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Carmageddon: Max Damage started off as Carmaggedon – essentially, a driving game with no limits as in you score points by being the quickest, or killing everything in sight as well as smashing all of your opponents. It is a bit like Burnout but more about killing, death and gore rather than the fun of just smashing up cars. This time an update of Carmageddon: Reincarnation, It is for one player, although it has an online multiplayer to it. There were high hopes held out for this title as it has an extreme cult following. The original came out in 1997 and is one of only two games which have been banned in the UK. This might be down to the pointless killing but we will get on to that later.
I’m going to get straight into the review for this game rather than tell you too much about it for reasons that will become clear.
There are only a few different modes in the game. You have the Career mode which has simply no story… but how could it… as I believe the aim of the game is atrocious. Then, there’s the multiplayer which struggles with no-one wanting to play it, plus some severe lag issues. Lastly you have freeplay – you know the mode, it’s the one you would want to play if the game was actually any good.
Do you remember when you used to sit and play the PS2 and you’d would get a new game? You remember, back in 2005 when games came out and they stunned you with their graphics. Well this game does a similar thing. It takes you back to 2005 and really stuns you. Sadly, it stuns you in the way that these graphics actually resemble a game from 2005. I mean, I honestly don’t think I have ever played a game that seems as unfinished as this. At best the background slightly resembles the first Infamous (and I mean at best). At worst, this game is something you would expect from a few generations of consoles back. The people who you run over, for no reason whatsoever, look like a sprite I could have created using a computer in 5 minutes. I suppose the colours used are okay? I mean, I haven’t accidentally used a question mark there I am just questioning my statement. I knew from the off that they were going to be shaky as whilst I was waiting for the game to load I kept seeing a slight glitch – the kind of loading glitch you used to see on dodgy PS1 games. However, I wasn’t expecting them to be this bad…. We are in the Xbox One/PS4 generation, after all. The worst part about the graphics is when you crash. Different parts come flying off your car but there is no fluidity or realism behind it. They just seem to disappear. Horrendous.
For the sound… okay, I want to put this in perspective. I started out (for the first five minutes) thinking that the sound was a good match. It was kind of like that fast-paced beat which you essentially want in a game where your sole purpose is to cause havoc. Then, a few hours later I switched the sound off. Why, I hear you ask? Well… I am pretty sure that every single song on this game sounds exactly the same. It was suggesting, in the corner of the screen, that it was different but I honestly feel that hard to believe. I was bored brainless and, at one point, whilst sipping my tea, I had paused the game. I was literally holding my ears and even went so far as to start a conversation with my cat. Her constant meowing was much more satisfying than the monotonous drone of the same song rampaging through my speaker.
There is a co-driver (well more like omnipresence) who talks to you throughout the game and their voice isn’t annoying. It is actually a good match and it’s just a shame that I would never listen to them due to the sound being on mute. This just shows, there is a large difference between a good soundtrack and a bad one. Tony Hawks 2, for example. I can still remember each song word-for-word. I will not forgive the sound technician, here, and challenge anyone to enjoy what they hear.
Go to page 2 for more thoughts on this game…
Regarding the gameplay, I should start out by saying that I am not amazing at racing games. However, I am certainly not bad. I play most of them just above the normal setting and often do quite well. But, this isn’t a racing game, this is a poor man’s Burnout, mixed with pointless killing. I started on career mode and initially found the car incredibly challenging to control. I feel this is one of their first mistakes. The sensitivity is all wrong and the basic control dynamics are seriously lacking.
For my first race I had three choices: I could kill every civilian, I could finish the race first or I could destroy every opponent. I did a mixture of all three and ended up finishing the race first. What was the point though? I mean, really…why did I want to kill all the civilians? They seemed like nice people and the only ones I killed were because I was finding it too hard to control the car. After, somehow, winning the race I wanted to put the controller down but for the purpose of the review I became the better man and carried on.
The next game type saw me having to collect as many checkpoints as possible, randomly scattered around a disjointed map successively. This is probably the worst type of mode I have ever played. I mean, I saw no purpose to it. It bored me. Then, my third race I had to win. So I did, which is really saying something as I am rubbish at this game. Throughout all the game modes, you can cause damage to your car and then hold a button and spend points to repair. You attain points by killing people, crossing the checkpoint and smashing things.
Again… none of this made sense. You can also buy a variety of different add-ons mid-race… mid-race… what the hell? Why can you do anything mid-race? Anyway, the add-ons were awful – they were tricky to control and added nothing to the game. Simply put, I did get a few achievements playing about with them though… I always like an achievement. I then decided to carry on for a bit. Later that evening, I thought I would give the online mode a go. Let me put it this way. It took 30 minutes to get into a game (yes the game *was* released) and it was glitching throughout with horrible lag (I have decent internet). Freeplay mode does what it says on the tin.
And, at least the car moved when I pressed go.
Enjoyment? I’m going to keep this short and – maybe not so – sweet. At no point, whilst playing this game, did I have fun. Not even an ounce of it. I would go so far as to say that I play games to escape at times. Escape from the hardships of adulthood and the curse of real life. My life is better than this game and I will not play it anymore. That is all that needs to be said here.
(DVDfever Dom adds: Thanks to the Youtube channels featured for the gaming footage, but why are there a number of videos by vloggers which are sponsored by the creators of this game? Are they so unsure of the quality that they have to pay someone to enthuse about it?? Weird!!!!)
Carmageddon: Max Damage is out now on Xbox One and PS4. Click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Important info:
- Publisher: Stainless Steel
- Players: single player, multiplayer
- HDTV options: up to 1080p
- Sound: DTS 5.1, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
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I have been a video game player since 1993 and a music fan since I can remember. I studied Film and Journalism at university and ended up becoming a Primary School teacher. Video games changed my life and sent me on the right track and have stayed with me ever since.
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