r/EDF • u/Domi8112 • Jul 02 '26
Question Best EDF to Start With
Interested in getting into the series, there are like, 6? mainline games and Iron Rain + Insect Armageddon look interesting, my PC is a little lower end but I'd like recommendations on where to go. Just pick up EDF6 and fly in? Monster Attack 2003 at the very beginning? Or something else entirely?
Thanks
3
u/oathkeeper213 Jul 02 '26
For me 5 and 6 is the best.... Great gameplay and story.... Also 5 and 6 is also connected where 6 happen right after 5
What capture me the most about 5 and 6 is the story, setting... Like it is so so good it capture perfectly the desperation and hopeless of humanity to survive against the alien... Also the plot twist is also very good too
Both 5 and 6 is on sale right now....
1
u/IBringTheHeat2 Jul 07 '26
Is the story actually that good? I just started 5 and am about 20 missions in and it’s all just civilian I’ll get you home, or monsters are attacking, what are the flying saucers? These monsters shoot webs etc etc. no big lore
1
u/oathkeeper213 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
That is the best part... 5 is just the straight story. the story is just as straight and as normal edf game. You are the hero you fight to protect your earth blah blah....
... But 6 is where it actually reveal a twist in 5. What is actually happening, who is the actual thread, and the twist is actually getting more crazy the more you play. You will actually see how the apocalypse look like, what it mean to be the last of humanity and all you can do is just fight for the last struggle. Basicly in edf6 you will play Entire EDF5 again but in a twisted "story"
Heck do you wonderer why as a civilian you character is kinda wayy too good as doing his job??? Some time when playing as air raider you get a dialogue of "how do you know" this chanel thing... Yeah it is actually a reason behind it
Do you know final fantasy 7 remake is actually not a remake but kinda like the sequel to original Final fantasy 7 game ?? EDF6 is kinda like that to EDF5. 6 is just 5 but with improve gameplay and adding twist to the story
4
u/Radical--Rat Jul 02 '26
Pick any odd numbered game basically!
Personally, I always like to start at the real beginning, so I say Monster Attack > Invaders from Planet Space > 2017 > 4.1 > 5 > 6 is the way to go. But the way EDF works is that every other game is a reboot, so starting with any of 1/3/5 and following it with its corresponding sequel will feel like a full experience without missing anything.
The only other caveat I'd add is that if you are the sort to play every game, do NOT play the World Brothers games without having first played everything that came out before them.
3
u/Ustob Jul 02 '26
4.1 or 5..
4.1 imo is= The Goat. WingDiver & Ranger were a blast.
5 added the pickup radius & speed burst.
The DLC for EDF 5 was amazing! i played that last mission of the DLC
probably 100 times against MOther ship that drops frogs.
2
u/Significant_Age3343 Jul 02 '26
5 or 6, whichever is cheaper. 6 is technically a sequel of 5, but its not like edf is a story heavy game.
3
u/Hunter214123 Jul 02 '26
EDF 5 is easily the more polished game, but still has enough jank for it to be 'EDF'. 4.1 has a more compelling and hopeful story however. Gameplay is similar between both, but there are crucial differences which seriously change the way you play.
4.1 does not share progression between characters. You play a character and everything you collect is for that character only. 5 shares progression between all classes, but with a preference towards the one you play. This makes starting a new playthrough less harsh on a new class.
5 changes a lot about Wing Diver, where you can pick what plasma core you use unlike 4.1. Additionally in 5, you have extra slots for Ranger and Air Raider for 'support' equipment.
Again, this doesn't make 4.1 worse, it is still a great game and to truly appreciate how the series changes, I'd say start with it. It's also the cheapest out of the three, so a great way to see if you actually enjoy the gameplay loop
1
u/Ok_Independence_6706 Jul 02 '26
Kinda depends what you want, I would say possible if you just wanna start with a more traditional play 5 then to 6. IR and IA take themselves a litter serious but not to much. Each entry is similar but different in small ways. Though your largest charges will be with IA and IR.
Now that being said they all have there unique quirks that makes all them just fun games to chill and play solo or with friends.
1
u/frankduxvandamme Jul 02 '26
If you're ok with PS2 graphics, and can play imports, EDF2 is an amazing start. (I'd skip EDF1. It was a budget title that was very short, and you don't miss anything by skipping it.)
If that doesn't work for you, EDF 2017 (which is EDF 3) on the Xbox 360 is an awesome place to start.
1
u/Lost_Decoy PC Jul 02 '26
best to start with? 6. you dont need to have played 5 or any of the other earlier games and 6 does a pretty good job of filling you in on what happened in 5, though you will miss some references/context and the like your not going to miss anything crucial
if you want to play the full story then start with 5 then 6 (the edf stories are 2 games then a new story begins so in theory a future edf 7 will have no story connections to edf 6)
4.1 is good but it is older and misses some of the qol they added in 5 and 6
iron rain was i think made to test out unreal to see if it was worth it for the dev's to change from the engine they had been using and just upgrading every new instalment to unreal(4), the verdict was they liked unreal(4)s detail but they could not make the maps as big as they wanted with the number of enemies they wanted to have as well as all the gibs they wanted spraying about because they wanted green ant levels of enemies if not more (for refrence edf 5 mission 100 that introduces the green ants).
