I wasn’t always the biggest fan of shoot ’em ups. I was a little older when the genre finally clicked with me. From this point I was playing them all; everything from Gradius to Darius, and it was rare I would find a complete dud. I was very hyped when Squaresoft (typically known for their role playing games) was trying their hand at one. Einhander was released in a time when the genre had been largely forgotten. What with the move into the 3D realm and all. It was however getting a lot of attention from the hardcore gaming crowd. I was definitely excited and ate up all the media for it that I could. Unfortunately something went really wrong with this one. Einhander wasn’t that great of a game despite overwhelmingly positive reviews. It’s okay, but doesn’t stand up with the classics.
The story in Einhander takes place in the future. The Earth and Moon are at war, and you play as a fighter pilot from the forces of the moon. You have to infiltrate the paradise that is Earth. It turns out to not be such a great place after all. It’s kind of a dump now to be honest. Everything is dark and the terrain consists almost entirely of giant skyscrapers and scorched earth. There’s a German language motif in place (the name ‘Einhander’ should be your first clue) and it’s a little weird. I suppose it makes the setting feel more oppressive. Whatever. Let’s move on.
Einhander is a horizontally scrolling shoot ’em up game. It’s premise is familiar ground. You fly your ship around blasting opponents and dodging their attacks. The gameplay is two dimensional in nature. Elements from the background and foreground affect gameplay in some pretty cool ways. The camera generally displays the action from the side. It shifts in specific areas of each stage. The view moves to an angled perspective in these moments. To be honest it’s kind of weird and largely unnecessary. This doesn’t add anything to the experience and instead makes gameplay a bit awkward during these sequences.
What’s cool is the fact that you can choose one of three ships at the start of the game and each has their advantages and disadvantages. The difference between each craft is focused around their offensive capabilities. One can equip three enemy weapons, or gunpods, at once but only use a single one at a time. Another can only use two, but they can be fired in tandem. The final aircraft can only equip one at a time and has less ammunition by default. All three ships come equipped with a machine gun sub weapon with unlimited shots, and the third one’s advantage is that this has double the power. The gunpods are a very interesting feature that I haven’t seen before in a shooter before.
Upon being shot down many enemies drop weapons that can be picked up, and these come with a variety of effects. The cannon fires a single more powerful shot, and the spreader does multiple at a variety of angles, the blade is an electron sword that does damage at close range, and more. What’s interesting is the fact that depending on the gunpod placement (either at the top or bottom side of your ship) the weapons act differently. The wasp for example, when on the topside, fires homing missiles whereas normally the shots simply fire straight. The grenade is one of the more useful weapons against bosses because it can fire either below or at an upward arch which is handy.
I’m a big fan of the weapon system. Though a few older games use similar mechanics it’s never been quite pulled off like it was here. The only problem I have with Einhander is that the level design feels really sloppy to me. Enemy placement isn’t particularly smart, and most everything just feels so random. The game gets boring real quick for me because of this, and whoever put together these stages just didn’t seem to have their heart in it. Add to that the fact that the angled perspective, while a cool idea in in theory, doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than to show off the graphics engine. It actually makes gameplay more awkward during these sequences, and Einhander would have been a lot better off without this mechanic.
Another issue is that the game is just too short overall. I imagine the CD is mostly empty space because the game can easily be completed in less than an hour. That isn’t bad by genre standards, and the boring level designs made me glad it wasn’t longer. They kind of drag to be honest. You would however expect more content from a non-arcade port on the system. Einhander is fairly difficult, but it’s very easy to catch on to the enemy patterns. The only times I struggled were against the bosses which are easily the best part of this package.
In an era where 3D games were mostly awkward and blocky Einhander fares surprisingly well. The ship models are quite impressive by PlayStation standards, and the framerate is extremely smooth and pretty darn consistent. The backgrounds are okay, but generally lack detail. The game moves so fast that you’ll rarely notice this. If there’s one complaint I have it’s that I’m not a big fan of the art style. It’s super sterile, and too dark in my opinion. Squaresoft was no doubt in their edgy phase, and Einhander doesn’t benefit particularly well from this. A splash of color would be welcome in the many dreary areas.
On another note I really like the fact that the game displays the names of each gunpod when it can be acquired. This takes the guess work out of it. The weapons themselves are decently small and some would otherwise be difficult to tell apart from one another. Einhander is sound on a technical level. The dark style isn’t nearly as edgy as it once was and has lost a lot of its appeal. It feels like a product of its time in terms of aesthetics.
The soundtrack was recorded at a surprisingly high bitrate. It sounds crystal clear even when compared to many modern games. Squaresoft went with a dark techno direction for the music. For the most part they did a competent job. Unfortunately I found the soundtrack as a whole largely forgettable. This could be because I’m not a huge fan of the genre of this genre of music. It’s well composed and sound technically. I do find myself getting a little pumped at times, especially in the first level when the drums kick in. The rest of the songs sound too similar for my tastes. Nothing is particularly catchy and I just don’t really like it.
Sound effects are also extremely high quality. I was impressed that every weapon features its own distinct samples. The game features a number of really nice touches such as a girl laughing in the background of the first stage, the sirens that signal incoming enemies, and more. The audio is really well done, but overall the soundtrack just isn’t for me though it does deserve some props for its quality.
In the past I’ve seen Einhander propped up as one of those holy grail shooters (like Radiant Silvergun) but I’ve just never been able to see it. It’s a technical showpiece for the system, and introduces some pretty cool mechanics, but in the end the gameplay feels a little boring in my opinion. This is coming from someone who has always loved shmups. Einhander is decent, but if you’re looking for a shooter the top tier Genesis and Turbografx titles hit the spot far better.
