Last time we saw Twisted Metal was back in 2008 with Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition (itself being a port of 2005's PSP launch title Twisted Metal Head-On). What I'm getting at here is we haven't seen a Twisted Metal game in a long time. Boy am I tired of writing this kind of opening, this whole "Hey, an old franchise you loved is back, is it any good?" schtick is old-- how 'bout some original games, game industry! Or at least update your franchises often enough so I don't feel compelled to mention it, I guess. Anyways, hit the jump and all that if you're curious if the new Twisted Metal for PS3 is any good.
Twisted Metal's life hasn't always been a good one-- it's been bounced around to 4 different developers, making the quality of each game all over the board. Sometimes they'll be fantastic, like Twisted Metal 2 then sometimes you end up with a total turd like Twisted Metal: Small Brawl. Then on top of that you could also get something like Twisted Metal Black that seems like the coolest thing ever when you're an angsty high schooler, then you go back and see if it holds up now and realize it's completely and ridiculously over the top. This new Twisted Metal (cleverly titled Twisted Metal which begs the question what will they call it's inevitable sequel) falls somewhere between Black and the original series. It's really dark, but maintains the black humor and doesn't have as dreary of environments as Black did. It's a good place to be, tonally, and should appease both fans of the original Twisted Metals and Twisted Metal Black.
It strays from the previous games in some disappointment ways, though. Instead of getting a wide cast of characters with separate stories and endings, you get a whopping 3 characters that you have to play through in order (Sweet Tooth, Mr.Grim (whose head is disappointingly not just a skeleton), and Dollface). It really makes the single player mode the equivalent to a punch in the balls in comparison to what you used to get in all the other TM games. It seems like the developers over at Eat Sleep Play were more focused on the multiplayer component that I couldn't play, because of Sony's stupid insistence that the game require a $10 online pass and I rented the game out of a Redbox (I'm not made of money here, people). Based on my experience with the single player mode though, multiplayer probably ain't all that great anyways.
The biggest thing I have issue with is the play control-- none of these cars feel like cars! Now I'm not expecting Gran Turismo like authenticity here, that would be silly for a TM game (but it might be cool for a different series, imagine super realistic car combat!) but I'd like to feel like I was controlling a car and not some kind of floaty boat, this isn't Dead in the Water for PS1. The physics are ridiculous too, and not in a good way. I good hit from somebody (especially semi-truck nightmare Juggernaut) can send your car spinning through the air to the other side of the map, which in some game modes (I'll get to those later) is an obnoxious death warrant. The gameplay is standard Twisted Metal fare with some minor differences. Since there's only 3 playable characters you can put them in a multitude of different cars (most of which are from classic Twisted Metals) and you normally get three cars per match that you can switch out at a garage if your health gets low. It's sort of a novel idea and adds a layer of strategy to the game, but seeing Sweet Tooth driving anything but his ice cream truck just feels wrong. The bizarre roster shrinkage and different design choices make the game feel like some sort of spin-off rather than a real Twisted Metal game. I'm reminded of a quote by series director David Jaffe on two of the games (III and IV) in the series he didn't work on:
....[in and of themselves] they're good games, they're just not good Twisted Metal games.
Oddly enough, this pretty much sums up this new Twisted Metal as well, and he directed it. And it's not even that good!
Let me get to those game modes I mentioned earlier. We have standard deathmatch, which is good and what you'd expect from a TM game, boss challenges, which can be slightly annoying, but they're OK (and some have some cool narrative touches, like Sweet Tooth's battle with the Grimm monster trucks), races which are stupid and don't belong in a TM game, and cage matches which are just absolutely god-awful and annoying. You're given a constantly moving box shaped area you or supposed to stay in or risk losing health, (once you're too-short "grace period" expires) so forget that trip to the garage when your health gets low, or have fun when somebody knocks you across the stage, because you're gonna die and it's totally not going to feel like it's your fault. It doesn't help that the game is constantly reminding you via voice over to "get back to the cage," "your grace period is about to expire," and "you are taking damage get back to the cage," gee, I had no idea, game, is that why my screen is blinking red!? It's by far the worst and most aggravating mode in the game, and it's not even the one that kinda goes against the game's entire tradition. That one would be the racing, which is total uninspired and unnecessary in a TM game. This is where the game's boat-like controls hurt the most too, making the whole thing just an all around mess. You basically have to hope you get a good start, don't fall off any cliffs (as much as the floaty controls want to make you) and take out whatever car is programmed to be in first. No racing in my Twisted Metal, please. If I want to play a racing game where I can also shoot missiles there are about five million other places I can go for that, including Mario Kart. Stick to deathmatch, guys.
The graphics are pretty good, I mean it's a first party PS3 exclusive so they kind of have to be. There is some obnoxious pop-in, but it doesn't effect the gameplay or anything, so it's passable. The cutscenes are kind of lame though, they're live action and I'm assuming on green screens, so it kinda looks like an HD version of an FMV game from 1995. They should have just went with 3D animation as it looks a lot less cheesy when you are dealing with things like clowns with flaming heads...it really makes me wonder why they would want live action in the first place other than the fact the the original Twisted Metal was intended to have them, but they got cut (and oddly enough, it was released in 1995). The game's music is so all over the place you could diagnose it with multiple personality disorder, some levels I heard hip hop, some metal, and some classic rock (I Can't Drive 55!? Really?), and of course it's all licensed tunes, because Sony has to try and make everything as cool and hip as possible. Sound is fine, although the little tips from the announcer (mentioned above when I was talking about Cage Matches) get pretty annoying. Yes, I know I can swap out cars at the garage, why do you feel the need to tell me that every time my health is low, game!?
Overall, it's a pretty disappointing game, especially for a console exclusive. Maybe I would of found the multiplayer enjoyable, but thanks to the online pass, I couldn't try it out, so if you feel like the multiplayer would of improved this game's score, blame Sony, not me. For now, though, this is what it gets:
PXT Final Verdict: 5.0/10
[caption id="attachment_1029" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Sweet Tooth wonders where it all went wrong."]
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