Twisted Metal: Black

"Are You Ready For Some Great Car-Combat?"

After years of lackluster car-combat games such as Vigilante 8: Second Offense, Grudge Warriors, and Twisted Metal 3 & 4, the car-combat genre basically died. So when I heard that Incognito, the makers of the two best car-combat games (Twisted Metal 1 & 2) I became overwhelmed with joy.

Gameplay:
Twisted Metal: Black is a VERY FAST paced game, its crazy. The game running at a smooth 60 frames per second only makes it that more fast. It’s the same for multi-player, very fast paced action, while keeping that constant 60 frames per second, even when you play 4 players.
Incognito did a great job in the controls department, they made the controls easy to understand, but just hard enough that you won’t be able to master the controls in the first few days that you play the game. There are 3 different control setups in this game that are: Classic, Run’ and Gun’, and Control Freak.

The cars handle quite nicely. There are cars that are fast and can turn really good, and some that are slower than snails. Having a fast car may have its disadvantages though because many of the cars that have lots of speed and handling, have very low armor, and some may not have very powerful specials. The slow cars (i.e. Sweet Tooth, Darkside) may be slow, but they have high armor, and have very powerful specials.

The vehicles also have a limited amount of turbo. Every vehicle can perform all of the basic moves (i.e. Freeze, Jump, Mine, etc.) and the moves are performed instantly when you press the right combination, with no slowdown whatsoever. Cars can turn in mid-air, do spins easily, and many more stuff.

Incognito did a great job with the storylines for all the characters. The storylines actually make you care about the characters, and make you want to find out what happens next. Some characters that have some great stories are Mr. Grimm, No Face, John Doe, and Agent Stone. Overall the storylines for the characters are great.
The AI in the game makes Twisted Metal: Black the first hard game in quite some time. The AI likes to go after you, and destroy you as fast as they can, so its like kind of like it’s the world versus you. The AI also reacts different when it’’s low on health. It will focus more on evading attacks, and looking for power ups than trying to destroy your vehicle. So don’t worry, this game won’t be a breeze to complete.

The bosses are really annoying. They aren’t just dumb weak bosses you have seen in previous games, they have VERY powerful attacks that can destroy a car like Darkside (a car with a lot of armor) in just a couple of hits. Before you can actually give the bosses some damage you first need to destroy their shield which is no easy task. You might find yourself fighting the same boss for a while. There are only 2 bosses in the game, but they are 2 hard bosses. Hope you have fun fighting Warhawk and Minion.
What can I say about the level design. There is no word in the English dictionary to describe how big the levels are. The smallest level in Twisted Metal: Black is bigger than the Hong Kong level in Twisted Metal 2. There aren’t many hiding spots too, so you’ll always have to be on the move. Staying in one place will get you killed in a matter of seconds.

One more thing about the level design is that, almost everything in the game is destroy-able. So that’s another nice feature from the people at Incognito.

Graphics:
It seems like Incognito has made everything top notch. The graphics are one of the many high points in Twisted Metal: Black. Twisted Metal: Black of course uses a lot of dark colors. The game uses a lot of variations of dull, and dark. Don’t expect to see the blue sky in this game.
The cars are very detailed. You can see rust on the car, sparks fly off, and when you are ready to use a weapon, you’ll see a secret compartment come out from the rear end of the car ready to fire. A good example of this is Sweet Tooth’’s special. When you use his special, you’ll see that his beat up Ice Cream truck transforms into some kind of robot, and you’ll begin to hear some Ice Cream truck melody.

You’ll also see that everything looks the way its supposed to look. The water looks real, fire, lightning, smoke, etc.

Sound:
Seems like Incognito can do no wrong. The sound in this game is also great. The background music is a mixture of orchestra and techno, some levels have some gothic sounds, screams, and more. This helps the levels have a dark and cold feel to it.

The special effect sounds are loud, and you can tell how close a missile is to you by the sound of it (Knowing that will be useful in the game.) Each vehicle has their own unique sound affect when they use their special. For Example, Mr. Grimm has his scream, Sweet Tooth has his Ice Cream truck tune, Darkside a loud Truck horn, and Spectre with a loud missile scream.
The voice acting for the characters are also great. Most have deep dark voices, but some like Dollface has a voice that sounds like a 7 year old kid. This helps to the dark feel of the game.

Replay Value:
This game will keep you busy for a while. Even unlocking the secret characters are no easy task. Beating the game on easy is hard enough, imagine trying to beat this game on hard. You also have the multi-player modes, which are a blast to play with friends. Even single player mode has lots of things to do, you can do challenge, endurance, or the story mode. This game has lots of replay value.

Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9.4/10
Sets and Backgrounds: 10/10
Controls: 9.7/10
Replay Value: 9.3/10
Overall: 9.8/10

Rent Or Buy
Now that the game is only $19.99 (Greatest Hit) there's no reason why you shouldn't buy this game. It is arguably the best action game of 2001, and probably one of the best games ever.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/02, Updated 06/22/02