The problem with defending the Earth is that skill comes with experience, and it’s not like Earth is subjugated by aliens every day.  That probably explains why the Earth Defense Force is so bad at its job, constantly seeing the planet overrun by massive ants, wasps, robots, and other alien threats.  Every single time the world is pushed to the point of near-total annihilation, and every time the EDF needs to fight back from the brink of defeat in order to save the day.  Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is no different, but this time the war has been raging for years before a heroic soldier rises up to lead humanity to victory.  The game came out on PS4 back in April and now, just a hair over six months later, the PC version has arrived.

EDF: Iron Rain is a very different type of Earth Defense Force from the usual entry.  Sure, it’s a group of soldiers led by the player fighting the overwhelming power of an invasion whose main attack troops are swarms of giant ants, but it’s designed with a little more “realism” this time.  What that means in practice is that enemies are tougher and everything feels a bit heavier overall, with the trade-off being that the swarms are smaller than in the standard series.  The one character can equip all four varieties of the armor that defines the character classes, and the cash rewards from each mission go to buying new weapons for the different types.  There’s also a new focus on multiplayer, allowing up to six players to tackle missions together or have two teams of four players each go against each other in a race to collect gems in Mercenary mode.  While EDF: Iron Rain is a different flavor of Earth Defense Force, it’s still comes from the same crazed action of the mainline series.

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is available as of right now on Steam, complete with 20% launch discount.