The manual states that this time round the game is mission-based, which in a
round-a-bout way it can be perceived like that, but, while it's not a great deal
different in execution as that would have you believe, the extras make for a
nice addition.
Each set of races is grouped into three's and once those are completed, you
must go through a further race but it's against time alone and may require
you to complete a few laps round one of the previously-completed tracks, or
something a bit more tricky such as jumping from one skyscraper to the next from
the ground up and smashing into 11 satellite dishes (these look like
pre-analogue television rather than the digital variety).
There are also a few more camera angles to add to the Action Replay mode,
namely Manual, Rigid, Reversing & Internal (Cockpit).
Graphics, Sound and Playability
The first game set the stage in terms of the graphics and one of the
improvements here is in the pedestrians and animals: they're actually real 3D
objects this time and not the two-dimensional sprites owners of the first game
will be used to, so you can push a pedestrian into a boulder (cue: "Wow! What
a Punt!" onscreen message), carry one of them on your car bonnet for a while,
or hit a dead animal and chuck the 3D carcass about.
Oh, and don't forget that in the level with a train, it's an interesting way
to kill off an opponent by gently pushing them into the path of the oncoming
locomotive.
However, with the reworked graphics engine and many more polygons being
drawn at once, this slows the game down. There are options to reduce the
graphical content on show, in terms of the view ahead or the intensity of the
graphics, but it does detract from the enjoyment the more things that need to
be turned off. When I played the first game it ran at this speed as I was
playing it on a Pentium 90. After upgrading to a Pentium 200 MMX this
improved things dramatically and I could enjoy the game at the break-neck
speed it needs.
A tip for improving the speed of the game is to make sure you're running
Win95 (or Win98) on its own with no background processes running. At best I
managed 97% system resources free (check this from the Start Menu by going:
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information) and had to reboot
the machine to achieve this.
This game recommends a P200 CPU with 32Mb RAM for good performance, but even
with 128Mb SDRAM, it's still too slow to get the best effect, so I'd
recommend this game to anyone with a Pentium II 300 CPU.
Therein brings down the level of playability, since the comparative slowness
of the game, while looking pretty, makes it a bit on the annoying side. Even if
it is a good laugh to carry the dismembered body of a zombie on your bonnet
while driving for a couple of blocks, I'd prefer it if there was an option to
turn the pedestrians back to 2D sprites for slower PCs. It would also be a good
idea if the keys were completely redefinable as I can't use all the same keys
I used when playing the first game and would prefer it if they'd allowed the
cursor keys to be used to control the car instead of looking around the car.
And yes I said zombies. While the Carmageddon Splat Pack had a 'gore patch'
to put the humans back on the streets in the first game, there are no humans
to be found in this version on sale in the UK. It doesn't have a BBFC
certificate either, but that's because it doesn't have any video footage within
the game. When you see Max in his car he's a 3D set of polygons like everyone
else, so the advisory ELSPA rating on the box will suffice and recommends
the game is for 15 years and older.
The sound is mostly what was in the first game in terms of the sound effects
when you run pedestrians over and crunch into other cars, but it has the
addition of some top tunes from Iron Maiden to drive to. It would have
been nice if they had included Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild, but you
can't have everything :)
Overall
Overall, it'll take a much faster PC than I own to get the best out of this
game, but while there are a few things which could be improved upon, it's
certainly a lot better than most games which are released.
If you don't own the first game though - and have not got a particularly fast
PC - then that is probably a better option, along with the Splat Pack, but if
you have a PC running around 300Mhz then this sequel should fare very well
indeed, although if, like me, you have a PC running at 200Mhz, have completed
the first game and the add-on and want a new 'Carmageddon' challenge, this
certainly is worth investing in.
If you're after some more Carmageddon excitement, you can check out the
official SCI Website at www.sci.co.uk which
also includes links to a stack of Carmageddon-related sites, or click on these
links to access reviews of the previous releases:
Carmageddon
and the
Carmageddon:
Splat Pack
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
