Dom Robinson reviews

for Sony Playstation

Distributed by
Interplay

Price: £39.99

Players: 1

Carmageddon is a racing car game with one rule - there are no rules! You can do what you want, where you want, and when you want, making this one of those rare racing games where you can break free from the usual constraints of a set course and go looking for power-up, or mowing down extra pedestrians to give you extra time! While there are over 30 set race courses split over a few environments, you can go visiting other parts of that environment which you would normally only visit on the other set courses.

You can play the game normally though, going through the check-points and winning the race, but you'll soon notice that your opponents aren't as interested in doing this, and would sooner see you plummeting to your death off the edge of a cliff (again!) than crossing the finish line.

In fact, you may as well say to yourself that "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and mash them into a pulp by smashing into their backsides and leaving them for dead, as the alternative way to winning is to bump off all five other contestants...and it's a lot more satisfying. As long as you do all this before the timer reaches zero, then you'll have no problems. Take note though, as you do NOT get extra time for crossing the checkpoints, but instead for mowing down pedestrians!

As you progress through the game you'll amass credits, which after each game can be traded in for extras to soup-up your engine, armour or stronger items to attach to your car so you can do more damage to those of the others!

As your car's stature improves, you'll find that some cars are rather special, because when totalled, they are removed from the race, repaired automatically, and are then available for you to drive during the next race and all subsequent races. When playing, I acquired a yellow Armoured Vehicle, and once in that I turned my nose up at anything else as this smashes through the opponents with ease.

Of course you can't just go smashing into everything and expect no recourse as your car will become damaged. A status screen in the corner shows the state of your car's systems, and as they become more damaged, they begin to fail or malfunction altogether. You can repair some of the damage to your car during a race though by pressing the repair button.

If you get stuck upside down and don't want to wait for someone to smash into you to put you back on your wheels, pressing Recover will, for a price, right your position.

Main Menu

The main menu appears after the introduction movie, which can be interrupted by pressing a button on the PSX pad. Options are available to start a new single-player game, or the chance to load in a previously-saved game. You can also save your position.

The sound options control the music and effects. You can also select one of four preset keypad setups. Alternatively, if you have a steering wheel (bought from a computer games shop and not ripped out of your car), or an analog joystick for extra control, you can use that instead to wreak your havoc.

Playing the Game

Before you start to race, there are a few options to take care of first :

• View Info
  This one gives you details about the forthcoming race such as number of laps and length of track.

• Change Race
  If the current race is too hard, just change it! You'll be given a choice of around 5 or 6 to choose from, so if you want to wimp out, now's your chance.

• Parts Shop
  As mentioned earlier, you can upgrade your car with better armour, power of items to whip the ass of your opponents as long as you've earned enough credits during the game.

• Change Car
  Be mean, be really mean! As mentioned earlier, after smashing up certain cars beyond recognition during the game, you'll be able to take them over after they've been repaired for no extra charge. Note that any power-ups you've bought in the parts shop apply to all the cars you have at your disposal.

• Race Summary Screen
  After the race, your race achievements are shown, listing your credits earned and lost and total credits.

Hints, Tips and Cheats

• Handbrake Turns
  Missed that turning? Slam on the handbrake and go back for a second try, or just slam it on and take out a number of pedestrians in one go! Mmmm... COMBO BONUS !

  Just one slight problem with this though. You may find you want to try it in real-life sometimes...

• Running out of time?
  What a pain it is to run out of time. In some of the later levels when time is of the essence and you still want to complete the circuits, you may have to leave the beaten track and search the rest of the level for extra kills to boost your time bonus so as to give you plenty of time to finish the race with time to spare. Easier said than done though, of course.

Graphics, Sound and Playability

One of the best things about the PC version was the quality and fluidity of the graphics. Here though, a lot has changed and it's all for the worse. While some of the cars aren't too bad, the graphics move fast and the humans and zombies splatter effectively into a stream of blood, the scenery is blocky and the pop-up needs a lot of attention. For those unsure what that is, as you drive ahead you want to see all the coming attractions, but view is too stunted and too often you will be zipping along, get launched into the air by accident and look as if you're flying up into the sky when all of a sudden a wall appears and SMACK MY CAR UP, you're back down to Earth with a bang!

A trip into outer space is also on the cards. Fall off the track too far and the game runs out of graphics, leaving your car dropping down against a static backdrop and what you were looking at just appears to float upwards.

In terms of the sound, the basic SFX car noises are fine with some nice grinding motions and the game has a grungy rock soundtrack playing along in the background, but without a dedicated soundcard (as you'd get in a PC) the crunches between the cars lose out. At times the car's SFX seem thrown together in random order rather than playing out as you'd realistically expect.

Playability was another highlight of the PC original once you'd got to grips with the keys, but here, once you've worked out which buttons do what, it's all too easy to zoom off the track at high speed and into the ether. Perhaps if I had

Overall