Real Talk By: KJ (Kris Jones)

Its been a while, but the return of Twisted Metal is here. Sweet Tooth and the gang are ready for war. Somewhat. Twisted Metal lacks the characters this time, and focuses more on the vehicles. Each ride still has special abilities including its own strengths and weaknesses. Most vehicles offer an assistant character like the Death Race film. There are Power-ups a plenty. Sniper Rifles, Homing Missiles, Shotguns, and a lot more. With the combinations of weapons and vehicles on-screen at once, there’s never a dull moment. The graphics are welcomed on PS3 and I think people went a little to hard with their opinions. Keep in mind, we experienced no slowdown, and there’s just so much happening on-screen at a time. Explosions, rockets flying, pedestrians trampled, so the visuals work.

In typical TM Fashion, some stages contain death traps unique to the level. It’s important for the player to learn the maps. There’s the standard Deathmatch where a lot of the action will happen in the game. The mode we found to be challenging but very fun, was the Cage Match. For a limited amount of time an area will be caged in. Anyone not in the area will begin to receive damage to their vehicle. Stay in or die. This Classic series really has a lot of modes available for the player. Another one sees the users pursing a player deemed The Hunted. If that player happens to kill the pursuers, that team will earn double points. Nuke match requires the driver to sacrifice the other teams leader, by taking him to a vehicle that will grind them all up. It’s a brilliant take on Capture the flag.

Death will happen a lot in Twisted Metal, especially to any newbies. The controls are very difficult to pick up right away, so much that its understandable if someone doesn’t give the game a shot. Before you go online, before you play story mode, please play the tutorial. We recommend turning the control settings to “Car” as this felt the most natural. After training, I jumped right into the story mode.

Story Follows Three Characters. Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm and Dollface. Each story is introduced by some well done cut-scenes. You really find out just how sick the clown is in the story. The plot stays true to the PS1 classics. The main man calypso’s car combat tourney which they all compete in, sees the winner receiving any wish of their choosing. I was enjoying Sweet Tooth’s campaign, but in the back of my mind didn’t want him to get his wish.

The levels consist of modes before mentioned, including a race mode. Hit all the gates while racing from the beginning to the end. It’s incredibly hard to catch up to the people in 1 and 2 place. It’s still a fun mode, but play it in Coop. The A.I. doesn’t like to make mistakes during races so frustration will ensue. I appreciate the variety in gameplay the boss battles offer, but some lack a level of polish and could have used more time in the lab. The Iron Maiden will be the cause of broken controllers across America. Thinking of playing the game on Easy? It doesn’t exist. Normal is the easiest, if you can even call it that. Getting through the campaign can be done efficiently, but if done with a friend.

Once you figure out your control set, Twisted metal truly is a blast to play. Used gamers there is no trial on the network play, you’ll have to dish out the Ten dollars. I can’t see this online community going anywhere. Twisted Metal is such a unique experience that really needed to come back. Among all the FPS’ flooding the market, this has a level of carnage to match them all. It reminds us of the bad-ass games we used to play, and adds some new elements as well.

Twisted Metal Gets

Out of five

What’s Legit?

+An absolute blast online

+A hardcore Gamers dream

+Mountainous Fun factor pushes its flaws to the side

What’s Perpetrating?

-Controls more difficult than need be

-Online Pass

-Balancing Issues in Campaign mode.