"So many pedestrians... so little time." That held true for the
original Carmageddon, and it still holds for Carmageddon 2. There
are still multiple pedestrians to mow down, and there's still not
enough time for all of them. But before I start my venture in the
dark, grim world of pedestrian plowing, car wrecking, "an insane
place, with insane moves / battles without for battles within /
where evil lives, and evil rules / breaking them up, just breaking
them in," (to quote a pretty good song) I should forewarn you that
the opinions represented in this review are drastically different
from those in the ones that follow. It seems like I found the game a
fair bit more fun and enjoyable than the other reviewers did - well,
such is life, and there are as many opinions as people. Maybe
even more, for split-personality issues. Oh yeah, since I'm in the
warning mood, this review includes gory descriptions, so please,
skip down to the next review if you find them offensive in some
obscure way.
Either way, I thought Carmageddon 2 was fun. I suppose I should
mention that I found the original to be very enjoyable, as well -
contrary to, say, PC Gamer's opinion. But then again, they also
somewhat hated Grand Theft Auto - and I liked it quite a bit, as
well.
The idea of Carmageddon 2 is simple. You are provided with a
powerful car, the Eagle, and your objective is to win a race.
Simple. There are three ways of winning a race: you can either
race through the checkpoints (the 'loser' way), you can demolish
all your opposition (the easiest way) or, and this one is by far the
hardest, you can mow down every single pedestrian in the city.
The latter one, I find, is somewhat less enjoyable, especially
without the 'Peds shown on map' powerup, as it gets pretty hard
seeking out that last pedestrian. Not to say I've ever done it,
though - I'd consider myself mentally deficient had I been an
authority on completing the levels using the latter method. I've
done it precisely once, and as far as I remember it was pure luck -
it was also in the original Carmageddon, where the pedestrian
count numbered at least one-third that of an average C2 level. And
they didn't obstruct driving, either - in C2, whenever you hit a
body, the car loses a bit of traction, and it actually feels like you
drove over something. Drive over three bodies in a shot, and not
only do you pick up a 3x bonus, but you also will most likely spin
the car completely. For that part, the graphics are really nicely
done - in the original Carmageddon, pedestrians were sprites, and
they really didn't feel like driven-over entities. They just made a
messy goo on the road which slurped whenever you drove over it.
The developers must have realized that wasn't sufficiently gory -
behold the new 3D bodies, completely decomposable. Hit
someone at 15mph and see him lie down on your hood until you
either swerve to throw him on the ground - or, if you have more
skill, ram into the nearest wall and behold a Piledriver Bonus. Hit
someone at 100mph, and not only do you pick up a fat Splatter
Bonus, but, depending on the force and direction of impact, the
body might be torn apart, such that the upper half slams into the
nearest wall while the legs travel off in a different direction.
I do admire the extents to which Stainless went to ensure thorough
enjoyment of the game by the player. People jump out of the way,
knee, beg for salvation; dogs whimper, cows moo and run, and the
other types of pedestrians perform appropriate acts, depending on
what intellect level they belong to.
But the development time hasn't been spent on inflicting damage
on bodily tissue alone. The cars are destructible - and in most
obscene ways. This is not the fake mesh warping Viper Racing
uses. Granted, mesh warping looks cool - but fails to deliver in the
end. In Carmageddon 2, the car model consists of different parts,
and it's not uncommon to have moldings or body panels coming
off, windshield shattering, hood opening, doors flapping
helplessly, headlights/taillights breaking, and so forth. Flames
break out once your engine is too damaged, as well - and, unlike
in the original Carmageddon, destroyed cars don't always
burn down. But bodywork and engine damage aren't the only ones
available to spice up your day - wheels, steering, transmission - all
those can be damaged, with the functionality decreasing as the
part sheds its showroom condition. Fortunately (and this is where
the arcade element comes in) you can repair the car on-the-fly
with the money you accumulate from sending people, dogs, cows,
aliens and whoever else to the Maker. You get money for
damaging your opponents, too - and should you ever flip your car
in an innovative way, you get a Cunning Stunt Bonus. You can also
purchase armor, engine power and offensive upgrades - the cost
progressively increases as you gain higher levels of those
components. You can also purchase cars, which is a welcome
change from Carmageddon 1 - any car that is destroyed at the end
of the race is available for purchase, albeit sometimes with rather
hefty price tags. And what is very welcome is that the handling of
the cars is much improved since C1 - you don't feel like you're on
an ice rink in summer shoes anymore.
