Driving Emotion Type-S - Reception

Reception

A week after its Japanese release, Driving Emotion Type-S had sold 46,600 copies. The game made a more mediocre start outside of Japan, with only 2,500 copies sold in the United States a week after its North American release. The American website Allgame noted that while the game sold poorly, it nevertheless benefited commercially from having been released before Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, a better title according to the site as well as GamePro, GameSpot, GameZone and IGN.

The game received very mixed reviews from gaming publications. The Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu gave the title a score of 28 out of 40, praising its graphics, usage of real cars and innovative driver's view perspective. The American magazine Game Informer and website GameZone also lauded the game's realistic car interiors and highly detailed environments, putting them on par with those of Ridge Racer V and Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. Still, Allgame noted the presence of a subtle shimmering effect in the graphics, an effect typically seen on early PlayStation 2 titles, while the American website Game Revolution found the graphics "severely jagged". The shimmering and jaggedness were also noted by GameSpot and the American website IGN, which did not feel they were that irritating.

Concerning the game's playability, the Japanese release was judged "impossible to play" by GameSpot and IGN, which both felt the Western versions were an improvement, even though the game was still "far more sensitive than it ought to be". Still, Game Revolution found the car default settings unbalanced and hard to re-adjust properly, and criticized the game's inconsistent AI, like Allgame and IGN. Famitsu reported long load times and a high difficulty level, noting that the game was aimed more toward fans of sim racing than fans of arcade-style gameplay, due to the difficulty of steering. Game Informer and GameZone echoed Famitsu's review, stating that the load times quickly become a "game-ending nightmare", and calling the game's handling "touchy", "intense" and "revolutionary", but acknowledging that most players would simply find it too challenging and frustrating to be fun. While Game Informer alleged that "there is a masterpiece for driving simulator buffs buried in here", Allgame and the British magazine Computer and Video Games were much more negative, stating that the cars "seem overly light on their tires" and that it "feels like you're driving on ice". Computer and Video Games was the harshest reviewer, rating the game 1.0 out of 10 and calling it slow and the "worst of the PS2 driving games".

Reviews for the game's audio were also mixed. The music was praised by Chudah's Corner, which called it the game's "saving grace" and "a marvel of its own", while Game Informer called it "decent" but felt Square should have enlisted big bands to match the music of the competitor series Gran Turismo. GameSpot called the music "solid, albeit imperfect" and also thought that it lacked impact compared to that of Gran Turismo 2, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 or Ridge Racer V. While the site praised the game's ambient sound effects as realistic and detailed, IGN and GameZone felt they were too muted and "nothing special". GameZone, Game Revolution and the American magazine GamePro felt the music was "intolerable" and "out-of-tune", "cheesy and annoying", and sounded like "a flock of seagulls being maimed and tortured".