Early Impressions: Twisted Metal Black

Twisted Metal series creator SingleTrac has been born again in the form of Incognito Entertainment. The developer is set to unleash its trademark brand of vehicular carnage on the PlayStation 2 this June with Twisted Metal: Black. We received a playable build of the game this morning, and it's looking to be both a triumphant return to the roots of the series and a demonstration of the power that lies within Sony's little black box.

In addition to the new bells and whistles, TM:B also unveils a new take on the Twisted Metal series' gameworld. Even the weakest of the previous games had frantic pacing and arcade appeal, and TM:B continues this tradition. It adds a very dark atmosphere, faster gameplay, and a downright sadistic tone. While there was always a sort of lighthearted feel to the previous games, Twisted Metal: Black revels in its sadism, throwing pedestrians into the game's arenas for the occasional bloody and bone-breaking hit and run and featuring an assortment of insane characters, each complete with his or her own brand of psychosis.

The game begins in Blackfield Asylum, where it seems the majority of the characters have been locked up for some time. The founder of the Twisted Metal event, Calypso, brings to each character a reason to join in the event: He promises to grant one wish to the winning driver and plays upon their desires to manipulate them into joining the contest. Each character has a vehicle that is a sort of representation of his or her personality. The stats for each vehicle are listed in the character-selection screen, which also provides a unique approach to the character descriptions--instead of a character history, or even statistics, you're given a look at the reason the characters were committed to Blackfield, as well as the treatment they received. For example, the character Junkyard Dog--the driver of the rust-covered tow truck--was committed due to his chronic schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. He received psychotropic meds and anger management courses as a result. Apparently, they had no effect...

The game boasts absolutely huge levels and highly interactive environments, and they're rated by size when selecting them, from "small" to "massive." One of the levels that left the biggest impression on us was the suburbs level. Very reminiscent of the Cyburbia level from the first two games (it was unlocked with a code in TM2), the level is, in a word, huge. In this level, there are a number of interactive weapons, such as a giant Ferris wheel that can be knocked off its hinges and sent rolling through town, destroying everything in its way. This is triggered by picking up an environmental weapon power-up--a power-up that triggers an environmental event. There is also a water tower that fires lightning in all directions, wreaking havoc and damaging everything within range. Some of the environmental weapons are level-specific, such as car crushers in the junkyard level and the aforementioned Ferris wheel, while others seem to appear on all levels. One such weapon is an attack helicopter, which fires a volley of homing missiles and also doubles as a source for power-ups. These power-ups are dangled from a cable beneath the craft, and you can obtain them by shooting the helicopter down or making contact with it.

The game's effects are top-notch, with missiles that leave long, brightly lit contrails and tires that leave black marks on the wide variety of surface textures. The textures that wrap each highly detailed vehicle model are high quality, and they give a distinct look to the skin of each. Axel, a returning character, has a vehicle with a drab black look to it, while Crazy 8, one of the new additions, has a car with a nice coat of red paint. Mr. Grimm's motorcycle has chrome fenders and shocks, while Roadkill has a rusted and primed mess of an old muscle car.

On the technical side, this game delivers. Some were concerned that the frame rate would falter, due to the game's maddening productions--its large environments, its in-your-face weapons, and so on. They needn't have worried, however, as even in two-player split-screen mode, the frame rate never dips and the frantic pacing never lets up.

Needless to say, we are very impressed with what we've seen so far. Be sure to stay tuned, as GameSpot will be bringing you more in-depth impressions later in the week.