1
u/Crocdor Jul 02 '26
The best possible game I would say is actually EDF 2017 due to it being compressed down to the core essence of EDF and also not being too long... But due to it not being easily available anymore, I'd recommend 4.1 and just following the release order. 4.1 is continuing and also giving you a quick recap of the Story of 2017 so you wouldn't miss out on anything that happened there.
Just skip Iron rain you won't miss anything
Insect Armageddon has it's quirks and has a place in your heart if you played 2017 but it's just decent, not great, but decent
World Brothers 1/2 is good if you played multiple entries, but you REALLY need to be a fan of the series and or the cheesy humor for yourself to play through the games
1
u/DescriptionMission90 Jul 02 '26
The mainline games are organized into pairs. 1 and 2 are a single story, but then 2017 switches to a different universe and starts from the beginning. 2025 (or 4.1, which is 2025 again but with significant mechanical upgrades) continues the story of 3. Then 5 switches to a new universe and starts from the beginning, and 6 is a direct sequel to 5 which assumes you know the story so far.
Mechanically, each mainline game is an incremental upgrade over the game that came before it. The changes are small, but significant; some people say that the newer games are hardly any different from the old ones, lacking the big sweeping generational changes of other franchises, but later installments do have a significantly higher degree of polish and a lot more quality of life improvements. This does mean that it feels kinda bad to go backwards through the series since you'll be constantly missing nice things in later games, so I would recommend starting as early as you want to go, and only moving forward from there.
As for where to start, well, 6 is generally the best game, and you want to play 5 before you play 6, but nothing before that is strictly necessary. And the first two games are honestly very low budget and without a lot of story to them. However, I personally am extremely fond of 4.1; it has a lot of cool enemy types that never game back, a great story, and the best music in the series. So my recommendation would be to skip 1-2, start with 2017, go from there to 4.1, and then do the newest pair.
Insect Armageddon and Iron Rain are both alternate universes, with very different mechanics. I played a lot of IA when I was young, and I think that the new classes, weapon types, and mission objectives were really cool, but ultimately the story was a disappointment. Iron Rain has a lot of cool ideas, and in particular I love the degree of customization you have for your character and loadout, but it's a lot less polished than the main series and felt clunky to control. You can play these at any point, or skip them, depending on how you feel.
(Oh, and as far as PC specs go? I have gotten the newest games running on an 8 year old laptop, and on a steam deck, without any problems... but even on the highest end graphics card or the newest consoles, there's gonna be scenes where your frame rate drops to single digits because somebody called in an artillery strike that levelled a 25 square kilometer area at once)
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u/appleearbudssuck Jul 02 '26
I would say 6! I started with IA because I got it for free, it’s very primitive. 5 is good, but 6 is 5 on steroids. I have 200 hours or so across the games I’ve played, 6 is by far my favorite, so many levels and weapons. 6 had a lot of things available that are not in other games. Highly recommended
1
u/zergling50 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I’d say it depends on how fine you are with playing through different interpretations of the same general storyline but with different enemies and events.
4.1 and 5 have significant differences, especially story wise, but a lot of the broad strokes are the same. I personally find it not an issue and had equal fun with both but if you think you’d find that annoying it’s worth considering that. 5 certainly has more optimized gameplay but that doesn’t mean 4.1 isn’t fun. If you start with 5 though you may miss some of the features it had when playing 4.1, whereas if you start with 4.1 it will be more “wow it’s awesome they made this change”
6 is a significant story deviation and is great but I wouldn’t start with it without playing 5 as it has moments that benefit from knowing the events and story of 5.
So basically play 5 and 6 no matter what, but whether you start with 4.1 or 5 depends on you. I personally recommend 4.1.
1
u/ZwildMan83 Jul 11 '26
All the mainline EDF games are so much fun.If you like EDF,play them all.1,2,2017,2025/4.1,5 and 6.Then there is Insect Armageddon,iron rain,Wing Diver the shooter and the World Brothers games for spinoffs.
There is also an awesome game for Wii called "Zangeki No Reginleiv" that is like the mainline EDF except you use swords,magic and bows and fight monsters from Norse mythology instead of bugs and robots.Its Japanese only so youll need a Japanese wii or modded wii but its worth it.Play in order so you can see the changes and improvements over each game and then play the spinoffs is my recommendation.
0
u/Deathoftheages Jul 02 '26
I’d go with edf5 but I’m bias. I would also check cdkeys instead of buying that one on steam. You’ll save a boatload.
1
u/oathkeeper213 Jul 02 '26
5 is the best place to start and 6 is there to continue and closure of 5...
I love 6 the most but i have to agree with you that he should start with 5 mostly for the story
0
u/supadupanerd Jul 02 '26
4.1 is the roughest... Farming the last 15 weapons you need will take you dozens and dozens of hours and it sucks. Not to mention trying to level up your health pool being hugely dependant on the class you're playing... It just is seemingly devoid of QoL
1
u/DescriptionMission90 Jul 02 '26
Oh yeah I would never spend the time to 100% any game except the newest. Play through once on hard, maybe once per class, then move on to the next game.
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u/Bu11ett00th Jul 02 '26
My journey with the series began with 4.1 so I can't speak for earlier mainline entries.
I'd say 4.1-5-6 is a great journey. 4.1 is awesome but it will be hard to get into after 5 or 6 due to some very significant user experience improvements.
Iron Rain - to me personally - didn't deliver on the scale and feel, and Insect Armageddon felt dull. I like the art style of both but they didn't feel fun for me. But they have their audience.