G. Darius features your typical ''save the universe'' plot that so many other titles in the genre have become so well-known for. While the plot of G. Darius isn't much different from other shooters, it’s the awesome gameplay that branches it off from other shooters. In fact in my humble opinion, it's the best shooter ever made. It may not be the most visually impressive shooter out there (don't get me wrong it looks nice), but the gameplay towers over the competition.
In G. Darius, you jump into the cockpit of the Silver Hawk, a mini space ship that has been equipped with the ability to capture enemy craft. That is where the innovative feature of G. Darius lies. Nearly every enemy on the screen can be captured and used as extra fire power for your aid. Each enemy craft yields a different type of weapon. For example, the diminutive enemies may offer rapid fire shots in various sizes while the sub bosses may shoot of deadly missiles and wide range beams. You'll get hooked on capturing different enemies. While you do acquire different colored power-ups to enhance your ship, the capture system adds more depth to the game. Capturing enemies also lets you release a devastating
beam that, when charged up, can eliminate every adversary on the screen. Some of the games bosses even have beams of the same caliber that they fire at you. If your beam wins out, you'll overtake the boss's beam and your beam will become insanely HUGE! These huge beams are great for taking down the armor of the oversized bosses.
G. Darius also gives players the chance to branch off during any level. At about mid-way through a stage, you're given the chance to alter your current path within the level. Decide quickly because you have a time limit on this. To further add to the diverseness, you can even pick which stage you wish to go to after each level. Each level offers a different boss and may be harder than the other. However, G. Darius let's players decide how easy or how hard they want to make the game. You get a wealth of difficulty settings to choose from that range from Super Easy to Mania. This along with 15 levels and 5 different endings adds some good replay value to the game.
Visually, G. Darius is a nice looking game. It manages to pull of some sweet looking special effects. In one level flying dinosaurs soar through the screen gracefully and in another stage you see some cool, rotating, disco backgrounds. In a nutshell, all the levels area sight to see. The bosses are well designed and are HUGE. Nearly every boss is some type of sea creature and takes some serious fire power to bring down, especially on the harder settings.
G. Darius isn't going to win any awards for being a long game. It can be beaten in a day. However, the game's multiple endings, and this game has a lot of difficulty settings that have more replay value than any other shooter on the market. You can even play it with a pal, albeit there is some slow down with all the action going on, but just playing the game with a buddy is great fun. The soundtrack rocks and is one of the best you'll ever hear in a shooter. This is one of the best shooters on the PlayStation, if not the best. Any fan of shooters should nab this. Even if you aren't into shooters you can still make it an effort to track down this game.
