Twisted Metal

Game Info

Twisted Metal , the most infamous car combat game of them all, was a launch title for the original PlayStation back in 1995.  This series originally developed by SingleTrac pits many schizophrenic combatants against each other in a winner takes all car combat derby for the ultimate prize, anything they can wish for. The only thing is be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.  The granter of this prize is also the tournament sponsor, a man that goes by the name of Calypso.  A mysterious man that has a very dark side to him.

The  series has had a lot of great titles such as Twisted Metal, Twisted Metal  2 and my personal favorite Twisted Metal: Black.  But there have been some titles that were less then worthy of having the Twisted Metal name such as Twisted Metal 3, Twisted Metal 4 and Twisted Metal: Small Brawl.  Small Brawl was a kiddy approach to the series using RC cars with kids controlling them.  So where does this iteration of Twisted Metal fall into? Let’s find out.

Twisted Metal has always been known for it’s diverse characters, each having their own vehicular death machine that was appropriate to that individual.  This version’s narrative has narrowed down the competition to just three competitors. Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, and Dollface. You can also play as the Preacher but only in multiplayer.  The 3 main baddies are now Gang Leaders, which explains why you can kill Dollface three times in one level and she keeps coming back, it was a member of her gang and not actually her. Each character has their own story which consists of an opening, middle and end which is broken up by the gameplay segments in between.

There are no longer specific vehicles to each character because they can now drive any car, truck, giant wheeled monstrosity, or even a helicopter.  Each of these rides have their own specific special weapon which has a primary and a secondary function which can be accessed with the click of the R3 button. The vehicles all handle very well with each of their stats varying from Speed, Armor and Special Weapons.  Another thing that has been changed around is that you no longer have to input a code while driving to use your freeze attack, shield, landmines or shoot backwards, this has now been mapped to each of the D-pad buttons.

The main gameplay of this Twisted Metal is still car combat.  The goal is to choose a vehicle, ride around and shoot anything that moves, all while jamming out to a great soundtrack.  Eat, Sleep,Play decided to add a few new gameplay twists this time around.  Some of the levels now let you choose up to 3 different vehicles to use.  There are now garages on these specific levels that house your other 2 choices and will let you switch your ride mid-game, so it’s like an instant health refill.  There are even death races thrown into the mix, where each car is strapped with a bomb and the winner lives and the rest, well you get the idea.  Another new edition is that there are now boss fights.  At the end of each persons story you will have to duel with another of the main characters, only their driving some beastly monstrous ride and your still stuck in a truck.  Be prepared to have the fight of your life as these are some of the most fun segments in the game.

The only part of this game that will take some getting use to is the controls.  They give you three different schemes to choose from and none are really that much better then the other.  In this day in age of gaming I don’t understand why all controls are not customizable.  Once you get used to the control  scheme that you choose it’s really not that bad but expect a small learning curve for your fingers.

The online portion of Twisted Metal is fun despite some issues connecting to games.  It’s always fun to blow up your buddies/enemies in an online Death Match or Team Death Match.  There is a Last Man Standing mode as well as Hunted, and Team Hunted which you must seek out a specific enemy and destroy them.  Then there is the NUKE mode in which there are two giant statues  on the playing field and you have to destroy you opponents statue to win.  To do this you must drive to the other teams base, capture one of their bosses and literally drag them to a missile launch site and sacrifice them.  When this is done you a launch missile that you must control into the opponents statue.

Overall I really enjoyed this version of Twisted Metal and can say that it’s a great addition to the series.  I can only hope that in future iterations they will bring back more characters and hopefully work on a control scheme that would better suit everybody.  Even so I highly recommend this game for anybody that is having that I need to blow up something itch.