By Joel Smart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 22, 2012
For most people, Valentine’s Day evokes imagery of heart-shaped chocolates, bouquets of red roses and lovers whispering sweet nothings to each other over romantic candlelit dinners. Yet, for nostalgic PlayStation 3 owners, the day was overwhelmingly joyful for an entirely different reason – the chance to blow up cars, run over pedestrians and otherwise enjoy the dark, demented world of a classic gaming series come back to life. Twisted Metal, released February 14, marked the first genuine release in the series in over a decade.
Just over 15 years ago, Twisted Metal 2 was released on the PlayStation. It was a zany, competitive car combat video game that appealed to every part of my 11-year-old self. I saved up the money and bought myself the game system and the game, and it was over a year before I bought another game. I played it endlessly. I still know every character, every secret in every level, and every cheat code (from acceptable codes that allow your vehicle to jump or shoot a freeze-blast out of the front, to the cheap ones like the God Mode cheat that makes you invulnerable to attack). The point is, the series holds a dear place in my heart (and thus, I’m not an entirely unbiased critic of the game).
Car combat is a genre that has largely died off over the last decade, but it isn’t entirely clear why; it merges the best of both the driving/racing world with that of the shooter – at least, for the type of person who would be more likely to watch Nascar highlights to see the crashes than the victor.
Twisted Metal for PS3 starts with the same basic premise – contestants battle each other in different weapon-loaded vehicles across a series of destructable levels in a last-man-standing deathmatch. The winner of the contest meets Calypso, the evil “CEO” of Calypso’s Twisted Metal Tournament, and is awarded the ultimate prize – any wish they choose will be granted. Yet, each wish is always twisted and things turn out for the worse.
More important than the story, though, is the classic, chaotic gameplay. Thankfully, it plays incredibly smoothly, especially considering the amount of intense action almost always happening on-screen, and within what can often be extremely large, complex levels. Almost every structure can be destroyed, from highway barriers and trees to entire houses and churches, and more. Often this opens new areas to play or hide – one great building has an entire ice rink within. Another arena has spectators in the stands that can be run over – if it sounds gruesome, that’s because it is… this game is pretty dark, but it also doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Controls for the game were always a bit hit or miss – some love them, other’s hate them. There is no denying that it takes a bit of practice to get it right. The game sacrifices realism for the sake of gameplay. For example, in most games you require quite a bit of space to turn around, making it difficult to navigate tight corridors. In Twisted Metal, simply holding the handbrake allows the player to turn, while stopped, in any direction. It’s an arcadey, intentional throwback to the original Twisted Metal games.
The game does have a few missed opportunities. The choice to focus on just three main characters, instead of the many characters from the originals really takes away from the fun of the story mode. The live-action videos also fall a bit flat with me – though better than I was expecting, to be fair. Sometimes the opposition feels a little cheap, as well, but it could be worse.
The real meat of the game is the multiplayer, whether that be on or offline (up to four players can play splitscreen on the same TV). There are a ton of online modes, but classic deathmatch is where it’s at. If nothing else, rent the game and play some splitscreen with some friends – you’ll be surprised just how much fun this old-school genre still is today.
