When comparing Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair vs Terraria, the Slant community recommends Terraria for most people. In the question“What are the best 4-player local multiplayer games?” Terraria is ranked 6th while Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Terraria is:
Terraria uses a bright color palette and an upbeat chiptune soundtrack to ease you into its world. However, once you start exploring and spend time in it you'll notice it's not as cozy as it first seemed to be. Blood Moons that rouse the dead from their graves. Goblin armies trying to destroy everything in their wake. Vast and dark cave systems, filled with odd creatures and various dangers. Ancient ruins, teeming with the restless dead and evil spirits. Pockets of decaying land, thriving with misshapen monstrosities. It's really fun to explore and discover something new about the world of Terraria.
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 Intriguing world
Terraria uses a bright color palette and an upbeat chiptune soundtrack to ease you into its world. However, once you start exploring and spend time in it you'll notice it's not as cozy as it first seemed to be. Blood Moons that rouse the dead from their graves. Goblin armies trying to destroy everything in their wake. Vast and dark cave systems, filled with odd creatures and various dangers. Ancient ruins, teeming with the restless dead and evil spirits. Pockets of decaying land, thriving with misshapen monstrosities. It's really fun to explore and discover something new about the world of Terraria.
Pro Allows for freedom of expression for all ages, all at your own pace
Terraria has all kinds of tools and materials you can use to build whatever you can imagine. From housing, to furniture, to weapons, to types of structure, the possibilities are almost endless. This is great for children who enjoy building and problem solving, and for adults who enjoy the same. It also makes for a great objective-less game, where you can do just about anything you want at your own pace.
Pro Playing with friends allows for endless scenarios
Up to 8 players can join any Terraria world. You can progress through the game normally, build a race course and compete in it, or split into factions and wage war against each other. The scenarios are endless, you just have to let loose your creativity.
Pro Lots of community servers, tutorials, and streams
Terraria has a large community of players on every platform including mobile, desktop, and console. Because of this, there are many servers to play on, as well as tutorials and Let's Plays. Finding content or help getting started is quite easy.
Pro Fun combat
It starts out simple, with you whacking away at slow moving zombies and flying eyes, gradually shifting to more fierce and fearsome enemies such as flying demons, agile lizardmen, and many more. To survive you'll have to be always on the move, dodge enemy attacks, and be accurate when you retaliate.
There are also plenty of weapons to choose from. Melee weapons such as swords, hammers, lances, and flails. Ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, rifles, and miniguns. And various items that allow you to cast spells. Whatever you choose, it feels great to destroy hordes of enemies.
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 Progress can feel slow
Quite often you'll have to collect tons of materials to craft the necessary tools, equipment, and boss summoning items to advance. This can take a really long time, especially if you're unlucky with the items dropped by mobs.
Con Low replay value for those who play it as an adventure game
Terraria is a sandbox platform-adventure game, so it partly hinges on beating various bosses. If you play it purely for the sake of defeating all the bosses, you might have little else to do afterwards. Restarting the game won't be as enjoyable either because you'll already know what to expect, causing continued play without a new goal feel mundane or boring.