The new Twisted Metal deals with several glaring flaws that hamper what could have been a glorious return of car combat
More of a reason I disliked, then a proper review. was not at all What I had been waiting so long for..
Twisted Metal's lightning-fast vehicular combat and large-scale destruction are gleeful, pulse-pounding fun.
Once upon a time, a man named Calypso regularly held a tournament. It was a grisly contest of vehicular carnage in which entire cities were razed as the competitors destroyed everyone and everything around them in their mad quest for victory. But for many years now, the screams have gone silent. It has been over a decade since Calypso's tournament made its last full-fledged appearance on consoles. At long last, Twisted Metal is back, and this latest entry recaptures the large-scale destructive fun of the series' best games. As long as you're open to this particular brand of old-fashioned, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants insanity, you're sure to enjoy the beautiful chaos of Twisted Metal.
Just as the guns are central to the quality of any shooter, the vehicles are central to the quality of any vehicular combat game, and Twisted Metal's assortment of deadly machines on wheels is fantastic. Speed and maneuverability are available in sports cars like Kamikaze and the wildly fast Crimson Fury. If you're more concerned with durability, you might opt for the police SUV Outlaw, or the big rig known as Darkside. Classic Twisted Metal vehicles like Mr. Grimm's motorcycle (called Reaper here) and the ice cream truck Sweet Tooth are joined by a few new ones. The most notable new entry is Talon, a helicopter whose fragility is offset by its airborne freedom and its devastating ability to lift enemies into the air and then drop them to the ground.
Whether you choose the nimblest vehicle or the most lumbering, sharp controls make maneuvering around the battlefield intuitive and enjoyable. You can spin any vehicle into a tight turn, even in place, which isn't the least bit realistic, but sure is fun. It's also necessary for responding on the fly to the myriad dangers your opponents constantly hurl in your direction. Speeding around the vast maps is also exciting because there's so much to discover and so much of it is destructible.The peaceful hamlet of Sunsprings, California, will never be the same after you roll over its houses, crash through its supermarket, submerge your vehicle in a mansion's swimming pool, and battle on the roof of the local movie theater. In Metro Square, inspired by Times Square and its surroundings, you can cruise through subway tunnels, slide around on an ice-skating rink, and leave the displays at the natural history museum in heaps of rubble. It all looks great, and the soundtrack, which includes famous tracks by Rob Zombie and cheesy tunes by Sammy Hagar, is ideal accompaniment for the destruction, though you can replace it with your own soundtrack if you prefer.
The scale and the various interlocking pathways of the maps generate tactical possibilities and tension; it's thrilling to see an opponent speeding down an overpass above you in Diesel City and then gun it up an on-ramp in pursuit. And some maps introduce new dangers. Black Rock Stadium is designed to be deadly, with huge spiky balls, arcs of electricity, pools of lava, and other hazards all attempting to impinge on your survival. And on the rooftops of the LA Skyline map, you must balance aggression with caution, or risk careening off the edge to a damaging impact with the streets below.
Your objective in Twisted Metal varies depending on the game type, but more often than not, it involves turning the other vehicles into flaming husks. Each vehicle has a special weapon that regenerates over time, as well as a standard sidearm (such as unlimited mounted machine guns) and other abilities, like a blast that temporarily freezes enemies in place. Additionally, a great variety of weapons are strewn about the battlefield, so you're given a reason to scramble about the arenas, hunting for tools of destruction.
Some weapons, like homing missiles, you can fire and forget. Other weapons, like power missiles, can do significantly more damage, but require a straight, clear shot, and finding that isn't easy in the heat of battle. With a shotgun, you just need to get in close and pull the trigger, but napalm requires a well-timed button press to bring it raining down on an enemy. You can carry several types of weapons at once, and making the most of your arsenal means switching on the fly to the most effective weapon for the situation you find yourself in at that instant.
On the surface, Twisted Metal may look like absolute chaos, with vehicles ramming into each other and explosions happening all over the place. But in fact there's a great deal to consider at any given moment, and once you get used to taking it all in, the stimulating mix of making effective use of your weapons, racing to snag health pickups, and ramming into your opponents at speed becomes an exhilarating, cacophonous dance of metal and fire. All of this may sound very familiar, and it's true that Twisted Metal doesn't fiddle with the fundamentals that have made the series so exciting in the past. But that is no bad thing; on the contrary, this kind of vehicular combat has been absent from the console landscape for so long that its return is more than welcome.
But what about the participants? What would drive people to risk everything and test their mettle in this deadly tournament? If you've played previous Twisted Metal games, you know that Calypso promises the victor the fulfillment of a wish. You also know that Calypso typically makes good on his promise, but rarely in the way the winner envisioned. It has always been morbidly entertaining to see just what Calypso has in store for the victors, and in this latest Twisted Metal, it still is. But whereas earlier games featured a different story for each vehicle's driver, here, the single-player story has you playing as just three contestants: Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, and Dollface.
Carolyn Petit has been reading GameSpot since 2000 and writing for it since 2008. She has a particular fondness for games of the 1980s, and intends to leave the field of games journalism as soon as she hears that her local Ghostbusters franchise is hiring.
