Gameplay
Eat Sleep Play’s first foray into the Twisted Metal universe (porting Twisted Metal: Head-On from the PSP to PS2) did not stray from the franchise’s usual formula whatsoever. In both look and feel, Head-On was very much a classic Twisted Metal game, for better and for worse.
Now, seven years later (or four, depending on which version you’re talking about), one would predict a bit of an evolution to be found in the signature vehicle-based gameplay, especially since it’s on the PlayStation 3. While there are some unique additions, the core controls are still as slippery and loose as ever. You can even turn 360 degrees without hitting the gas, so don’t expect any level of realism here. At the same time, the gameplay was in need of tune-up and could really have used some tightening up, especially in terms of weight distribution. Even the heaviest vehicles can be flung into the air with little effort…and sometimes with no effort at all; Twisted Metal sports some of the worst game physics to date, and at times it’s downright game-breaking.
I have to emphasize how utterly detrimental crappy physics are to the entire experience of driving game. Precision and urgency are imperative in Twisted Metal, as one wrong move or arriving at your target a second too late can spell defeat, especially in multiplayer games. So to be constantly flung around like a grocery bag in the wind is insanely frustrating. I can’t count how many times I had an enemy on the ropes, and I was bearing down for the kill when all of the sudden the level geometry or some random attack caused me to tip over sideways or flip upside down for a few seconds. Meanwhile my prey had escaped, and all the other AI opponents (who seemingly only wanted to fight me) had dog-piled my vehicle.
The general flow of combat in Twisted Metal hasn’t changed at all over the years either. If you want to kill someone, you basically drive around stocking up on weapons, then find the nearest enemy and lay into them with everything you’ve got until they’re dead. If you didn’t bring enough firepower, they’ll likely run away to go find health or get sharked by another player. There’s honestly very little strategy to it, especially for a game that Jaffe has openly compared to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in terms of complexity.
What there is, however, is plenty of unbalanced gameplay. Lighter vehicles have virtually no armor, meaning they can be destroyed in a matter of seconds, while some of the heavier vehicles are not only massive damage sponges, but they have the most powerful special attacks in the game. A helicopter has also been added, which is an extremely poor decision. Struggling with the controls and gameplay in general is already a hassle, but when you have an airborne target to try and contend with, it becomes a hair-pulling nightmare. Because of this, a skilled helicopter pilot can utterly dominate so long as he knows how to kite grounded players in just the right way to avoid the game’s attempt at auto lock-on.
Hardcore fans will miss inputting the button combinations for the secret moves, as jump, shield, mine drop, and freeze have all been assigned a button of their own for easier access. I’m not complaining, but there was something cool about knowing something that wasn’t quite as obvious and easy to pull off when playing with friends. The freeze move in particular is a powerful tool that will stop your foes in their tracks momentarily, but it will also be used against you very frequently. I’ve had the AI freeze me repeatedly within a few seconds of each other, which gets pretty annoying.
Races are among the new modes found in Twisted Metal. You’re either thinking “Cool!” or “Ugh!” right now. I had more of the “Ugh!” reaction, but I was willing to give it a go. Sadly, all the things that make the signature open-area combat frustrating are heavily exacerbated by the need to race from point A to point B. In the campaign, victory only comes with first place, but unless you choose any vehicle other than the fastest available, you’ll never have a chance to catch up. With over 10 combatants all slamming together at the beginning of the race and shooting/ramming/freezing you, the first- and second-place AI will be given a wide lead that you’ll never be able to recover from.
With the checkpoint race variant, I honestly have never had so little fun in an allegedly triple-A title. When checkpoints begin appearing on rooftops, everything goes to hell. You have to get them all in order, and it’s extremely easy — again thanks to the PS1 controls and wonky physics — to fall or get knocked off the edge of a building, causing you to have to find your way back to that rooftop, which is not simple to do. You might as well just restart the match right there, because the AI drives flawlessly, even on Normal difficulty.
I expect that some people will have the same reaction to Twisted Metal that I did, and some people won’t, but I dare anyone to come back and tell me that they enjoyed the checkpoint races.
The bosses in the campaign are as poorly implemented as the rest of the game. One revolves around two gargantuan monster trucks, but in this case the slipshod gameplay actually works to your advantage, as you can just drive under them and sit there, unleashing all your weapons and special attacks into the first one until it dies. Then, after an almost-interesting and slightly amusing objective, you can do the same thing with the other. It doesn’t work all the time, but the fact that it works at all says plenty about the state of the final product.
Eat Sleep Play apparently has an obsession with mechs, as not only can Sweet Tooth now transform into a flying robot (seriously), but there’s also a giant Dollface mech. I’m not even going to bother explaining how much that tarnishes Dollface’s character, but when you’re struggling with Nintendo 64-era camera issues and trying to figure out what the game wants you to do next, you’ll know the exact moment where I finally accepted that I simply was not going to be allowed to enjoy Twisted Metal, try as I might.