Driving Emotion Type-S

Square's first foray into the realm of driving on the PS2 was not particularly well received. Driving Emotion Type-S (Japanese Import) was generally considered to be an unplayable game despite how good it looked and all of the bonuses that it offered. The US version of the game is much improved and really shows its steel by making up for its predecessor's deficiencies. This game is surprisingly detailed and offers the player the opportunity to both race and tweak-out some of the newest cars on the road. You might say it's the male-instinct to want to run the sweetest looking car into the ground.

Type-S has an unheard of 43 different cars from 12 different manufacturers (you're going to have to live with the Japanese versions of these cars, but there really isn't too much difference from them and the North American versions) to race on a variety of tracks, but you don't get them right away. You start off with only four cars, but as you win races (or beat the best times in the Line Training mode) you will earn access to additional cars. Each car comes with the "manufacturer's setting" which gives it a pretty balanced operation – if you were driving the kids to and from soccer practice. Don't be a sissy… start messing with the vehicle settings! The operational settings include the suspension, the gearing, the brakes, and the stabilizers. The suspension takes care of how the car sits on its tires and corners – you have the potential to fix problems in your driving style by correcting against over-steering or cornering. Gearing refers to the timing between gears for both the automatic and standard cars – you can either set your car to accelerate quickly, have a higher top speed, or a combination of the two. The brakes can be adjusted to suit your style or allow you to perform brake drifts, it's all up to you. The stabilizers are the tie bars and struts that reduce the amount of lateral roll that you will experience – you can adjust these to correct for problems in your style. As you get into the higher level races, it is impossible to win without adjusting these settings to augment your racing traits. For those who aren't technically inclined or couldn't care less about these types of things you also have the options of changing the cars' colors from the manufacturer's choices or switching out the rims on your ride.

The game has four modes of play: Arcade Type-S, Line Training, Time Attack, and VS Mode. The arcade version is pretty much as one would expect - two laps around a specific course against 5 other racers. Line Training are courses that have lines on the road to help teach new drivers better positioning and where to brake to get the best results while racing. Time Attack gives the gamer the opportunity to better racing times and best laps without having to worry about any competition messing around. The Versus Mode gives the player a chance to embarrass and generally traumatize your closest friends. However, considering the amount of detail in the game coupled with split-screen this is a very difficult way to play because you really can't see too much of the road in front of you.

The games looks really good, all of the cars look exactly the same as the ones they are emulating and the race tracks look really good and most importantly have actual sponsors so you don't get those fake company advertisements that have been appearing in some games as of late. Sound is great. The music blends exceptionally well with the levels and so it doesn't distract the gamer but adds to the experience. The sound effects are the main event on this game, they sound exactly like one would expect, even down to the grinding on an engine brake. The action itself is really impressive with the physics dictating to the action and not the other way around, but it does make the game much more difficult to master or even play. I estimate that it took between 10 and 15 hours of continual game play before I could complete a track without wiping out on every turn and 3 times as long before I could actually contend with the AI racers to make a game of it. This is the type of game where the details and subtleties dominate the action. (Learn quickly how to engine brake, control a skid, decelerate without braking, and slipstream or there is no way that you're going to win races consistently.)

Detractions? Only two. Besides the small list of tracks that one can race on, the fact that these ultra-realistic cars cannot be damaged is a big annoyance. I've lost track of the number of times that I've spun out and collided head on with a concrete divider at a speed of 90 miles/hour or greater and not be scratched. This game really could have benefited from a realistic damage control system for the cars.

Driving Emotion Type-S is a good street racing simulator that will appeal to those who love to play with all the settings in a game or want a deeper racing experience.

- Tazman

(August 29, 2001)