Earthfall

Overall and whilst Earthfall is looking to carve an identity of its own and bring the alien invasion to our screens once more, it’s impossible not to compare it with the Left 4 Dead series. On a positive though, those wishing for a new Left 4 Dead title will find plenty of fun to be had with this addictive shooter and with a few more campaigns added to increase the longevity of the game, this is easily a title that many will want to head back to time and time again.

Unoriginal and with dull gunplay, Earthfall should only be considered if you plan to play it online with your friends.

A playable and competent - if lightweight - crack at a Left 4 Dead style shooter. [October 2018, p.78]

There will be something here for those looking to scratch the Left 4 Dead itch, but Earthfall revels in simply functioning like it should, rather than standing out on its own. It exists in a limbo between a great and bad game, simply becoming a perfectly adequate but forgettable experience. Earthfall will be very heavily reliant on future updates to decide which side of the fence it falls on.

While it’s not Left 4 Dead, it is still a decent co-op shooter that really tries its best to be one. While there are some issues with AI and glitches, I still had a decent time with Earthfall. Co-op really makes up for a lot of the issues, and for a relatively cheap price, you can more than likely get a few friends to pick it up and have some fun co-op action for a few hours.

Earthfall is a decent try at filling the Left 4 Dead 3 hole in our hearts, but it's rarely strong enough to be anything other than a lesser imitation of that classic series. Occasionally, the AI director will put on its best show and it'll feel exactly as fans of this sort of game want it to feel, but those moments are too few and far between. With flat characters, AI issues on both sides of the war, and above all else, some glaring pacing problems, Earthfall is a tough sell when the game it's cribbing so closely is backward compatible and still superior a decade later.

We were eagerly waiting for a cooperative shooter to fill the absent of games like Left 4 Dead, but Earthfall has plenty of aliens to kill but also plenty of boring action.

Even though Earthfall is, in most respects, mechanically sound and competently designed, it's still a hard game to recommend. This co-operative FPS never successfully manages to step out of the shadow of its inspiration. The ability to set up defensive measures, including turrets and barricades, is pretty neat. However, that's not enough, particularly when every other moment feels overly familiar and sometimes worse. All in all, this rendition of humanity's last stand won't hold anyone's attention for very long.

In the end Earthfall is unfortunately the exception to that age-old rule, originally spoken and then sung by Mary Poppins – ‘a spoonful of co-op makes even the most mediocre of shooters go down’.

There’s space out there for more games in the Left 4 Dead mould, and Earthfall tries its best with limited assets and a limited budget. Sadly, it lacks the things that could have made up for both: imagination, invention, thrilling pacing, suspense and brilliant level design. Even without the current – and frankly unforgivable – matchmaking problems, it’s a game that struggles to match the ten-year-old classic it’s cloning, let alone surpass it.