R-Type Final, a worthy final chapter to an extraordinary series. This game is really freaking good.
User Rating: 10 | R-Type Final PS2
Gameplay- I must first comment on the difficulty level of this game. If you have not played alot of space shooter games, then you may be overwhelmed by the difficulty of R-Type Final. Even on the easier difficulties, this game is not at all easy. However, it is very refreshing to have a dicernable difference between Final's five difficulty levels. I personally favor games that are just hard enough to get by, and this is exactly the way I would describe R-Type Final. The fast paced responsive sidescrolling action in Final is full of enemies (more than any other R-Type game) and to combat these enemies you have an arsenal of 101 unique ships. Let me repeat this, 101 unique ships. This includes all of the previous R-Types (even the Delta). That feature alone makes R-Type Final worth buying. In fact, between the combination of the ridiculous amount of ships to unlock and the vast array of data and unlockable features, before even getting in to the other categories of ratings, I must say that if you only buy 1 space shooter game, it better be R-Type Final. Another fun feature of R-Type Final is that there are variant stages depending of key factors of gameplay (triggering certain switches and using certain ships) which means that it is impossible to play every stage, one time through. There is also a somewhat interesting AI battle mode that lets you pit your pre- programmed ships against an AI controlled computer ship. I would not really call that a key feature of R-Type Final. Sound/Graphics- The music in R-Type Final is fast and hypnotic with sound effects that never lose their hold on the player. The Blue Man Group did a great job of producing music that would completely draw you in, complementing the gameplay and visuals. The 3-D graphic engine in R-Type Final is impressive to say the least. Stages constanly shift allowing you to see multiple angles of enemies and scenery that ranges from aquatic to abyssal. Although the gameplay is the same as all other space shooters, you acutally feel like you are changing directions and moving in 3-D due to the constanly changing real time 3 dimensional backgrounds. Story- R-Type Final actually has somewhat of a story. Most of the information that you can gather about its story is contained within the massive beastiary that Final provides. There are also little descriptions of each level done by "ship logs" before each stage. If you are playing a game for story, don't play a space shooter. Since no space shooter has ever had even a semi-substancial story, this will not affect my final recommendation. Playtime/Replayability- You could easily spend 40 hours playing R-Type Final and still never be tired of it. You could easily beat R-Type Final 100 times and never be bored. The data features keep track of almost every aspect of the game so if you get tired of Final quickly, there is something wrong with you. Final Recommendation- R-Type Final is much better than Einhander (my previous favorite space shooter). Remember the part earlier in my review where I mentioned that this is the one space shooter game to buy? I'll stick with that. -Geusprime
