Producer: Incog, inc.
System: Playstation 2
Year: 2001
Overview: A great and innovative series of fighting games, this is Twisted Metal's debut on the PS2, after four successful consecutive games on the PS1. Unlike most games of this genre, Twisted Metal is almost in a class of its own. Your characters drive around in heavilly-armed cars in a no-holds-barred, every-man-for-himself battle to the death.
Story: If you've played other Twisted Metal games, then the story is nothing new. Some psycho who calls himself Calypso runs a tournament called 'Twisted Metal'. There, contestants arm their cars to the teeth and drive through numerous arenas; the goal being to wipe out all of their other opponents. The prize is what makes each story interesting, however. The winner of the contest will receive the one thing that he or she desires most...for better...or for worse. Most of the characters in this game are some major nutcases (Calypso went to an asylum to recruit most of his contestants this time), so there are going to be some really messed-up storylines.
Graphics: Obviously, since we're talking about a PS2 game, you can expect some pretty amazing graphics. A lot of attention was paid to detail, as you can see in the arenas.
Sound: There's wan't a whole heck of a lot of music, but you probably won't be paying much attention to it while you're dodging missiles and machine guns. It fits the mood well, though. Sound effects are great, though, and they all sound like they should sound. Also worth mentioning is "Paint it Black", by The Rolling Stones is incorperated into the intro and the end credits.
Gameplay: If you've never played Twisted Metal before, you'll probably be confused by the gameplay at first. I know I was. You'll probably get more use out of your shoulder buttons in this game than any other, since they are used to switch weapons as well as fire them. Fortunately, there are other options the game has where you can try the controls and hone your skills. There's an endurance mode, where you pick an arena and fight opponents one right after the other until you're killed and see how many of them you can destroy beforehand. There's another option that's similar to the normal story battles, only you get to choose an arena yourself, as well as your opponents. There's a great two-player option as well. You can either blow the crap out of each other in the VS mode or you can select a 2P story mode where you and your buddy must cooperate to make it through all of the story mode arenas. There are also plenty of bonus cars and arenas that can be unlocked by finding secret areas in the normal arenas.
Challenge: Hoo-boy. The story mode can be quite difficult. The Warhawk helicopter that you fight right at the end is especially tough. As a matter of fact, there are only a handful of cars that I've beaten it with without using cheat codes. Each car has strengths and weaknesses, such as armor, speed, etc, which makes the Warhawk (and other parts of the game) more or less challenging than other parts.
Final Rating: 10/10 An excellent game overall and the best of the Twisted Metal series so far. It (and its PS1 counterparts) are part of the 'Greatest Hits' series, so you should be able to find it cheap in most game stores.
