As I played through the first single-player mission of the new Twisted Metal I felt oddly disconnected from the previous games in the franchise. Perhaps my appreciation for the car combat genre had waned over the decade separating the latest title from PlayStation 2 classic Twisted Metal Black. Maybe I was just too old for this shit.
Then White Zombieâs âMore Human Than Humanâ kicked in, and it all came back to me.
The song instantly transported me back to the mid-90s, when the original Twisted Metal was a regular staple of my PlayStation rotation. I loved driving games, but I wasnât particularly good at them. I enjoyed shooters, but again, they werenât my strong suit. But this combination of driving and shooting? This I could do. Coupled with a warped storyline torn from the pages of a disaffected teenage outcastâs notebook doodles and you had heavy metal come to life in video game form.
Itâs been ten years since we last visited Sweet Tooth and company (less if you count 2008âs PS2 port of the PSP game Twisted Metal: Head On), and while the story has taken a much darker turn, that adolescent heavy metal spirit lives on.
Loved
Quest for the Clown: Twisted Metal lives up to its name in the gameâs story mode, filled with shocking live-action scenes of over-the-top evil and depravity straight out of a mid-90s horror flick. In the first act weâre reintroduced to the murderous ice cream truck driver Sweet Tooth by way of a dead girlâs body lying in the road. We see how he transformed from a mild-mannered family man into a ruthless butcher whose only request for wish-granting contest runner Calypso is to kill the one that got away. Slight spoiler here: At one point in his quest for revenge he murders an entire hospital.
Itâs completely ridiculous. I love it. I only wish there was more of it, as only three characters get this special story treatment.
WHY: Because after all these years itâs still the best the vehicle combat genre has to offer.
TWISTED METAL
Developer: Eat Sleep Play
Platforms: PlayStation 3
Released: February 14 (U.S.), March 7 (Europe)
Type of game: Vehicle Combat.
What I played: Played through single-player story mode on normal difficulty, which was plenty difficult. Participated in online multiplayer press session lasting a couple of hours and covering all multiplayer modes. Played multiple rounds of multiplayer post-release.
My Two Favorite Things
Online multiplayer for the non first-person shooter set
Destruction, Destruction, Destruction
My Two Least-Favorite Things
Where did all the characters go?
Those damn checkpoint races
Made-to-Order Back-of-Box Quotes
âThe triumphant return of a classic PlayStation franchiseâ -Mike Fahey, Kotaku.com
âYouâll never need to hear another Sammy Hagar song again!â -Mike Fahey, Kotaku.com
âDid he just kill an entire hospital?â -Mike Fahey, Kotaku.com
Deceptively Complex: Driving and shooting seems like a pretty straightforward proposition, but in Twisted Metal itâs not quite that simple. Every button of the Dualshock is in play here: switching weapons, charging special attacks, expending boost, cutting sharp turns, and kicking your vehicle into turbo reverse (a highly useful skill to master). Theyâve even got the accelerometer in play here, with a quick forward jolt of the controller required to initiate a super boost move. This is a game that will give your fingers a workout.
The reward for familiarizing yourself with the complicated controls is a much more strategic means of killing cars with other cars, far deeper than simply charging at your opponent guns blazing. Itâs about which weapon to use in which situation, when to throw up your shield, when to drop a mine, and when to perform a quick 180 followed by a reverse boost to focus your guns on a pursuer. Iâve had it done to me. It was incredibly impressive.
Competitive Multiplayer for the Rest of Us: This is an online multiplayer game for those of us that spawn in a match of Modern Warfare 3 and die instantly. Itâs a game where simply running into another at high speed can cause significant damage; not everyone can shoot, but anyone can crash a car, right? Whether you choose to fly it solo in a free-for-all match or prefer to play with a team, itâs easy to survive if you learn your maps and drive real fast. Excelling is another thing altogether, but at least youâll have fun.
And if you really want to polish up your skills Eat Sleep Play has seen fit to include a challenge mode where you can practice against bots before taking the fight online. Hell, theyâve even got split screen play so you can invite over friends you know will be easy kills. Thatâs what friends are for.
Destroying All the Pretty Places: The first level of Twisted Metalâs story mode sees you driving through beautiful suburban Sunsprings, California. Straight through it, houses and all. The gameâs eight maps (most of which can be played in sections or as a whole) are peppered with destructible buildings, destructible scenery, and especially destructible pedestrians. And while destruction for destructionâs sake is lovely, taking out buildings and driving through storefronts has strategic value as well, opening up new paths and uncovering hidden weapons that could turn the tide of battle in your favor.
Plus itâs pretty damn amazing to be driving down a street and get slammed into by an enemy that tore his way through a residential area just to get at you. It makes you feel all special.
Custom Soundtrack Support: The Twisted Metal soundtrack features two different Sammy Hagar songs. That is two more Sammy Hagar songs than anyone ever need hear. Of course thatâs my (and Van Halen fansâ) opinion, so instead of dropping Sammy into the hated category, Iâll give the game props for allowing me to select my own music to crash and burn by. I highly suggest My Life with the Thrill Kill Kultâs âSex on Wheelsâ, as it makes you completely invincible while it plays (no it does not).
Hated
Where Did Everybody Go?: Twisted Metalâs usually large cast has been trimmed down to three characters: Sweet Tooth, Dollface, and Mr. Grimm. While this makes the story mode easier to digest, it strips away some of the character the franchise has built up over the years.
Trimming down the character fat also means that each character is no longer constrained to their signature ride, which while convenient detracts from the gameâs narrative, as it were. Sweet Tooth is a clown that drives a demonic ice cream truck. Why is he in a sports car? Because thereâs no one else to drive it, I suppose. I miss all my crazy friends *sniffle*.
Screw You, Checkpoint Races: There are distinct differences between combat racing and vehicle combat, one of the core ones being that one of them works in Twisted Metal, and the other one doesnât. As you progress through story mode youâll come up against levels where instead of simply killing everyone you meet youâve got to race to the finish line before everyone else does. If you arenât in first, youâre dead. This shifts the focus from combat to speed, from shooting missiles to dodging them as you desperately try to get there before everyone else. Itâs a disconnected experience, and a frustrating one to boot.
Hard and Complicated: Conquering the complicated controls of Twisted Metal has its rewards, as I previously mentioned, but itâs also a chore than could put off the less dedicated player. It took me hours of play before I truly felt comfortable with what I was doing, and even now my fingers will get mixed up and push the wrong button at the wrong time.
The single-player difficulty level can be off-putting as well. After spending an hour trying to get past the first checkpoint race I spent another hour trying to best the gameâs first boss battle; a diabolical double-order of deadly enemies put your survival skills to the test. And it doesnât get any easier from there. If youâre up for a challenge youâll find it here. If youâre easily frustrated you might just want to stick to multiplayer.
Itâs been 17 years since the debut of the original Twisted Metal on the PlayStation, kicking open the door like a boisterous head-banging teenage rebel, spikes and unfettered rage bolstered by the devil-may-care energy of youth. In that time I, like many fans of the original, have transformed from angry youth to responsible adult, paying bills, taking care of my family, and maintaining a certain level of respectability. Iâve matured.
Twisted Metal has not. Itâs still that same angry teenager, fueled by metal and ready to kick ass at every turn. The stories may be darker, the competition fiercer, but at its heart Twisted Metal is still the wild child it always was, and with the controller gripped tight in white-knuckled hands while Rob Zombie growls in the background, so am I.
