It wasn’t that long ago that four-play co-op survival shooters were all the rage, and now that gameplay is being resurrected by newcomer Earthfall.
The Left 4 Dead games powered the phenomenon forward years ago, with Valve’s series shipping 11 million units – respectable by any standard. We’ve seen some success stories in its wake, such as Payday 2, Warhammer: Vermintide and Evolve, but for the most part the genre has been swallowed by the rise of battle royale-style gameplay.
It means there’s space in the market for a comeback title. Developer Holospark has entered the breach with Earthfall, out now on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It’s a co-op survival game set after a meteor shower has devastated Earth, and some proactive aliens have used the opportunity to invade.
With three colleagues (or three AI teammates if required), Earthfall gameplay sees you must frag ever more complex waves of extraterrestrial chumps as you journey through 10 missions, unfolding the mystery behind the invasion. As well as shooting and scavenging, you’ll also engage in some light tower defence gameplay, building barricades and turrets to protect you from danger.
Great ideas on paper — but is it enough to pick the co-op survival shooter off the canvas, or is this a genre better left 4 dead?
Earthfall Gameplay is a Mixed Bag
How much leeway do you give an indie game?
Outside of two VR titles, this is the first major project from Seattle-based Holospark, and it presents itself as a triple-A shooter. Certainly that’s the aspiration here. But while reaching for these lofty heights is admirable, the studio has also invited comparisons to games from bigger teams with bigger budgets. And that comparison is not always favourable.
Such is the way with Earthfall. There is no preamble to sink you into this world: no epic opening cutscene or character-building intro of any kind. One second you’re in the menu, and the next you’re on the outskirts of a small town with an alien in your sights. It’s perhaps not the standard of storytelling experience we’ve come to expect.
On the ground as well, the gameplay feels a little raw. Adjusting to the shooting mechanics takes a little bit, as the weapon range and sound effects fall to the side of what we’ve been conditioned to from the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield. It’s actually quite frustrating at first lining up an alien’s head with your pistol and wasting a whole clip before realising it hasn’t stepped into your gun’s range.
Holospark does mix up Earthfall‘s running and gunning gameplay with barricades that you can pick up and place. There’s the potential for optimisation here, and smart teams can funnel aliens into kill channels. Later on you also get turrets, which add to the carnage you can create here. It’s no Fortnite, but it shows what even a little bit of building can do to a game, giving the player momentary control over a level’s design.
Speaking of level design, it doesn’t quite behave as you would hope. Houses with glass windows and cardboard-lite doors are inexplicably inaccessible, and objects that should take damage and be impacted by the combat stand motionless and defiant. Despite the game world as a whole feeling suitably detailed and even pretty at a distance, when you focus in, it’s all walled-in and lifeless.
Linear progression isn’t the drama here. It’s that the environment feels static – like a prop in a movie studio. And that hope you’re going to find some cool loot in a pantry, or behind a door, or in a garage quickly evaporates when you realise that the world simply doesn’t offer that depth. It’s a crossbow to the heart of immersion.
Giving Indies a Fair Go
However, if we remind ourselves that this is an indie studio and give it the understanding such a stature deserves, can we overlook the lack of trimmings? Can we concede that expecting every door to open, every animation to be pinpoint, and the story to theatrically roll itself out between each dull moment is a bridge too far? Characters bursting with backstory and personality rendered unaffordable?
If your answer is yes, then Earthfall isn’t without fun gameplay at its core – especially with friends involved.
While the aforementioned shooting mechanics feel a bit off in comparison to likeminded games, the sheer volume of aliens that swarm at you from every direction, and the variation in the class types within that mix, can be quite thrilling. We enjoyed the way their different sounds flagged their proximity, and the way you have to be flexible enough in moment-to-moment combat to be able to identify and target aliens based on their unique threat.
It keeps you thinking. It keeps you working as a team.
We particularly enjoyed the larger, boss-like beasts when they entered the fray. It creates just enough panic and tension to get your heartrate pumping. A sure sign that Holospark does have life in its veins. In fact, it’s enough to make us believe that fans of the Left 4 Dead-inspired subgenre will get a kick out of Earthfall gameplay, once they’ve acclimatised to its eccentricities.
The AI is solid, not that it’s asked to do much. Enemy swarms make use of the objects around them to get to your position no matter where you try to hide. And in solo play, your AI teammates actually contribute to the firefight, even if they get in your way from time to time.
(Inexplicably, you cannot pause the game in solo mode. A very strange omission!)
And despite the fact that the world itself feels like a static backdrop rather than part of the gameplay equation, we did enjoy seeing the remnants, camps, and notes of previous survivors. When this Walking Dead vibe shines through, Earthfall feels at its most immersive. You catch yourself saying, “that was cool,” before a shift in the soundtrack puts your focus back on the bad guys.
Don’t Fear the Reaper
Holospark has the shell of an enjoyable genre title here. We’d like to see a bit more control over your team in solo mode, allowing you to apply more refined strategies. In truth they currently just follow at your heels like a handful of well-armed dogs.
The building system is also underused. More diverse options here – cover variations, ladders, bunkers, etc. – and level design constructed with a fortify-first mentality could really have seen Earthfall differentiate itself.
Fortnite Battle Royale meets Left 4 Dead is a game we want to see.
But there are too many shortcomings here to build on that shell and elevate Earthfall to a level approaching greatness. It doesn’t mean you and three friends won’t have an enjoyable time here as you wait out Left 4 Dead 3; just set your expectations accordingly.
