I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. I've skirted around it before, I talked about it extensively in my Warhawk review, I referenced it on my 10's list, but this is the first time I've ever done a full review of a Twisted Metal game.
I touched on this in the Warhawk review, but I think you can safely classify Twisted Metal in the "off the beaten path" category. No new games since 2009, 12 years. The most recent release in the franchise came six years ago, with the re-release of Twisted Metal: Black on the Playstation network. It's kind of sad really. There was a time when Twisted Metal was a really, really big deal. Whenever one of these games came out, it was a big deal. Some were classic (I will eventually cover Twisted Metal 2 as part of my 10's) others were disappointing (TM3 is really, really bad) but there was always a lot of hype surrounding them. Then, it just wasn't. I have always chalked it up to the decline in popularity of vehicular combat games and the somewhat disappointing PS3 title, the final new game in the series. At some point, I'm probably going to cover that game, as well as Black, in later articles. But this week, we're going to go back to where it all started.
The answers are 'better than it has any right playing' and 'for the most part' respectively. There were a ton of things that could have gone wrong here, they often did with games early in a new generation, but Sony managed to put together a quality game on what was ostensibly their first try. The controls are functional, they would have been complicated on an old controller but the 8 buttons on the PS1 controller made them simple. The d-pad accelerates and steers and the buttons allow you to fire machine guns, fire your limited weapons, switch weapons, turbo, reverse and switch between three different camera angles (third person, close third person and first person). It might take a little bit of time for a racing game fan to get used to, but I never really had an issue with it. Everything is generally responsive and the cars that feel like they have awful steering feel like that because they are supposed to.
Which leads me to my next positive, the vehicle ratings all actually feel like they matter. Fast cars are actually fast, cars with good specials actually have good specials, etc., etc. Each vehicle is rated on armor, speed, handling and special weapon, with each category rated between 1 and 6. You really need to consider your playstyle and strategy while picking your character or you are going to have a bad time, which is really what the ratings should be for. Mr. Grimm (a motorcycle) has the best special in the game and it will quickly melt even the most heavily armored in two to three shots. He's fast as hell, but he also has next to no armor. If he crashes into Hammerhead (a Monster Truck) or Darkside (a Semi-Truck) he's going to lose most of his life and may even die in one hit if he's going fast enough. Of course, getting close to Grimm is easier said than done for those vehicles as they are both painfully slow and handle like my brother's old '92 Honda Passport (which is to say, poorly). I wouldn't quite call it balanced, I will get into that a little later, but it is at least fair and it makes total sense.
You can't discuss Twisted Metal without talking about the cast of the bizzare, disturbing and often ridiculous vehicles and characters. Many of those characters got there start here, including the aforementioned Mr. Grimm with its mysterious rider, and Hammerhead, "borrowed" by two teenage stoners to enter into the competition. Perhaps none are more recognizable than the evil ice cream truck Sweet Tooth and its driver, the twisted and deranged Needles Kane, who hasn't quite reached serial killer status in this version. Many of the cars, including Darkside, Spectre(a slick sportscar), Warthog (a military jeep), Roadkill (a car pieced together from junkyard parts), Thumper (a pink low rider) and Outlaw (a police car) got their start here, though their drivers have changed throughout various iterations of the game (Outlaw is the only one that has any driver continuity throughout the original series). Crimson Fury (a red corvette) and Yellow Jacket (a taxi) have made other appearances throughout the series, but I think this is the only appearance of Pit Viper (a dune buggy of some sort) in the entirety of the TM franchise. As mentioned above, each car has their own unique stats and special moves, which range in effectiveness. They all each have their own unique dashboard graphics in first person view, which isn't really critical to gameplay but is just kind of cool. It's an interesting cast with a lot of variety from both gameplay and personality standpoints and everyone will find something to like. I also think its cool that the game at least tries to explain the motivations of the characters, even if it isn't exactly story heavy.
