Earthfall First Impressions - It's Like Left 4 Dead, With Aliens!

Published: October 28, 2017 11:00 AM /

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Earthfall Impressions Preview

While at TwitchCon 2017 I had the chance to play the new FPS title from developer HoloSpark, Earthfall.  While I understand that the game is currently in its early access stage and an obvious spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series, I couldn’t help but notice that the game was lacking in a few areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OikkwrhsFq4

Graphically, Earthfall isn’t exactly the most eye-catching game out there and the gameplay itself is a little off-putting.  At times I felt that the shooting was stiff and not fluid whatsoever, almost like my joystick was on gridlock.  This was due to the fact that some of the guns didn’t have recoil, and while my accuracy was top notch, it still felt a little jarring not having to compensate for spread when holding down the trigger.

While I understand this game is a definite spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series, and it’s in early access, the game could be fine-tuned a bit more to be accessible for solo play. While playing through the available map I found myself running ahead of my AI teammates, who could not seem to stay alive and were quickly getting overwhelmed by the mob of enemies on screen that seemed to pop out of thin air behind me.  It was a frustrating experience solo.  Earthfall shines when played with another person, and it’s obvious that this is how developer Holospark wants the game to be played.  Earthfall takes the concept of safe rooms from Left 4 Dead and lets you “build” them wherever you want.  This idea is pretty interesting since I found myself making strategic choke points and using the collapsible barricades to make mini safe rooms wherever I wanted.  It will be interesting to see how far this idea goes in the final release of the game, and it’s a welcome addition to a hoard mode based shooter.

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"Should we tell them that it's 'B' to reload?"

While I enjoyed my time with Earthfall, it is obviously an early access game and still has a long way to go. That being said, it’s a great shooter and I can see it being popular with fans of Left 4 Dead and the Call of Duty zombies modes.

Earthfall was previewed with a code provided by the developer, as well as played in person at TwitchCon 2017.

How do you feel about a Left 4 Dead successor?  Does the idea of barrier crafting in a game like this, seem interesting?  Does hitting 'B' to reload annoy you, or was it just me?  Let us know in the comment section below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


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