When comparing Human: Fall Flat vs Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair, the Slant community recommends Human: Fall Flat for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” Human: Fall Flat is ranked 27th while Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is ranked 59th. The most important reason people chose Human: Fall Flat is:
The playable character in this game moves around like a boneless blob of jelly learning to walk for the first time, making for some silly animations and awkward movements. Animations and interactions are over animated and cartoonish which can lead to some hilarious - whether intentional, and most oftentimes unintentional - consequences such as falling off edges, flailing around, and knocking yourself over.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Very funny
The playable character in this game moves around like a boneless blob of jelly learning to walk for the first time, making for some silly animations and awkward movements. Animations and interactions are over animated and cartoonish which can lead to some hilarious - whether intentional, and most oftentimes unintentional - consequences such as falling off edges, flailing around, and knocking yourself over.
Pro Hilarious co-op mode
Playing co-op is where the hilarity and fun in this game truly shines. It's quite satisfying to push and bump your teammates around, even if that includes sending them plummeting over the edge of tall structures. There's nothing quite like slapping your friend's character, only to see them fall, slip, and bounce around the levels. It's funny to watch them struggle to get their bearings back, only to give them another good slap and watch them flail around all over again. Solving puzzles with your friends can result in some humorous situations as you accidentally slap and knock each other over trying to accomplish even the simplest of tasks.
Pro Levels have multiple paths, encouraging discovery
As you make your way through the game world, you will encounter a variety of different environmental puzzles that block your path to the exit. However, getting stuck or stumped is rarely a problem as most levels have multiple paths that you can find. With a little exploration, you should be able to discover an alternate route to bypass the environmental puzzle that is giving you problems. This gives the player an opportunity to replay levels in a different way, and discover each level in its entirety.
Pro Oddly rewarding control scheme
Being able to maneuver your bloblike character efficiently takes some skill, and as a result, feels rewarding once it's mastered. One of the things players will initially notice with the controls is that walking and jumping work as one would expect, however there is a very pronounced wobble and bounce to it. The playable character controls like a boneless blob of jelly, making each step and interaction look cartoonish and overly-animated in nature. These controls take some getting used to, but add a level of charm to the animation.
Additionally, your left and right arms are controlled separately which is very unique among games. This is utilized in many of the game's puzzles such as holding yourself against a column with one arm, while using the other to move or manipulate another object into place.
Pro Playing co-op with your friends adds a whole new experience to the puzzle solving
Playing co-op with your friends allows you to reach new areas and solve puzzles that you can't do in solo play. Puzzles can be overcome and solved differently based on the number of players. For example, when playing alone you may find something you can't possibly lift or move yourself. However, add a friend into the mix and now you're able to work together to lift and move that object. Ledge you can't quite reach yourself? Have a friend give you a boost!
Pro You can personalize your avatar with colors and textures
Included with the game is a basic paint option which allows players to customize their avatar. Selecting colors from a palette, you can paint your avatar's head, hat, and body using a variety of different brush sizes. Additionally, you are able to upload your own pictures (such as your own face) and apply them to areas of your personalized avatar as a texture. It's a great way for players to give their avatar a personal touch and make themselves stand out during co-op games.
Pro Fantastic physics
Objects can be pushed, pulled, swung, and dragged around in a variety of ways as they collide into each other, fly through the air, spin, and twist - often with a low-gravity type effect. Pushing, pulling, and dragging objects just has a satisfying feel that makes you feel like each object has mass and density, and is a part of the world.
Pro Good progression of difficulty
The levels gradually become physically bigger and more challenging as you progress throughout the game. This gives us time to get used to how the character controls as well as how the puzzles operate. As you advance, the puzzles become increasingly more difficult, and the levels become increasingly wider. By building upon what you are learning in previous levels, there's a distinct sense of progression from one level to the next.
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).
Cons
Con Short
The game is too short and will leave you wanting more. The solo campaign clocks in at about 6 hours of game play.
Con Not much visual appeal
This game doesn't contain much in the way of vibrant colors, interesting shapes, or textures. Mostly everything in the game is a shaded, blocky object that only consists of a few plain colors. Having an entire world populated by boring shapes and washed-out colors results in an environment without much visual appeal.
Con Can cause motion sickness due to camera shaking
The excessive camera shaking causes a lot of players to experience motion sickness, and at the time of this writing can not be modified to a lower setting or disabled. Even if you aren't considered sensitive, you should still take precautions. Perhaps this will be solved in a future update.
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.