The Earth Defense Force bundle (on Humble for 3 more weeks) is incredible.
$1: EDF 4.1
$5: Wingdiver the shooter
$12: EDF Iron Rain + 18 DLCs for EDF 4.1
$18: EDF 5 + EDF World Brothers
These are 3rd person 4 player co-op console shooters, except for the Wingdiver shoot’em’up spinoff. The bundle doesn’t include Insect Armageddon, nor the DLC for the other games which you definitely don’t need to start (you’ll know if you want the mission packs after a couple playthroughs).
I love these games, having played 700+ hours in the series (best guess, and I only just started IR), and there’s nothing else out there that really compares with the scale of the hordes and destruction, the huge and crazy assortment of weapons, the demanding action, and the tactical depth. The EDF series has it’s jank and sillyness and occasional tedium (long walks and box collecting, difficulty spikes, the grind to unlock higher/faster difficulties and collect gear/armor to survive them), but it absolutely delivers on fun and problem solving satisfaction.
If you don’t know where to start you can’t go wrong with EDF 5, but if you’re on the fence 4.1 for $1 is an absolute steal (and there are still things about 4 I prefer). WB is more goofy/easy/casual, IR more stiff and serious, and these two are from a different studio (Yukes). There’s no story continuity between any of the games, but Sandlot are the original developers so pick 4 if you want the classic experience or 5 for the quality of life improvements.
Some starter tips: for 4.1 and 5 you should disable G-Sync and/or Adaptive Sync in your video driver (for Nvidia: go to Manage 3D, Program Settings, add the game exe, set Monitor Tech to fixed refresh and Preferred refresh rate to application controlled) to prevent an extreme menu slowdown issue, disable screen shake (for performance and QOL), don’t play solo online (solos get the 4 player difficulty modifiers), and online friend invites are done with the arrow-key comms menu. WB and IR run on Unreal Engine 4 so they don’t have such quirky setups, and WB/IA don’t separate your online/offline mission progress like 4.1/5/IR do. The QT3 thread is over here.
Also, World Brothers 2 has been announced for PS4/PS5/Switch (September 26), and EDF 6 (a direct sequel to 5) is due on Steam this summer.