I took a little while to learn the crazy controls, at high speed, but I love it. With so many round types, challenges, and vehicle choices, the stringing together of cut scenes for three characters in story mode seems to be a very unnecessary thing to bitch about.
as someone who doesnt play online much, I have to say how disappointed I was with this game. I bought and enjoyed every other twisted metal game, replaying them over and over to get each characters ending. This one, you get 1 story with 3 characters..and thats it. No replay value at all. (again from someone who doesnt play online) The "any driver uses any car" thing is stupid as well. Very disappointed. If theres a sequel, I hope that the story mode isnt forced and you can replay it to see an ending for each driver. One positive- it looked great! After being disgusted with the story and trying to play twisted metal black again, the graphics of the new one made black hard to play.
Yes i agree with you totaly. I'am old school Twisted Metal player, and i have bought this game to play with my brother in co-op, like we did back in older TMs (2,3,4), both of us just loved to play again and again, on harder difticulty, and so on.. Then this one commed out, we tought it will be like good old days, and then... 30 Euros for 2X co-op story, little single endurance, little slpitscreen deathmach and that's it, around 7 days... (to expensive, my opinion) Twisted Metal was turnament, and should have stayed like that, new one is good, but it lacks turnament mod to play with all vehicles again, and again...
The game is so much fun especially in co-op. I just wish the vehicles had balanced stats, as I find myself using the same 2-3 due to their superiority. Also, the story mode should have had more characters.
The game is so strict, especially on the fight with "Sweet tooth boss" in the final chapter of Story mode, the game force player to use from Talon. It's not so good.
Everyone please get this game. I can confirm the online freakin awesome. Nuke mode is my highlight of this year
I've gotten mixed reactions to the game but as always I will stick to and trust Gamespots word and try it out!! And plus I've never been able to let a Twisted Metal game pass me up.
@Attila2984 If you mean can two players play the story mode cooperatively online, the answer is no. If you mean, can two players on one console go online together for competitive multiplayer, the answer is yes. If that doesn't answer your question, let me know and I'll try to answer it. :)
I love TM, always have. But those g0d@mn racing matches suck in single player. They have NOOOOOO place in a game like this. I bought twisted metal to blow sh1t up, not tediously race around looking for checkpoints that do not even apear clearly on maps. Poor show ESP, poor show indeed.
This review doesn't sound like an 8, it reads like Carolyn wanted to give it a 9 or at least an 8.5. Well I'm happy this game is back either way. I'm sure the connection issues will be fixed very soon like they are in most games.
does anyone know If i import the US version, will the Online Pass work on the UK account, are online servers open to all, thanks ???
I don't know, seems pretty generous to me. I've only played the demo but that just left me feeling so unimpressed that I've decided to wait. Perhaps I'll pick up a used copy later and just pay for the online pass.
I loved playing Twisted Metal World Tour 2 on PS1 !! :)) According to me, 2nd part is the best one in the whole series.
Despite the fact that he did a good review... Kevin Vanord is the best reviewer on the site. He's my "Review Hero" as it were.
I was kind of iffy on this game, and was thinking I would probably rent it. But after reading this I'm defiantly going out and buying this. Now I just hope it lives up up to it, because it sounds f******* awesome.
@carolynmichelle Before I even knew who wrote this review, I was thoroughly impressed with what I was reading because it was truly informative and not biased or fanboyish. Then when I got to the end of the article and saw that it was critiqued by none other than Carolyn Petit, I couldn't help but smile. You are the best critic on this site in my opinion. Great Job.
I definitely want this one. I've never got a chance to play Twisted Metal back in the day.
I love how most people anymore see an 8.0 and figure it's trash. To me the only time i'll second guess a game is when it hits like a 6.0.
Now that they came out with Twisted Metal, some publisher should spring for a Road Rash title. I've been waiting for Road Rash to come out with a new generation game since Jailbreak on PSOne. I wish they would. I would be excited to see what that would look like.
seems to me like a 40 dollar game loved the old ones.... Well 1, 2 and black anyway but something tells me 60 dollars is just to much
@valdips3 I think the single-player took me around 10 hours to complete, though it boils down to how many times you need to try certain boss fights and other challenges--a really good player could probably speed through it much faster. There's also incentive to replay levels and earn medals or to play on higher difficulty levels, both of which unlock new vehicles and/or weapons for you to use.
The core mission, on normal, takes 12-16 hours (depending on how picky you are at tackling the trophies). Since it comes with a free copy of Black on the online pass is specific to each copy (get it used, you gotta buy a pass), there is motivation to get an early copy. As far as the cars belonging to each character goes, it'd be nice to just have a core set of vehicles, plus an exclusive for each character. For instance - Vermin, Talon, and plenty of others could always be available. Make it so only Sweet Tooth can drive his truck, but can use other vehicles when he wants...just not Darkside's semi or Grimm's motorcycle...although he does look great with that chainsaw!
@SecularSage I don't see how McShea's poorly matched to the title he's reviewing, he mostly does action/adventure games and platformers, those are his genres(and mine) and I don't remember seeing a review of his that I didn't agree with(even infamous 2 which was the game I was looking forward to the most last year).
great review as always, i am interested in the single player portion of the game, how much of hours of fun i will have for 60$?or is best wait for bargain bin?
