Earth Defence Force has become very routine in the past 6 entries, essentially acting as small updates to each previous installation adding a new map here, a few new weapon models there, some new enemy types, removing some older ones - a cycle of repetition that enforces the same basic gameplay. 6 isn't any different and maintains that cycle, however I will say it's the most cohesive entry in the series so far.
For those unfamiliar, E.D.F is a horde shooter that has you battling against B-Movie monsters - from giant insects, to big grey men, to UFOs, mother ships, and walking tripods. As you fight you'll collect armour and weapons, slowly unlocking increasingly bizarre and destructive weapons with stats so detailed you'll need a calculator to get a ballpark on the numbers. The bread and butter of the game however is the overstimulating chaos that is hundreds of monsters swarming down on you through the city as you blast them with unlimited ammo and a dodge roll.
The gameplay hasn't changed in a very long time, and that comes from not fixing what isn't broken. As usual we get some new maps, some new monsters, some new weapons, but it plays exactly as it always has for better or worse. The previous couple of entry's introduced the story that you begin as a civilian, work your way up the EDF ranks, and eventually help save the planet, but EDF6 remixes that with a new time-travel element to the story that exists to justify the repetitive cycle of repeating the same levels and missions and story beats from the previous games over and over. It doesn't change anything in a meaningful way, it justifies the game continuing to do what these games have always done - 'enter the map, kill everything, grab the boxes' repeat 150 times, then repeat that for the other 3 classes, and repeat that for all the difficulty ratings.
Granted this is more fun online with friends, opportunity permitting, but the single player is always there if you enjoy the endless grind. The weapons system is similar to the 5th entry with weapons unlocking via an invisible roll table for each weapon crate you grab during play, then their rank increases if you unlock a version with a better stat than you have until you reach max rank in each weapon stat to passively upgrade your weapons while you play. There's no rhyme or reason, so it's best to just churn through normal or hard until you get stuck then re-play from the beginning until you finish the main campaign to buff your armour and arsenal for repeat play on harder difficulties.
I will say the new enemies are the coolest they've introduced yet with beautiful designs, and awesome looking ships. The new lighting effects for monsters like the underground lightning spiders are very fun and add a graphical flare to the game, however minimal. Overall though I feel like these additions just show how little the game has evolved over the years - it's become a cheap and easy cash grab for the devs to just churn out a DLC's worth of new content and repackage it at full price. At least the story update in this one does add some variety albeit another justification to recycle the recycled content of the 3rd recycle of the games content which hasn't changed drastically since EDF 4.
As ever, if you're new to the series this is the one everyone is playing online, it's the most definitive, and will give you a good recap of everything that's happened since the continuity that started in the 4th game. You get a smattering of enemies from the past few games, along with all the big cinematic moments that have shown up, plus a handful of genuinely new and interesting levels / boss fights. If you want a change of pace from Helldivers, EDF can definitely scratch the same itch, and does so while taking itself far less seriously. For the old-timer's, you know exactly what you're getting so if you fancy another 150 rounds against The Primers, lock and load soldier - It's time to save our mother earth from any alien attack.
