Zero Punctuation: Twisted Metal

[aescuder]

Well this was a surprise, albeit a positive one.

I have always had a soft spot for the Twisted Metal games, especially in regards to it's dark humor. That being said, I haven't really followed the series since Twisted Metal 2, so I can't really comment on how it has evolved since then, other than that Twisted Metal Black apparently attempted a take the series in a darker and more serious direction, something that this new iteration seems to have somewhat adopted. All in all, the game looks immensly fun and it seems to pretty much be a direct descendant of Twisted Metal 2. As such, it should be right up my alley.

Also, what's with all the spider references this week? A recent traumatic experience perhaps?

Twisted Metal 2 is still the raining champion. Although this game is the closest they've gotten though. Still a lot of wasted potential. I think they gave up after doing the Sweetooth "mech" special because a lot of the others were kinda lackluster (sometimes recycled, like the Gatling gun turret special).

TM2 still had much more diverse and, for lack of a better term, awesome character/gameplay design. I still remember getting smashed up by Mr. Slam, a construction vehicle, while Twister, an F1 car, was barreling down as a literal tornado only to be intercepted by Grasshopper's suicide jump, a freakin Dune-buggy.

Cars here aren't as diverse although the semi-trucks are a nice touch. They all practically have 0 personality since a) some look the same, b) some have the same specials (unheard of in TM2), and c) you can just interchange between 3 drivers/factions i.e. no real face/persona to the car.

TLDR Good game. Not as awesome as Twisted Metal 2 though.

 

[SinisterDeath]

The doll face race is 'easy' if you konw how to do it.

Obviously having the nice 'crimson' car you 'just' unlocked is key. (theres a reason they hint at using it)

That said, there are two keys to that particular race to make it 'easy mode'.

First, don't turbo from the start line. that nice red car you get? doesn't need it... for anything.
Second, get to 3rd or 4th place, purposely stay back.

Take out the guys in front of you. Big time, take them the hell out! you can easilly take out the 'other' fast cars like you, fairly fast before they get to a health power up.

Second?
Land Mines.
Triangle + Down arrow = Super Mines, Spam the hell out of those suckers, any enemey that gets near them, will be blow off course.
Lay them on jumps? You screw them up HUGE.

Thats about it really.

However, if you maintain second all the way, You can follow the guy in 1st, DIRECTLY to where the hidden 'final check point' is at. Destroy him before he jumps aboard.

thats really the only tricks about it you need to know.
Aside from crimson fury doesn't need to use Turbo to make it across ANY of the jumps. THe other cars? They'll fall if they don't turbo, or if you don't activate it soon enough.

 

[porpoise hork]

I passed on this game. As much as I loved TM in the 90s, it just felt like that's where it belonged. But whatever. If people enjoyed it then more power to them. I decided to spend that money on another throwback; SSX. And no children are murdered in SSX so there's that.

Are you saying child murder wouldn't improve a snowboarding game? Weird.

on that note how about a game where you get to kill shaun white repeatedly while snowboarding behind Sweet Tooth.

 

[britishdantheman]

I would ride that ferris wheel.

 

[Danzavare]

I played the first one quite often and it could've simply been because of graphical limitations, but I didn't find it near as dark or freaky as what little I've seen of the new one. I like the overthetop explosions and blood trails, but if the gameplay feels like it's being broken up with horror movie segments in the middle I think I'll be a lot less willing to buy it. But hey, I'm probably in the minority here.

 

[marcusslade]

Mr Croshaw, living in Australia, that mum will finally be able to hear that f word, and even see it in gaming action (thank you international copy of Witcher 2 GOG).
Go R18+ rating, go!

 

[RedmistSM]

I had never played any of the games before, so I looked up the older ones on yutube. One of the videos was a compilation of all the endings for Twisted Metal 2, and it sure doesn't seem like anyting has changed regarding that stuff. I wish it wasn't there, because I prefer my car combat cartoony and fun without any of the murdering, and Twisted Metal looks like it could fill that gap.

 

[Balkan]

I DEMAND a silent hill downpour review , yahtzee . I don`t trust these clowns at IGN .

 

[Kuroneko97]

I absolutely enjoy this game, but I do agree with the difficulty level changing so much. I'm honestly still stuck on that Diesel City race in Dollface's chapter. And the fastest car handles like a piece of shit.

Are you using Kamikaze, Crimson Fury, or Reaper (the motorcycle)?

Crimson Fury. Motherfucking car. You try to turn a just a little and you end up doing a whole 360.

 

[cronon94]

Yahtzee is the only man alive that you can entirely agree with but still want to buy all the games he bashes

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

It would have been interesting hearing his review if he had experienced the earlier games in the series. Myself, having loved 1 and 2, and I liked Black, (3 and 4 should really not exist) I am still on the fence for this one. There's a lot "off" that I've heard about this one and I'm not sure that it will evoke the nostalgia goggles as much as I hope it would. For anyone that is a follower of the series, how does this game compare to the earlier instalments single-player wise?

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

It would have been interesting hearing his review if he had experienced the earlier games in the series. Myself, having loved 1 and 2, and I liked Black, (3 and 4 should really not exist) I am still on the fence for this one. There's a lot "off" that I've heard about this one and I'm not sure that it will evoke the nostalgia goggles as much as I hope it would. For anyone that is a follower of the series, how does this game compare to the earlier instalments single-player wise?

The story is not as good as Black but the presentation is better with the live action cutscenes.

The controls are a pain in the ass at the beginning, so I'd do a few challenge matches to get used to them (some people have suggested the racing layout but I haven't tried it).

