Dear Reader,
“Twisted Metal” is a victory of game design and tone. The car combat is fun enough, but when married with the franchise’s signature carnival-ride-from-hell aesthetic, it achieves a weird kind of iconic transcendance. It may miss masterpiece status by a few inches, and I have serious moral issues with some aspects of the story, but “Twisted Metal” is nonetheless one of the most invigorating and successful reboots in recent memory.
I feel the need to say this up front: I am not okay with playing as Sweet Tooth. I’ve tolerated a lot of amoral crap in video games, but asking me to play as a serial killer on a quest to butcher his innocent daughter is a step too far. I gritted my teeth and got through it, because I knew the story would serve Sweet Tooth some just desserts, but I still wanted to take a shower after each of his cutscenes. The campaign’s other anti-heroes are no saints either, but each had motivations I could understand. Sweet Tooth is just a sadist monster, and I didn’t enjoy being asked to walk in his big, flappy, blood-stained shoes. Blegh.
Putting that aside, I loved almost everything else about “Twisted Metal’s” story. From its hammy, live-action cut scenes to the “Twilight Zone”-style resolutions, it was fun in a twisted way. And even though live-action is normally a horrible mistake, it’s the right route here because it’s intended to feel a tad goofy. There’s a gloriously filthy feel to “Twisted Metal” that completely pulled me in.
Now I’m actually a newbie to this series, so I went and played “Twisted Metal Black” a little just to get my bearings. “Twisted Metal” seems built on the same basic infrastructure, and that’s a good thing. Combat is fast and furious, with ungodly amounts of rockets, machine guns, and flamethrowers constantly in your face while you try to give as good as you get. A crucial addition from developer Eat Sleep Play is destructible environments, which I cannot praise enough. They should also be commended for the rock-steady frame rate and excellent vehicle balance; no single vehicle ever dominated the battle, either in single or multiplayer.
Still, the single player has its flaws. First off, they introduced racing (why? why? why?), and while I always commend trying new things, the vehicles of “Metal” aren’t designed to race and the experience feels very odd. Also problematic: the sudden up-curves in difficulty throughout the campaign, which can lead to controller-throwing moments of aggravation. Even on normal, enemy A.I. hounds you relentlessly, making victory an act of luck as much as anything else at times. On the whole these moments are the minority, but especially as you near the end, they do happen.
Good news, though: there’s plenty of multiplayer, and it works great. I found the matches to be very stable, with plenty of interesting game modes and all the lobby functionality you could want. I doubt “Metal” is going to challenge CoD or anything, but it’s a deceptively deep and skill-oriented combat experience, one that rewards deftness and tactics more than you might think.
All told, “Twisted Metal” is a huge win for Eat Sleep Play. It’s fast, it’s furious, and it’s demented in a (mostly) fun way. Sweet Tooth is a no-go for me and I wish the campaign wasn’t such a ball-buster, but these quibbles aside, I’m comfortable calling “Twisted Metal” one of the best action games of 2012.
SCORE: 9/10
_AA
never leave a paper trail, that’s lesson number one