Oh yeah, the story. Basically, an underground criminal calling himself Calypso has organized a vehicular combat tournament in Los Angeles (in the far off year of...2005) where the winner will receive anything they could possibly wish for. You see, Calypso has some sort of magical powers, a motif that continues throughout the series though I'm not sure its ever explained. In this game, all you see of him is a single, ridiculous looking still image of a guy with really bad makeup that's supposed to be burns to his face. Completing the game with each character reveals their true motivations and their endings, which mostly consist of scrolling text. There were originally supposed to be FMV videos for each character's ending, but those were cut and frankly, that's for the best. Anyone lucky enough to own Twisted Metal: Head On for the PS2 (another game I will review eventually) can view these absolutely hilarious videos if they so choose. It's goofy, stupid and ridiculous, but it's that way because it's supposed to be.
That does bring us to one of the issues I did have with the original TM. There are only six levels and all of them look pretty much the same. I get that the game takes place within the confines of one city, but a little variety would have been nice. It's like a breath of fresh air when you get to the suburbia level and it's actually nice and light out. The others aren't without their charm, but they all just look so similar. To me, this was the biggest step up that the second game made from the first. The warehouse district and park levels look almost identical and the freeway level has almost nothing to look at aside from roads and underpasses. That's not to say the level design is bad, its just uninspired and looking at the similar visuals gets old after a while. The sound is also mediocre at best and you almost can't hear it at all in some of the levels.
While the character special weapons are cool, most of the pickup weapons are either not interesting or not useful. First, there are way too many rear firing/dropping weapons, which aren't particularly useful in a game like this. You have mines, bumpers, tire spikes and oil slicks, all of which serve essentially the same role, along with a rear flamethrower and missile. That's more than half of the weapons in the game. It's really hard to use these things effectively because you really can't see if someone is behind you. Your best bet is to just wait and listen for their special move sound effect, but by then its usually too late. Your front firing weapons consist of regular, homing and freeze missiles. The freeze missiles are essentially useless, as by the time you switch to another weapon your opponent has most likely regained their movement. So that basically leaves two, maybe three weapons besides your specials that are useful.
While the characters feel fairly designed, they aren't particularly balanced. I think the developers valued speed and handling a bit too much, which led to a few too many cars that can't take much damage or dish it out either. As previously discussed, Mr. Grimm's design works because he's a glass cannon, he can't take the damage but he can dish it out. However, Crimson Fury, Specter and Yellowjacket all feel like their specials don't do enough to back up how easy it is to kill them. On the flip side, Hammerhead has tons of armor and a great special, so even though he can barely turn he will eventually land the one or two blows he needs to destroy the small cars while also being able to easily damage race the other big ones. I honestly think they didn't actually balance the characters, I'm pretty positive that not everyone has the same amount of total points distributed across the different categories. I didn't take the time to count, but I'm almost certain that Roadkill has like 3 or 4 more total attribute points than Yellowjacket. It's not just those two, I found it consistent throughout all of the vehicles.
My last complaint, and biggest complaint, is the snipers placed throughout all of the levels. Who's idea was this? It's one of the most annoying things I've EVER experienced in a video game. It adds absolutely nothing to the challenge and feels incredibly cheap, especially since these guys never seem to shoot computer players. It makes hunting for health powerups difficult because these guys often hand out around the recharge platforms, which is a huge pain. And they aren't weak either, their bullets do considerable damage and they will mess you up given enough time. You can kill them, but its almost impossible to hit them with your bullets and equally difficult to run them over without getting hit. It's stupid, it's annoying, it's cheap, it's frustrating and I hate it.
But even something that annoying couldn't completely kill my enjoyment of this old school classic. It has a lot of flaws, but it was so ambitious for its time and its easy to see why the series developed the following that it did. I would definitely say Sony (or SingleTrac or whoever) got this right the first time, though the didn't get it perfect. Twisted Metal still holds up today and I didn't feel it was difficult to go back and play, though I don't think it quite offers as much as some of its contemporaries. In terms of pure gameplay and design, I would never recommend going back to this game over the second, because that game is amazing. But the original TM is still an interesting curiosity that holds an important part in gaming history without being too difficult to play. It's not the best in the series or the genre, but it's still a great time 25 years.
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