.
