When comparing Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair vs Gauntlet, the Slant community recommends Gauntlet for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” Gauntlet is ranked 4th while Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is ranked 59th. The most important reason people chose Gauntlet is:
Gauntlet offers full controller support that actually works extremely well for an action RPG. This makes for a good game to play on a Steam Machine or living room gaming PC.
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 You can easily play the PC game on a sofa with the included full controller support
Gauntlet offers full controller support that actually works extremely well for an action RPG. This makes for a good game to play on a Steam Machine or living room gaming PC.
Pro Bosses offer good bit of diversity to the gameplay thanks to requiring different strategy over the base gameplay
Different bosses require different tactics to defeat them. This creates a good change of pace from the regular hack and slash gameplay as differing tactics will need to be used.
Pro Good co-op options no matter if you want to play locally or online
Gauntlet has support for local and online 4 player co-op. Making for a game that works well for small groups.
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 Very repetitive gameplay
With a few exceptions, the gameplay and strategy is the same for the entire game. There is very little progression and very few new abilities. The game also seems to gets easier rather than harder, although the new Colosseum mode adds some challenge to the end game.
Con Locked camera
The camera is locked in a single position. This creates confusion while playing in a busy area, as the camera does not stay focused on the player’s character. While a locked camera made sense in the arcade or on home consoles, where only one screen was needed, it really doesn’t make much sense for online multiplayer.
Con Can be rather difficult
The difficulty level is way too high especially when playing with kids.
Con Requires controllers with XInput
You cannot play Gauntlet with PS controllers.
Con Wizard is complicated to use
The wizard character is complicated to use. He has nine spells that can be cast using a number of hard-to-remember button combinations. This results in very few people wanting to play as the character. For online matches, this means there are quite a few three-player games as no one wants to take the role of the fourth character: the wizard.