You’re the defenders of the planet, holding the front lines against an invading alien race. Can Leigh fight off the little green men? Or are us humans doomed to be the servants of another world? Find out in his Earthfall: Alien Horde Switch review.

To note, a copy of Earthfall was supplied by the game’s developer for review.

It’s Time to Send ET packing!

Earthfall’s story isn’t told in the traditional sense like most shooters. Instead, the story is told through lore pages that you can unlock throughout the game.

A strange green asteroid has crashed into the Earth, causing a massive electronic shockwave that has disabled everything in the surrounding area. Before we knew what had hit us, we were inundated with strange creatures attacking all over the world.

Not little green men as you might think, but fierce abominations from out of space. Each one of these critters seems to have a mission to disable, eat and kill without mercy. Droids swarmed the towns and cities, with the military being helpless against the alien horde. Out of the fire and smoke normal survivors fought back. These were your average folks like you or I, which took up arms and pushed back the swarm.

Heroes rose against all the odds. We showed the horde that the human race can be more formidable when we work together as a team!

Saving the Human Race.

The campaign in Earthfall shakes up the traditional story mode. Instead of following a set narrative, you’re free to play any of the 11 levels in any order you please. However, if you do want some sort of structure, I’d recommend playing each level in order. There’s no cut-scenes in Earthfall, which is a shame as most of so-called ‘story’ is spoken during gameplay and told through unlockable lore pages.

It’s one way to tell a story, nevertheless, I would of liked a few cut-scenes here and there to flesh out the overall arch. Each mission you select has its own objective and each one provides you with different tasks to complete.

My favourite missions were the ones where I had to push a van into a garage to repair it- all the while fighting off aliens. Other missions saw me meeting up with a Resistance leader and protecting his base from a massive alien swarm. Each mission feels distinctive and diverse with the objectives and environments of Earthfall keeping things feeling fresh as you progress through the campaign.

In total there are only 11 missions to complete in main campaign. However, replaying them gives you new perspectives, as enemy placements change with each play-through. Plus, you can try and find all of the lore pages.

Heart Pounding!

The communication system of Earthfall was excellent. It got your heart beating when your team-mates shouted out “BEAST” or “BLACKOUT” during a mission. You knew something bad was coming. Usually it was two massive behemoths- the most powerful enemies in the game. Seeing them charging towards you can be quite scary! In addition, squad mates can also call out when items drop on the field or a supply drop is called in. It reminds me of Apex Legends and is really useful in a tight situation.

Blackouts are squid like aliens that are protected by an electrical shield that surrounds its body. It has the ability to teleport anywhere in the level making it extremely hard to shoot at! It also has the ability to shoot steams of electricity at you making it a formidable foe to kill. The Beast however, is a pure tank. It can break down your barricades in one hit, it can climb, jump and knock back allies with ease. Its main weapon is a plasma cannon which has a blast radius that is deadly. The only way to defeat this abomination is to shoot the vents on its back, but it requires the whole team to work together to kill it.

Earthfall can be played solo or online however, my only criticism is the CPU controlled characters were mostly useless- especially when I needed to be revived. Instead of using common sense to revive fallen allies, they would stand in direct line of fire and not help you back-up. As a result, I’ve failed many missions because my so called ‘partners’ aren’t that smart. I’d recommend playing online for a better experience.

Fighting back the Horde.

Horde mode is exactly what it says on the tin. However, as waves are completed, new sections of the map will become unlocked and also new equipment like 3D printers will become available.

There are also perk stations located around each map that you can use to enhance your character’s abilities. Once an upgrade has been purchased a second and third time however, they will become more expensive to buy again and will require more points to purchase.

There are traps that are located within each map but once they are activated, they will go into cool-down mode and will not be available till that period is over.

Alien Attack

The aliens in Earthfall are very reminiscent of Left for Dead. Each one has their own unique look, attack and abilities. For example, the Droids are the backbone of the alien swarms. Their sole purpose is to swarm human encampments and kill anything that moves. A single bullet to the orange eye in middle of their head will kill them instantly, but when you have ten of them running at you it’s not so easy to take aim!

