➤ Earthfall, the review 🎮

Earthfall is a clone of Left 4 Dead, and when we say "clone" we mean that often and willingly, over the course of the ten missions that make up the two campaigns currently available in the game, it seems to be dealing with a simple reskin of the shooter by Valve. The intention of Holospark was probably precisely this: to exploit the desire for a new cooperative shooter for four participants with waves of enemies, bosses and devices to be activated and then defend the position. But how to differentiate the project a minimum? Simple: by inserting the aliens instead of zombie.

A potentially valid solution, even if with the undead it is easy to win: the degree of tension that these pathetic creatures know how to instill in people is always very high, especially when they move fast and in a large herd. Of course, the extraterrestrials of Earthfall are anything but harmless green men, and the design of many of the enemies appears more than dignified, albeit with some unfortunate blunders (see the Whiplash, which look like little brontosaurs). The game's plot projects us into a not too distant future where the planet has been invaded by a hostile race that has taken over the cities, leaving a handful of survivors to free them, guns in hand.

Weapons and gameplay

As mentioned, at the moment there are two campaigns available in Earthfall, and it is possible to play them in sequence, one episode after another, so as to dissect the uninspiring narrative sector of this shooter. Just like in Left 4 Dead you can play alone, entrusting the control of our three companions to the artificial intelligence, or online, joining a random match, selecting some criteria (for example the mission) before carrying out the search or giving the off to a game that other users will be able to access freely, also here in a manner similar to the Valve title; without having to wait for any loading at the entrance of each new participant, as instead happens in Payday 2. However, there is no browser for the manual selection of matches, and we fear that this is a precise choice, aimed at avoiding the lack of users frighten newcomers, prompting them to promptly request a refund from Steam.

I characters from which to select your survivor there are four (Maya, Roy, Danny and Jonas) but there are no differences between one and the other, nor do you remain bound in any way to any equipment: along the way you can choose to collect a second pistol or a slash or slash weapon for melee attacks, shotguns, assault or sniper rifles, or light machine guns, adding the inevitable medkits (which, if desired, we can use to heal our companions ) and some types of explosives. In short, the arsenal does not lack variety, but when the trigger is pressed it is clear and evident that something is missing from the point of view of the solidity of the gunplay, the famous sensation of impact that makes the difference between successful and unsuccessful products.

Let's be clear: familiar with the game mechanics, in Earthfall you shoot which is a pleasure and there is no lack of spectacularity within sequences in which you try to block the arrival of a crowd of aliens, not only by emitting targeted bursts (put as a sign of the headshot always returns some satisfaction) but also by throwing some grenades or detonating fire barrels. In these situations, however, one of the few differences that the Holospark title can boast compared to Left 4 Dead is highlighted: the possibility of using "automatic networks" to close the entrances of a strategic point before the arrival of a swarm and to place autonomous or manual turrets with which to literally tear apart the bulk of the enemies, thinning their ranks.

When these situations occur, which in fact abound in every mission, and you manage to coordinate with the other players to cover specific areas of the scenario, the experience becomes engaging and fun. The problem of imitating in all respects a shooter of ten years ago, however, is that at a certain point you realize that in the meantime the trend has made progress, and this awareness breaks down with violence. on Earthfall when you go to analyze the eventual replayability of internships, indeed scarce and limited to the regulation of difficulty. In fact, almost all of the events occur according to a rigid script without surprises, which transforms the umpteenth mission in the same scenario into an inevitable deja vu.

Missions and scenarios

From woods to countryside, from industrial plants to urban views, the maps of Earthfall develop in a generally linear way, although in some cases there are variations on the theme and strategic points to which you may return to recharge energy and ammunition, thanks to special stations. medical ea printers 3D that within a few seconds are able to manufacture brand new weapons. In the final stages of the two campaigns, some situations different from the usual occur, but in this sense it was necessary to push much more, starting from the solid foundations of the classic Valve but showing that they understood which direction the co-operative shooters of this type should take.

Earthfall is therefore plagued by a clear personality problem, which the rich bestiary does not solve in any way. With the only exception of the Blackout, a sprawling creature that manages to create an energy barrier, shoot lightning bolts and teleport from one point to another in the location, even the bosses lack imagination and end up re-proposing the figure of the big tank and bad, without even bothering to try to experience something different. It will now be necessary to understand how Holospark will decide to move, but the numbers of a debut that is not exactly easy will be fundamental to try to smooth the edges of this production and enrich it with new contents: an undertaking that we consider feasible and even desirable, but not very likely.

Technically, a decent job was done, even if played at 4K and 60 frames per second the title never boasts assets of adequate quality for the resolution, on the contrary giving in to the temptation to place some polygonal model of mediocre workmanship or some mixed texture on our path. However, it seems that the proven versatility of the Unreal Engine and the different adjustments available are still not sufficient to guarantee a wide scalability of the experience on less demanding configurations. Will this aspect be improved?

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processor: Intel Core i5 6600K @ 4,2 GHz
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Memory: 16 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 10

Minimum requirements

Processor: Intel Core i5 4430
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 20 GB of space required
Operating system: Windows 7

Recommended Requirements

Processor: Intel Core i7 4770
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Memory: 16 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 20 GB of space required
Operating system: Windows 10

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Steam, PlayStation Store, Xbox Store Price 27,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

6.8

Readers (7)

5.2

Your vote

Earthfall is a cooperative shooter able to give good moments, especially if played together with friends: the hordes of aliens boast a good variety, the weapons are many and the phases in which you have to defend the position are able to involve, proposing a whole challenge. other than trivial. Unfortunately, the life of a clone is not easy, especially when you are moving in the wake of a title that has certainly made history but which came out ten years ago: the guys from Holospark should have interpreted this operation differently, using that solid foundation. starting to go further, instead of limiting the unpublished aspects to a few exceptions and leaving out fundamental elements such as gunplay and replayability.