The graphics in the game are quite good, especially compared to
the original. I would still say the engine is somewhat deficient, and
it's a bit lagged on my P200, but it's playable - except in some
specific conditions. The graphics aren't the eyecandy that, say,
Forsaken was - but they're enjoyable, and not extraneously fake.
The objects that are constantly shoved in your face, like your car
or blood, are very well-detailed (as detailed as blood can be, that
is). Humans (or zombies) are slightly less complex, but I suppose
that was the only way to prevent the game from crawling - I doubt
a 20,000 triangle human taken a thousand times would make much
of a gameplay, even on the fastest of machines. The environment
graphics are pretty good, with the only exception being the water -
it looks somewhat cheesy in my opinion. One of the cooler effects
is glass - many buildings have glass entrances, cars have glass
windows, windshields, et cetera - and they break under sufficient
stress.
The powerups are fairly varied, as well. If you've played the demo
you'll find some new ones have been added, and the abundance
of powerups that was available in the demo is no longer - they're
fairly scarce, except for the usual X credit bonus or the X seconds
bonus. There are three types of powerups: global timed ones, local
permanent and local timed. Global timed include the likes of
Pinball Mode, which means that whenever you hit a hard object,
be that a car, a building, a lamppost or whatever, your car will
rebound with at least double the force as you hit it with. It's very
dangerous if picked up in a narrow corridor at high speed - you're
almost 100% likely to die. The fact that it's Global means that
others are affected by it, as well - which could be a great weapon
if used properly. Local Permanent powerups are the likes of armor
upgrades, money/time bonuses and inventory items that only affect
your car, and Local Timed are, well, things that affect your car and
are timed. Case at point: Greased Tyres, Mega-Turbo, HotRod,
Solid Granite Car, Pedestrian Electro-Bastard Ray and others. The
variety of powerups was quite vast in the original, but Stainless
went further and added an Inventory. The idea is, that sometimes
you can pick up powerups that you'd rather not use until you
actually encounter someone - like oil slicks, or mines, or other,
more bizarre methods of destruction. This way you can
accumulate single-use items, like the aforementioned mines, and
just hit Alt whenever you want to use it - simple, useful and much
more deadly.
The sound effects in the game are pretty good. I find the
screaming of people gets a bit annoying, but I suppose it goes with
the territory. The car sounds, contrary to what my fellow reviewers
say, are quite good and I have no reason to complain about them -
after all, how good or bad can you make an engine sound?
Barring the dispute, that is, which sounds better - the BMW V12
used in RR's, in McLaren F1s, the Ferrari V12s used in, well,
Ferraris, the Porsche inline-6's and so forth - that (usually) depends
on which one the person arguing owns.
The actual driving and maiming part of the game, commonly
referred to as gameplay, is fairly enjoyable. You can do many
things to annoy your opponents, and they can do many things to
you. For instance, you could run someone off a cliff into a lake,
quickly drive down, pick up a Underwater Ability powerup (which
usually renders underwater driving a bit more manageable), then
work as a bulldozer to drive your overturned enemy into a
minefield. Seeing the car flip on mines looks really hilarious - and
gets you wads of money, too.
The multiplayer is a blast. There's unfortunately only IPX play, so
mostly limited to LANs - however, there are ways of using IPX over
TCP/IP or, more commonly, over direct modem connection. There
are many modes of playing, some boring, some more fun, some
completely incredibly fun - having played a lot of Carmageddon 1
multiplayer games, I can only imaging how much fun C2 will
bring. There is slight lag, but not much different from single-player,
which basically boils down to what hardware the game is run on,
that probably being the major deficiency of the game.
Overall, I must say this game is not for the average public. It firstly
requires that your stomach isn't turned by the first ripped-off body
part that you see, but it also helps if you enjoy Car Wars-type of
games in general. True, there are no weapons to Carmageddon 2
per se - but then again, this isn't Interstate '76, and I think the point
would've been lost had it used weapons. It's a (yet another) fun
and innocent way to do things for which people get shot in real
life. It's interesting, really, that Carmageddon 1 sold over 600,000
copies... maybe the thirst for pedestrian annihilation isn't that rare
in people. One should watch out... if TV influences kids, I wonder if
PCs influence anyone...
Kill one man, and you're a murderer
Kill a thousand, and you're a conqueror
Kill them all, and you're a God.
Highs: Updated graphics engine, multitude of cars and
powerups, fun multiplayer
Lows:: Engine a bit sluggish, gameplay gets somewhat
repetitive after a while
In the last week three different car fighting games have been
released. One has been terrible, one has been incredible and one
is right in between. Carmageddon 2 is right in the middle of the
visually stunning DethKarz and the nauseatingly bad Crime Killer.
