Tons of stuff to do, great co-op, high skill ceiling but still easy to learn, focus on gameplay over storytelling or graphics.

EDF5 mostly is "EDF4 but better", but most of the changes have a pretty huge impact on overall enjoyment. Enemy spawners now are towers that force you to split your attention between the spawners' weak point and the hordes of enemies they throw at you instead of kinda just hitting both until they stop being a problem, Wing Divers can charge up attacks at a safe distance to have more power left to fly around, Fencers still are a nightmare to control efficiently but much more manageable for your fingers than the shield-cancelling meta technique used before. You get to keep some items if you die, so you can get through a hard mission just by bashing your head against it if you just can't figure out the right strategy.

But let's take a step back, what is EDF more exactly? It's a cooperative arena shooter thing where your mission in every kilometer-sized level is "kill all the giant insects / robots / dinosaurs". That might sound like it gets old quick, especially when there's 100-ish missions to beat with 4 different characters, but the level design is stellar enough that it doesn't FEEL like you do the same thing in every mission. Every mission has something unique, whether it be in setpieces or enemy combinations. Giant hordes of red ants might be manageable if you're in a city full of cover, but what if they all storm at you in an open field? Fighting underground? Hope you brought some weapons that's good for defending narrow chokepoints!

The cooperative aspect (2 player local multiplayer, 4-player online) mostly comes in play due to the game's need for strategizing. Weapons usually are situational with clear advantages and drawbacks, and you can only carry a few at a time. The four playable classes are essentially so different to play it's 4 different games. Playing together lets you cover each other's weaknesses and launch devastating combination attacks, and there's a number of items purely meant for supportive use (like the laser pointer that lets you guide every homing missile on the map, healing dispensers, and vehicles with extra gunner seats) which shines in co-op play. One of the classes is purely support-based, coordinating long-cooldown airstrikes for massive damage and deploying tanks and other vehicles, but having almost no direct means of fighting, relying on buffing allied NPCs or other players in-between air raids. They're either the most powerful or the most useless unit in the battle, depending on your strategy, often alternating between the two extremes in the same battle. The other three classes are more standard faire: a normal soldier guy that uses standard weapons, lacking weaknesses but also strengths, a flying girl with energy-based weapons that excel at taking out a single priority target quickly but require precise positioning (often at melee range) and have limited capacity to fight enemy groups, and a heavy weapons guy that wields FOUR weapons at once and excel at taking out groups of weak enemies but lack the mobility or concentrated power to deal with a single major enemy efficiently. Each class has access to dozens of weapons, and with all the missions having different structure, there's plenty of variety and plenty of room to customize your playstyle.

TL;DR, a must-play if you like stupid fun awesomeness.

Tons of stuff to do, great co-op, high skill ceiling but still easy to learn, focus on gameplay over storytelling or graphics. EDF5 mostly is "EDF4 but better", but most of the changes have a pretty huge impact on overall enjoyment. Enemy spawners now are towers that force you to split your attention between the spawners' weak point and the hordes of enemies they throw at you instead of kinda just hitting both until they stop being a problem, Wing Divers can charge up attacks at a safe distance to have more power left to fly around, Fencers still are a nightmare to control efficiently but much more manageable for your fingers than the shield-cancelling meta technique used before. You get to keep some items if you die, so you can get through a hard mission just by bashing your head against it if you just can't figure out the right strategy. But let's take a step back, what is EDF more exactly? It's a cooperative arena shooter thing where your mission in every kilometer-sized level is "kill all the giant insects / robots / dinosaurs". That might sound like it gets old quick, especially when there's 100-ish missions to beat with 4 different characters, but the level design is stellar enough that it doesn't FEEL like you do the same thing in every mission. Every mission has something unique, whether it be in setpieces or enemy combinations. Giant hordes of red ants might be manageable if you're in a city full of cover, but what if they all storm at you in an open field? Fighting underground? Hope you brought some weapons that's good for defending narrow chokepoints! The cooperative aspect (2 player local multiplayer, 4-player online) mostly comes in play due to the game's need for strategizing. Weapons usually are situational with clear advantages and drawbacks, and you can only carry a few at a time. The four playable classes are essentially so different to play it's 4 different games. Playing together lets you cover each other's weaknesses and launch devastating combination attacks, and there's a number of items purely meant for supportive use (like the laser pointer that lets you guide every homing missile on the map, healing dispensers, and vehicles with extra gunner seats) which shines in co-op play. One of the classes is purely support-based, coordinating long-cooldown airstrikes for massive damage and deploying tanks and other vehicles, but having almost no direct means of fighting, relying on buffing allied NPCs or other players in-between air raids. They're either the most powerful or the most useless unit in the battle, depending on your strategy, often alternating between the two extremes in the same battle. The other three classes are more standard faire: a normal soldier guy that uses standard weapons, lacking weaknesses but also strengths, a flying girl with energy-based weapons that excel at taking out a single priority target quickly but require precise positioning (often at melee range) and have limited capacity to fight enemy groups, and a heavy weapons guy that wields FOUR weapons at once and excel at taking out groups of weak enemies but lack the mobility or concentrated power to deal with a single major enemy efficiently. Each class has access to dozens of weapons, and with all the missions having different structure, there's plenty of variety and plenty of room to customize your playstyle. TL;DR, a must-play if you like stupid fun awesomeness.