Disclaimer: This review is copy-pasted from my Steam review and is being reuploaded here in light of the sequel being relesaed.
tl;dr If you can look past the visuals you get one of the best EDF titles, but it lacks the class depth of the mainlines and unlike the others it's a little too self-aware.
I vividly remember thinking this game would suck when it was revealed. "EDF but for kids" sounds like a recipe for disaster and it being headed up by the Iron Rain team (a game I'm not too fond of) made it seem like it was headed for the bargain bin.
Fortunately, Yuke's surprised me. WB is not only excellent, it might be my favourite EDF title.
The first thing you'll likely notice is how different the format is. Mainline EDF gives you 1-4 classes and has a whole mountain of gear, weaponry and vehicles for you to unlock. World Brothers gives you the EDF5 Ranger with a single weapon and tells you to go recruit more people, who each come with one weapon and maybe an accessory. They have recharging abilities like air strikes, tapioca tea and molotov cocktails, and Special moves that recharge upon killing things which have an equally large variety of effects. Rather than unlocking new weapons for a class, you level up that class so they can use other people's weapons (the level cap is 10, which lets you use anything).
It doesn't sound very EDF, does it? But it is. Delightfully so, in fact. If you're familiar with Warriors games, this is to mainline EDF what Warriors Orochi is to Dynasty Warriors. Different framework, but the EDF core of charging into swarms of giant aliens, robots and insects is still intact. The team swapping and build flexibility just give you far more options, and the denseness of the maps (to accommodate the Switch's weaker hardware) honestly makes some later missions MORE chaotic than the mainlines, especially from Hardest onwards. Much like Warriors Orochi, this is also a crossover title, so you get to fight a wide variety of enemies and your favourite class from the other games is guaranteed to be in. There's a bunch of returning maps too, including London, so if you're an abolitionist you can take down Parliament.
There's a lot of replayability too. Around 150 characters to acquire and six difficulties with the mission pack (launching Jun 10th), and that's not factoring in higher level versions of weapons and accessories (up to level 5 with the mission pack). The story is a bit short, only 60 missions (71 with the mission pack), but they're good missions and there's not much filler.
That all said, the game does have a few issues. Despite the lower amount of weapon levels, some higher level variants are a downgrade. Some world brothers/sisters outright suck, and while you can build a team around them, you likely won't be so generous in higher difficulties. Unlike the mainlines, which are corny because they try to be serious, WB tries to be tongue-in-cheek and self-referential. YMMV, but the humour can get old. There are less maps than in other games, so there's a ton of repetition on that front. Some maps have really bad unit placement, which can make grabbing them a pain in the ass. The music gets repetitive FAST and I genuinely recommend disabling it. At the time of writing, the PC version has mouse smoothing that makes turning around a pain in the ass.
Despite these issues though, World Brothers is still my favourite EDF, and I've played all but one of them. The variety and fun on offer is amazing and I don't think we'll ever see anything like it again unless this game shifts millions. Buy it, play it, love it. And hey, if you hate it, you only need an hour to decide if this is for you or not.
Don't buy the season pass though, just get the mission pack. Unless you REALLY want to play as Sarge from EDF5 or whatever.
tl;dr If you can look past the visuals you get one of the best EDF titles, but it lacks the class depth of the mainlines and unlike the others it's a little too self-aware.
I vividly remember thinking this game would suck when it was revealed. "EDF but for kids" sounds like a recipe for disaster and it being headed up by the Iron Rain team (a game I'm not too fond of) made it seem like it was headed for the bargain bin.
Fortunately, Yuke's surprised me. WB is not only excellent, it might be my favourite EDF title.
The first thing you'll likely notice is how different the format is. Mainline EDF gives you 1-4 classes and has a whole mountain of gear, weaponry and vehicles for you to unlock. World Brothers gives you the EDF5 Ranger with a single weapon and tells you to go recruit more people, who each come with one weapon and maybe an accessory. They have recharging abilities like air strikes, tapioca tea and molotov cocktails, and Special moves that recharge upon killing things which have an equally large variety of effects. Rather than unlocking new weapons for a class, you level up that class so they can use other people's weapons (the level cap is 10, which lets you use anything).
It doesn't sound very EDF, does it? But it is. Delightfully so, in fact. If you're familiar with Warriors games, this is to mainline EDF what Warriors Orochi is to Dynasty Warriors. Different framework, but the EDF core of charging into swarms of giant aliens, robots and insects is still intact. The team swapping and build flexibility just give you far more options, and the denseness of the maps (to accommodate the Switch's weaker hardware) honestly makes some later missions MORE chaotic than the mainlines, especially from Hardest onwards. Much like Warriors Orochi, this is also a crossover title, so you get to fight a wide variety of enemies and your favourite class from the other games is guaranteed to be in. There's a bunch of returning maps too, including London, so if you're an abolitionist you can take down Parliament.
There's a lot of replayability too. Around 150 characters to acquire and six difficulties with the mission pack (launching Jun 10th), and that's not factoring in higher level versions of weapons and accessories (up to level 5 with the mission pack). The story is a bit short, only 60 missions (71 with the mission pack), but they're good missions and there's not much filler.
That all said, the game does have a few issues. Despite the lower amount of weapon levels, some higher level variants are a downgrade. Some world brothers/sisters outright suck, and while you can build a team around them, you likely won't be so generous in higher difficulties. Unlike the mainlines, which are corny because they try to be serious, WB tries to be tongue-in-cheek and self-referential. YMMV, but the humour can get old. There are less maps than in other games, so there's a ton of repetition on that front. Some maps have really bad unit placement, which can make grabbing them a pain in the ass. The music gets repetitive FAST and I genuinely recommend disabling it. At the time of writing, the PC version has mouse smoothing that makes turning around a pain in the ass.
Despite these issues though, World Brothers is still my favourite EDF, and I've played all but one of them. The variety and fun on offer is amazing and I don't think we'll ever see anything like it again unless this game shifts millions. Buy it, play it, love it. And hey, if you hate it, you only need an hour to decide if this is for you or not.
Don't buy the season pass though, just get the mission pack. Unless you REALLY want to play as Sarge from EDF5 or whatever.