In Carmageddon 2 your mission is to race through different levels,
kill as many pedestrians as you can, run your opponents off the
road and as an afterthought, win the race. Carmageddon 2 is not
much different from its prequel in the gameplay department, but it
is obvious that the graphics engine has gotten a hefty revamp.
Graphics:
Carmageddon 2's graphics in 3dfx mode are seamless, allowing
for no random dots or speckles which surprised me after the
extremely poor graphics quality of the first game. The cars
themselves are very inspiring and each has its own personality
and somewhat resembles a real-life car. Instead of headlights,
most are outfitted with some sort of ramming weapon or other
implement of death, very much fitting in with the game. The
pedestrians themselves are somewhat unrealistic looking but they
serve their purpose and are nice to look at when they fly up over
the top of your car. The dead corpses also never clear off the track
so you are able to continuously run over their lifeless bodies lap
after lap (I'm not mentally ill - I swear, it's just fun). I found the
damage effects on the cars to be quite impressive, perhaps even
the best I've ever seen in a non-simulation game. Body panels fly
off and stay on the track or if you happen to roll your car over, the
underbody is well detailed and tires are visible spinning in the
back. Despite all the details, the graphics are not jaw dropping
but are rather much more utilitarian. The engine runs without
stutter but the game felt a little lagged overall. The software
graphics were not bad either but they obviously were not nearly as
good as the hardware accelerated ones.
Sound:
The sound in Carmageddon 2 is mediocre at the best. There are
the standard screeches as your tires slide across the pavement and
a really satisfying crunching noise when you hit someone else's
car. The pedestrian screams leave a little to be desired and the
engine noise is a bit stale. The engine noise tended to be
irritating, but luckily that was the only true annoyance in the sound
effects. Carmaggeddon 2 has overall a decent set of sound effects,
but it would have been nicer if they were more stunning.
Multiplayer:
Multiplayer is only supported over Local Area Network and so
there was little lag, but I found playing somebody else to be too
difficult and a little bit frustrating. Carmageddon 2 offers several
different multiplayer games and a lot of options for the
administrator to configure and yet lacked the element of fun that is
so important in this area of games. Many aspects of multiplayer
could have been improved but most of the problems I had with it
were caused by the game's poor control.
Gameplay:
My first impression of Carmageddon 2 was not a positive one and
initially I thought it was identical to the original. After I played the
game for a longer period of time however, I began to notice some
significant differences. In general the control and physics are
terrible, but the car does roll realistically and the crashes are
somewhat realistic yet there are several inconsistencies. For one,
you suffer damage from absolutely everything including hitting a
barrier at about 2 mph. Also I found myself skidding everywhere;
either my car had incredibly high torque or I'm just bad driver (I
assume it's the former). On a positive note, the game has tons of
power-ups that are really inventive. My favorite is the wall sticking
powerup, as it's damn fun to be able to drive straight up a wall.
Hey it's not very realistic, but what the hell. In my humble opinion,
the actual racing element (minus the carnage) is the worst aspect
of the gameplay. This is a result of the pitiful control model used.
I actually wanted to stop playing the game after two minutes
because they were so bad, but once I hit my first pedestrian I
forced myself to get used to skidding and sliding everywhere. The
great thing about hitting people is all the different bonuses you are
able to get. This kept me entertained for a decent chunk of time
before I had to stop myself to write this review. Carmageddon 2
continues the tradition of the original by combining a boring
racing game with some damn exciting people crushing in an
entertaining, if somewhat lacking, game.
Fun Factor:
At first this game was simply not fun but once I got used
to the control I started to like it a lot more. The multiplayer
disappointed me however and I feel that they should have
implemented TCP/IP code. Just to reiterate my previous
statement, I found hitting the people and their dogs to be
enthralling. I probably will leave this game on my hard drive just
so that I can perform my devious activities (in the game) for a
couple more weeks. The power-ups are also neat and they are
some really unique ones. Carmageddon 2 is thus a reasonably fun
game to play, but nothing that will draw you in for hours upon
hours of your time.
Overall Impression:
My overall impression of Carmageddon 2 is mixed. I
liked the graphics and hitting people but the poor multiplayer and
the terrible control really turned me off. If you liked the first one I
would recommend that you pick this sequel up. Otherwise my
suggestion is to stay away and only get this if you are really bored
or have some sort of evil car-racing fetish.