Scrap Metal
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
To be honest with you, I don’t know. It seems as if the developers were half-asleep high on some kind of drug while making TM3. Everything that we loved from TM2 was taken out of TM3 and replaced with a very, very, bad game. The name was even changes from Twisted Metal 3 to III (no other games in the Twisted Metal series use roman numerals), probably because Sony was embarrassed they released such a bad game.
The story is identical to the previous installments in the series. A bunch of crazy misfits in today’s society are entering a tournament in which they battle driving various vehicles, which range from Monster Trucks to Sports Cars and much more. Calypso, a demonic-looking man running the tournament promises to grant the winner any one wish of their choice. So you choose whatever car you want and enter the tournament using that person. Or not.
One of the best features of the previous two Twisted Metals was the level design. Unfortunately most of the levels in TM3 are some of the worst designed levels I’ve ever seen. Most of the levels are square arenas with ramps and warp portals here and there. For example, one level (Washington) is a giant box-shaped arena with a warp portal all the way in the back of the arena. There aren’t any secret areas in any of the levels; they can be memorized after playing on them about 2 times.
There are four camera angles to choose from; but I still can’t figure out why they were all included. All of the perspectives view exactly the same; changing the view won’t change how much you see on your screen. The only thing that changes is how much of your car shows.
It gets worse. The best word to describe the AI is abysmal. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, the computer acts similar to your 80-year old grandmother. The enemies barely move; they just stay in one area and fire bullets at you, occasionally hitting you with a missile. You can easily sneak up on your enemies and fire at their rear. Finally, after taking a beating they just might fire back (if they’re not already dead).
There are also a few major bugs I found in TM3. For example, sometimes when you get shot by one of your opponents your vehicle will flip over. Instead of flipping back up, your vehicle will lie upside down until someone performs an action to get it back up, such as ramming into you or shooting you, both causing damage. There have also been a couple of instances in which I’ve been stuck in a wall. Sometimes you can get out the same way you can get your vehicle up after turning over, but sometimes you’re stuck and there’s no way out. You are forced to reset the game and start over.
There was barely any replay value in TM2, and TM3 is exactly the same. The difference is TM2 was very fun and addictive, and never grows old, no matter how many times you play it. TM3 has a tournament mode, which can be played by yourself, with a computer ally, or with another human player. This mode is very short, and once you beat it, there’s no reason to play it again, unless you want to watch all of the ending movies. The ending movies are so incredibly bad they’re not worth watching. There’s the famous deathmatch mode, in which up to four people (including yourself) can participate. But with the poor level design and gameplay mechanics, I don’t know why anyone would want to play this.
Graphically TM3 is average. The graphics are worse than TM2, which was a decent looking game. The explosions and the cars look very nice, and the textures aren’t bad. The major problem is the framerate. When there are more than three vehicles at a time on the screen it drops to about 1/10 of what it normally is. This causes the game to get very frustrating at times. The textures, although nice, lack variety. The same few textures repeat throughout the level.
The sound is also mediocre. The music, which features tracks from famous artists such as Rob Zombie and Pitchshifter is excellent and fits surprisingly well with the game’s atmosphere. The voice acting for the most part is poor, but there are some exceptions. For example, Calypso’s voice is excellent; a professional voice actor recorded his voice. The sound affects sound like they came straight from an NES game; the same boring sounds are used for everything; bullets, crashes, missiles, etc.
Overall Twisted Metal III is one of the biggest disappointments in video game history. TM3 is anything but a step up from TM2. It had potential to be great; it seems as if the developers spent far more time recording Calypso’s voice than making the game. If you are looking for a great car combat game, don’t pick up Twisted Metal III. Instead pick up Twisted Metal 2 or Twisted Metal Black (if you own a PS2). Avoid TM3 at all costs.