When comparing Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair vs Rocket League, the Slant community recommends Rocket League for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” Rocket League is ranked 13th while Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is ranked 59th. The most important reason people chose Rocket League is:
Rocket League is perfect for when you want to play with friends for some couch co-op or online play. Matches are fast-paced and quick, with a bunch of back-and-forth between which team has the ball and which team has chances to intercept and get the ball on their side of the field. Coordinating with your team can open up some awesome plays where you manage to outscore the other players or get some exciting last-minute intercepts. Plus, playing with a pre-set team helps you avoid the randomness of getting matched up with strangers who may or may not want to be team players.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Fun theme that does not take itself too serious
Much like a B movie, the game is themed as a low quality experience with dated looking graphics and a convoluted/outrageous story. The premise being, you are one of four playable characters whose job it is to destroy the onslaught of invading alien giant insects. There is little beyond this to be fleshed out, it is more aimed at being mindless fun. Luckily the little bit of story and dialogue you do get in the game often is a bit tongue in cheek, as it the game is often self aware of its role to play.
Pro Endearing pure action gameplay
The premise of the game is to constantly be blasting giant alien insects in a slightly open world environment. Each level starts in a large sandboxed open world arena where alien insects will swarm the area. It is up to the player and the character they choose to use (of which there are four choices, each with their own skills/powers) on how killing these creatures will be carried out. Some of the available weapons for the different characters will be things like hand grenades, rocket launchers and automatic rifles. These weapons will be used in order to kill as many of the alien creatures that you can. Somewhat of a mindless style of play, blasting away anything that moves, but is appealing in its design due to the destruction that can be carried out. Each stage allows for compete destruction of all of its structures, meaning if there are enemies behind a building, you can just destroy the building in order to get to them. Overall the gameplay is quite fun and quirky in its B movie theme and design that allows for a never ending flow of creatures and areas to blast your way through.
Pro Good co-op support
Players can play together locally and online in a cooperative manner, helping each other to defeat giant insect aliens that are attacking the city. The local co-op can be played on different devices (LAN) or even on the same device through split screen. The online multiplayer allows for easy access to friends and random people in order to play together.
Pro Solid PC port
EDF is a pretty good port for PC (originally a PS2 game ported to PS4) with a constant 60fps during gameplay (no matter how many giant insects are on screen) as well as good keyboard and mouse controls with a few PC centric settings to be found in the menus such as anti-aliasing (only on or off). This is all able to be done in full HD (1080p).
Pro Tons of fun for players looking to team up with friends
Rocket League is perfect for when you want to play with friends for some couch co-op or online play. Matches are fast-paced and quick, with a bunch of back-and-forth between which team has the ball and which team has chances to intercept and get the ball on their side of the field. Coordinating with your team can open up some awesome plays where you manage to outscore the other players or get some exciting last-minute intercepts. Plus, playing with a pre-set team helps you avoid the randomness of getting matched up with strangers who may or may not want to be team players.
Pro Clear objectives keeps the focus on the gameplay
Get the ball in the net, soccer at it's simplest. This game is physics driven, using different cars as players, making it a fast-paced and exciting game with a basic underlying objective. Being easy to understand, just about anyone can get the hang of the game after a single play session.
Pro Simple controls
Whether you use a controller or keyboard and mouse, the controls are fairly simple. You are driving a car pushing a ball around, with forward, reverse, boost, power-slide and jump as your only real abilities to learn. The difficulty comes in learning to use them at the right times. Doing this will allow you to perform in-air and off the wall maneuvers, making for breath-taking and unexpected plays.
Pro Great for quick play sessions
Each game has a time limit of 5 minutes, paused only when a team scores to reset the ball to mid-field. By keeping each session short, the game works well for people wanting to play a quick game without getting drawn into a long play session.
Pro Customization of cars is creative and fun
There are quite a few cars to choose from, including DLC cars such as the Delorean from Back to the Future. After picking a car, you can customized it with countless possibilities. You can change the paint scheme, color, paint type (gloss/flat, etc.), wheels, boost color, hat, and antenna toppers. This allows you to create a car that truly matches your style.
Pro Moon-like physics give a delightful sense of exaggerated abilities
The physics in this game are slightly warped, making it seem like you're on the moon. This means that cars fly around if they collide or go up ramps, giving it a feel of superpowers.
Cons
Con Not a ton of polish
While a mainstay of the series (and some would argue the whole point of its design), the polish of the game is a bit rough. Voiced AI is constantly repeated and poorly delivered. There is little story to be found and the graphics, while playing at a constant 60fps in full HD, leave a lot to be desired.
Con May not appeal to everyone
The gameplay can get a bit repetitive and the lack of polish may be a turn off. While there is a good bit of content, many may not want to spend the time with a game they consider cheap looking that has little incentive to play other than mindlessly blasting away giant insect aliens.
Con Match making can be slow at times
It can take a while to find an opponent, especially if you're a higher tier player, causing the queues to be even longer.
Con Minimal in features
While there may be more modes added with DLC in the future, currently there are only three unique game modes. This might be off-putting for players looking for more variety.