Other unique enemies are the strange giraffe-like aliens called Whiplashes. These creatures run at you and pick you up by your head. Then they run off and repeatedly try to break your neck by swinging you around. Aliens like this can only be combated by good team work, as another member of your party needs to shoot the creature for you to escape. Each alien will test your teamwork and skill, with their own lore to read into to learn the secrets of how to kill them.

Horde mode is by far my favourite part of Earthfall. It’s a great team based mode that can provide intense moments of gunplay. I’ve been playing Earthfall for 25 hours with Horde Mode taking up most of that time!

Guns Galore

There are 20 different weapons in the game to use, which range from pistols to Gatling guns. Each weapon feels punchy. Hearing shots fired in the distances from team mates ahead of you sounds really cool. You’re always aware when someone is in trouble as you can hear them shooting at the horde.

During Horde Mode you’ll find multiple 3D printers located around the map. These may require a switch or power source to be activated. Some 3D printers will able to create certain parts for a main objective or task. However, whilst it’s printing, you’ll have to hold off the horde. Nevertheless, the 3D printer is one of the most useful devices in Earthfall, as it allows you to create and build a selection of different armaments and items that can assist you.

Level Ups

Everytime you play the game you will be doing a variety different things that will slowly increase certain parameters in your skill menu. There are 12 skills to unlock. For example, knocking back 50 droids will unlock a new passive ability to use on the battlefield. These skills will take a little while to unlock, but once they do, they provide you with a sense of progression as your character starts to feel more powerful.

Unlockables

There are unlockables in Earthfall, which can be unlocked as you level-up by completing missions in different modes. You will acquire goodies like weapon skins, costumes for your characters, gun tags and much more. All of which is unlocked through playing- there’s no loot boxes. All in all, there are 65 levels to climb through. It will take good you a few weeks or months to get through them all, adding to the replay-ability of Earthfall.

Playing with friends.

The online multiplayer of Earthfall is solid and I’ve really enjoyed playing with others. I’ve also noticed but not had the chance to try out the voice chat, which appears as an alert in top left hand corner of the screen. It shows as an iPhone alert, which I’m guessing must be used in conjunction with Nintendo iPhone app. I think it would be a useful tool to coordinate attacks and keep your team mates aware of threats, but I’m not a huge fan of voice chat, sadly.

Personally, I haven’t experienced much lag while playing online but different connections may vary. On the other hand though, I have spoken to other players who have encountered slow-down and frame rate drops during combat when things become intense.

Weapons that POP

The sound design in Earthfall is good. The weapons pop when they fire, adding to their punchy and heavy feel. Hearing friends fire off in the distance was always cool for me. I was like a call-to-arms, making me rush off in their direction to help. It also created a sense of distance in the game, making each map feel bigger than it probably was. There is voice acting in Earthfall too. Honestly, it was a little corny from time-to-time, but I’m always happy to have it in an indie game.

The graphics look decent, yes sometimes they look a little blurry and when things get crazy the game does have some issues. Nevertheless, I still think the game looked good. Each alien enemy looked distinctive and the environments were varied enough to make me want to explore them, especially the ‘Inferno’ missions.

Should you buy Earthfall?

There’s nothing like Earthfall: Alien Horde on the Nintendo eshop. I was addicted to its objectives, which kept me invested in the game and its Horde mode, which was plain old fun. There’s lots to unlock through the 65 levels of upgrades, plenty of lore to discover, two game modes to play and the online portion of the game was solid for me.

Earthfall is a great game that I’ve found hard put down. There were a few hiccups here and there but for low price of 17.99, this is a must buy for people looking for good team based shooter on the Nintendo Switch.

Therefore, I give Earthfall: Alien Horde by Nimble my rating of

Are you looking for a co-op shooter to play on the Switch? What did you think of Leigh’s Earthfall: Alien Horde Switch Review? Let us know over on Twitter or come and say hello on Discord!

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