Getting used to them, well the game is still aracdey but there are a lot of alternative specials and ways of using certain weapons that won't become obvious right away. I had to look up how to use Death Warrant and Roadkill's alt specials because they're confusing. They actually have videos on the TM website explaining some of the tactics you can do with the weapons, and those are useful (it's weird that those videos aren't in the game though).

All that aside, there is more variety in the single player, and it's nice that you don't have to repeat the same 8 levels with 13 or so different cars just to see everything. It's just one string of events and that's it.

There's death matches and races and cage matches (there's a harmless laser cage that moves around the level, if you stay out of it for too long you take damage) and endurance battles (kill X people to advance, when one dies another person respawns) and the bosses are cool.

It's fun once you get a handle on things.

Thanks for the reply! At least it sounds fun. I'm guessing it's not quite $60 worth from your description, but once it comes down in price I may pick it up.

 

[Therumancer]

Man this game series really slipped my mind! Never heard of it until now.
...
Good to know that I didn't miss anything particular brilliant

But I don't think Yahzee's hatred of children is healthy... he definitely has to play more "my little pony" or something like that...

Actually you kind of did, Twisted Metal has gone on for so long because it's really kind of unique and has a vibe like nothibng else. Indeed there was a lot of pressure on the developers to do another game, and a bit of a "scandal" when they were asked if their next big project was a new TM game, to which they said 'no' and then revealed that it was indeed what they were working on.

I think what Yahtzee, and others, are kind of missing is that Twisted Metal was going for a sort of 80s vibe, in trying to be both campy and legitimate horror at the same time, and for the most part it's succeeded, even if current sensibilities that want everything to be straightforward kind of rebel at the idea. It exists as a counterpart to other "car combat" games which were intended to be a lot more goofy and got for exactly the kind of vibe that Yahtzee and others seem to think they should have, that's what makes "Twisted Metal" a
little differant.

As far as traumatizing children, my immediate point is that kids are not supposed to be playing this game to begin with. Thus the whole issue of there being a contriditary atmosphere in the "electronic parenting unit" is irrelevent. Saying that all car combat games should be child friendly, is kind of ridiculous, especially seeing as that's the kind of attitude that Twisted Metal was trying to get away from.

My only real problem with the earlier Twisted Metal games, especially Black which was my favorite, is simply that instead of a free for all arena, it seems like a case where everyone in the whole arena all gangs up on you. If I'm in an Arena with say 6 other cars, chances are I'm going to have to fight and destroy all of them, and they are all going to focus on me, I suppose that does make things more challenging, but at the same time I find it a little annoying and that it sort of ruins the entire premise. One of the things I've been wondering about is if they sort of changed that in the current game.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Did anyone else notice how pointedly there was no direct swearing in this vid or have I just not been paying attention recently?

 

[The Lugz]

it has to be said, 4:50 Best Image Ever.

good classic zp, keep it up

 

[GETbacon]

I wounder if Yahtzee knows their making a reboot of Carmagedon?

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

I loved the Twisted Metal series from the start. My favourite game for a while was Twisted Metal 2 which I have beaten with every character a number of times and had written down every pass code. I even enjoyed Twisted Metal 4 due to the limited ability to make your own car to co-op with a friend. I played the hell out of Black and even got Head-On on the PSP. I even played the hell out of Small Brawl because that game was awesomely weird with a friend. And now that this is out on the PS3? What can I say...I'm ecstatic! I played it to bits the first few days. Went through the co-op campaign with a friend once on Normal then tried hard. Now stuck on hard trying to take out two Upgraded Juggernauts but that isn't too bad. The entire game is just a fun blast from the past for me. I'm actually having a marathon of it on Friday because it is that awesome!

 

[cauze]

Can you fix the full-screen button? I don't think it was done on purpose, but when you load the video up and try to use the full-screen link it sends you to an advertisement link. After a couple of minutes it works again. At first I thought this was a false link tactic and was a little upset, but now I think that it was done by accident.

Thanks

 

[DarkPheonix13]

I saw this review before I played the game, so the inconsistant tone bit confused me. All of the other TM games had a consistant tone of being psychotic all the way through, with the exception of maybe Black. The gameplay was psychotic, and so was the story; the wishes also seemed a bit wacko. Sweet Tooth in TM 2 wanted to be a little bug in a garden, so he could live a life of peace. He killed countless people to get that wish, so it seemed a little off, but it gelled with the tone of everyone being crazy in those games. In this TM, the only three playable characters (which I find as another problem, because there was at least 8 different characters in previous title, and all of them had there own story) are all evil. Evil is different from psychotic, because psychotic is wanting to go faster than the speed of light as a wish, or wanting a family road trip with Sweet Tooth. While evil is murdering an entire family, and using the wish to seek down the only remaining member so he can make her die and scream in agony and sheer terror. Also, it's murdering your way to the top of modeling, and using the wish to become even more famous.

This game definitely does have an inconsistant tone, especially because they kept the bright locations and gameplay from 2, with an even eviler story than Black. I say don't really go for this one, unless you're familiar with the series, and want to see the most famous characters again in a new story. If you're unfamiliar, but interested, then it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a dark storyline with some slightly dark gameplay, TM Black is your best bet. If you're looking for completely psychotic people doing psychotic things, then TM 2,3,4, and Head On are good choices. TM 1 had too many problems to hold up now, and TM Small Brawl was a spin off. If you're not interested in TM at all, then why are you reading this? That's basically what I think.