The aptly titled Carmageddon is a racing game with many twists and quirks, with the latter being the icing on the cake of the gaming experience. Carmgeddon pits the players in racing tracks / worls in an undefined dystopian future world, slightly resembling another game of futuristc vehicle carnage, Quarantine. From the technopolis to a deserted outback, the racing tracks loosely lead through scrapes of land with many hidden areas and wide marks of land being drivable as well.
Carmageddon is a racing game at its core, it is a game of carnage and slaughter at its edges. While driving over pedestrians for fun (and points, jez'), getting rid of your opponents by all means necessary, weapons and total vehicular destruction is where this game truly shines. Oddly enough, a stroke of genius in the game designers let them implement the notion of making him the winner who survives the rast the last. Hence, killing all your opponents makes you winner, so does winning the race.
The game features many vehicles and a extremely sophisticaed damage system, considering the time the game was made. Crashes can be spectacular to watch and players will find themselves trying to create and recreate the most hellbending stunts and car pileups, drooling over the shatter and destruction. Controlling the cars is reasonably simple, which perfectly suits the arcade approach to the game, however, mastering the car in sticky situations such as narrow turns can make or break the winner.
In concordance with the macabre overload of brutality and blood, the whole theme of the game is quirky and over-the-top, which kind of takes the edge of the gore a bit.
A very enjoyable action game ! Highly recommended !
Henrik
