New to the EDF series, where to start?

[Raiden]

As the title says, been watching a lot of videos regarding EDF6 but steam has quite a big repertoire of EDF games. Should I start from the oldest to the newest in order to follow the story or can I start straight away with EDF6?

[KingOfFriedChicken]

You can start at 6 yes, they are generally done in series of 2, so the story from 4.1 doesn't relate to 6 but it does to 3 so basically edf 3 and 4.1 are their own story. 5 and 6 are their own story.

The story isn't meant to be amazing either, but if you are into story heavily just play through 5 on normal then move to 6 for any grind you might wanna do if I was recommending anything. It's Playa pretty hard into the B movie stores stuff though so it's meant to be kinds funny and cheesy.

[Tie]

Yeah its not terribly important to have played 5 but theres some jokes in 6 that get enhanced by having played it. Otherwise, lots of people are in it for the weapons and gameplay.

[Zephyr]

I totally disagree, for me you can't possibly enjoy 6 without having played 5.

My suggestion is to start with 4.1 then play 5, then 6.

Insect Armaggedon is a lot more arcadey, and considered by many not being a true EDF game. It has its moment, but it's very very basic, and fails to capture the essence of the serie.
Iron Rain was a western take of the serie, it's a grinding hell with lot of randomness, to this day doesn't properly support mouses and handle mouse acceleration well, and they made it grindy so you purchase in game money in their store. Pass.
World Borthers are, from what I heard, decent goofy games if you can look past the voxel art and the fact they don't take themselves seriously at all. But they are still not true EDF serie games to me.

Why start with 4.1 ? While being in its own timeline and the sequel to an other game(so you take the story pretty much on the fly and piece things), and while it's missing some quality of life things, nothing beats 4.1 when it comes to scope for the fights. Hordes are MASSIVE, everything feels epic, and it has some of the best Wing Diver gameplay of the serie gun wise. 4.1 is the perfect game to start to make you love EDF, and forgive what will happen next. Also 4.1 has the best song of the serie.

5 is probably the best crafted of the serie, with a bunch of quality of life adds, some massives changes in how some classes are played, a difficulty that is mostly well balanced, an arsenal which is at 80% I would say well balanced(a lot of pieces of gear are still stinkers, but it's not that bad). It's a reboot of the serie starting a new story. The problem is they traded a bit of the epicness by making hordes less big, and enemies more tanky instead. Wing Diver is played completely differently with a charge-release mechanic for a lot of the guns that takes a bit to get used to, and movement based on dashes. Fencer is more comfortable to play too, Ranger get access to more vehicles and the ability to sprint. All this makes 5 the best entry point on the serie on paper. But, to start with 5 would mean it would be very hard to go back to 4.1 .

6 is the dark sheep of the serie, and it suffers from many many problems. While it tops them all in term of quality of life stuff, it's poorly balanced, suffer from technical problems(desynchs in particular, but not only), has a bad pacing, and a lot of missions feel like bloat. Difficulty was ramped up considerably, and despite how many tools the classes get, it's accompanied by a vast serie of nerfs on others aspect that makes the experience way less enjoyable than it could be. 6 is the game you play when you have 100% completed the others and you want more. I cannot in honesty, call it a good game. It's mediocre at best. 6 assume you have played 5, and not just a little, but a LOT. Enough to know the dialogues by heart, the missions by heart, and enough to notice the small and big differences and to enjoy what the game allows and make you do. 6 is focused on time travel, and you will come back to the past to replay missions from 5 with a twist... So of course without knowledge of 5... Well you wouldn't even be able to tell what's happening.

[lithiccturtle]

EDF 4.1 is a great place to start, it's cheaper, and you can see the style of game that EDF is. It's pretty solid, though there are things that can bug out or crash your pc, if playing with friends you can use this to mess with them.

Insect armaggedon was made by a different company, it's weaker than the others and somewhat struggles with the story and dialogue.

Iron Rain is a big pass

EDF - world brothers : I havent played either of the two titles because of the artystyle but looks solid enough (would recommend research)

EDF 5 is insanely fun (outside of a select few missions). It's has a lot of quality of life changes and is solid all the way through. It's a great entry point overall if you don't want to start on EDF 4.1 since it's also an alternate story.

EDF 6 is both a really bad entry (because of crashes and other bugs) and also my favourite one in terms of story. The loot pools are not as good as EDF 5 but the enemy variety and new mechanics somewhat balance it out on my opinion. And to be fair they seem to have patched a few things.

[Amarantamin]

6 is the best overall EDF game in my opinion. There's a few cameos from other games and plot points that make a little more sense if you've played 5, but nothing that prevents you from enjoying the game. 6's plot assumes you've played previous EDF games in the sense that it does not slow drip new enemy introductions from past games, but just throws them at you as if you know what's up.

5 is an extremely solid title with a simpler, but more straightforward plot, and it introduces each enemy and environment step by step. It'll feel more like an introduction to the series, and for many people it's the best EDF out there.

Really, you can't go wrong with either.

[Raiden]

Alright guys, thanks a lot!
I think I'll definitely go with 6! Just want to shut my brain and try and kill a bunch of hordes!

[Robert F.]

If you're going for EDF 6, there's a mod from Nexus that allows you to play EDF 5 story mode missions without purchase the actual game.

[Zephyr]

The kill a bunch of hordes more what you will get with 4.1, and it's also more forgiving. 6 doesn't have that many hordes overall.

[goob]

If it helps, I got into EDF Last Year and the order I played was 5 -> 4.1 -> World Brothers -> 6 on release

[zero254]

You can pick 4.1, 5, 6,world brothers 1(you'll be lost without having played the others though), world 2 (see 1) even iron rain. But do not start with Insect Armageddon