I admit, this game absolutely did not make a great first impression on me. I picked Sweet Tooth first because he's like the mascot of the franchise and the only character I knew of before (other than Calypso), and boy, his ice cream truck handles like shit. It didn't help that the enemies are quite gung-ho on Normal difficulty, which lead to a lot of annoyingly quick deaths. It could have been a one-and-done for me, but I'm glad that I stuck around to try out all the other characters, because this game can actually be quite fun.
There are 12 characters to play as, each having their own vehicles with different attributes and special weapon. If you're like me then you'll probably enjoy characters like Mr. Grimm the most, which have the fastest and most responsive vehicle, combined with a hard hitting special weapon, but also having a small health bar. The vehicle physics definitely feels janky, and the controls will also take some time to get used to, but it's not a big hurdle to climb over. Being able to turn the difficulty down also helps. I do wish that the combat is more punchy and energetic, as the visual and sound effects of damaging and destroying other cars are underwhelming.
There are six levels, all of them set in Los Angeles, and from a design standpoint they are pretty okay overall. I thought the last level was the one level that is actually interesting, the other ones are quite basic and same-y in comparison. Typical American urban hellscape stuff. I guess being limited to LA doesn't help that fact, huh?
My favorite part of the game are probably the character story endings. These range from being straightforwardly dark to somewhat silly, and I thought most of the characters had satisfying endings. I especially enjoy Outlaw and Mr. Grimm's endings. Sadly the production value is so low, the endings are just text paragraphs without voice acting, and the background visual is an extremely dorky picture of live action Calypso.
The first Twisted Metal is certainly a fun game to look back at. Its very barebones, but its quite forgivable considering that its the debut of the series, especially since its from the early years of 3D video games. It manages to be a fun romp with its own distinct personality, and it also sets up future successors for success.
And before I'm done, yes, the PS5 port job is pretty good. The platinum trophy is a quick one, provided you take advantage of the password system.
There are 12 characters to play as, each having their own vehicles with different attributes and special weapon. If you're like me then you'll probably enjoy characters like Mr. Grimm the most, which have the fastest and most responsive vehicle, combined with a hard hitting special weapon, but also having a small health bar. The vehicle physics definitely feels janky, and the controls will also take some time to get used to, but it's not a big hurdle to climb over. Being able to turn the difficulty down also helps. I do wish that the combat is more punchy and energetic, as the visual and sound effects of damaging and destroying other cars are underwhelming.
There are six levels, all of them set in Los Angeles, and from a design standpoint they are pretty okay overall. I thought the last level was the one level that is actually interesting, the other ones are quite basic and same-y in comparison. Typical American urban hellscape stuff. I guess being limited to LA doesn't help that fact, huh?
My favorite part of the game are probably the character story endings. These range from being straightforwardly dark to somewhat silly, and I thought most of the characters had satisfying endings. I especially enjoy Outlaw and Mr. Grimm's endings. Sadly the production value is so low, the endings are just text paragraphs without voice acting, and the background visual is an extremely dorky picture of live action Calypso.
The first Twisted Metal is certainly a fun game to look back at. Its very barebones, but its quite forgivable considering that its the debut of the series, especially since its from the early years of 3D video games. It manages to be a fun romp with its own distinct personality, and it also sets up future successors for success.
And before I'm done, yes, the PS5 port job is pretty good. The platinum trophy is a quick one, provided you take advantage of the password system.
2 Comments
@fawkesolid oh sick thanks for the heads up
fawkesolid
9 months ago