Reviews

• 

  d.trak

  Feb 7, 2022

  Running over cyclists lets me live my fantasy
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  Crowfat

  Jul 8, 2022

  Bottom line, when it comes to running over people baked into the game mechanics you just don't get any better than The Original Carmageddon, Clutch, and this game. Let me try to set the record straight. The "Mixed" reviews seem to be coming from the popularity of one persons negative review. The review is well written and hell I liked it but lets be clear this game is really really good. IMO it does not deserve a negative review and I think anybody, if you liked the original or not, would love this game. There are a ton of quality of life improvements, little things like ... I don't remember there being Cows in Haz-Mat suits in the first game. Some tracks you can win by any means, some are races. The races are fun, the peds are fun to run over, the cars are cool and interesting to unlock, and all of the extra game modes just really work well. I did do a few key rebindings and I do feel like there could be MORE gore. But all in all the game is definitely worth picking up even at full price.
• 

  Prince Vegeta

  Jul 14, 2022

  Short but sweet classic racer brought back for possibly the last time. It's a fun series and it's great to see a release with modern graphics. There's a career mode to rip through and multiplayer though no one plays that side any more. Slaughtering peds and smashing up all the other cars is a good bit of fun and the career mode will keep you busy for a while. The physics are a bit janky and there are a handful of minor bugs but there's a bunch of mods out there that can really fix up the game, nicer graphics, and even improves the AI a good bit. Not sure if these mods are multiplayer compatible but unless you have some buddies that issue likely won't come up. I had fun with it but I would still probably pick it up on sale. Oh and if you buy this one it gives you all the classics as well!
• 

  elisaj15

  Jul 31, 2022

  hehe car go vroom pedestrians go boom
• 

  Rileoli

  Oct 10, 2022

  With graphics that look like they're from 2005 and gameplay that feels right out of the 1998 original, Max Damage unfortunately fumbles the whole idea of a remake and makes a game that takes too much of the bad junk from the original and not enough of the good. In all honesty, sometimes the rose-tinted glasses don't help enough to distract from the overly floaty handling and completely barren map design and unfortunately I can't recommend Carma to anyone who isn't specifically looking for death race 2000 in game form.
• 

  kankayama

  Feb 28, 2023

  GUILTY PLEASURES VOL 1 Here we are.. Carmageddon... I loved the series since I was a little kid. This is truly only for the fans. But for the fans its a blast! Get yourself a Metal/Punk/Rock playlist and just go nuts!
• 

  Unmutual

  Oct 28, 2016

  It's an improvement... Load times are better, performance is good, more ped variation... Just keep in mind that if you aren't a Carma-fan and you hop into this blind, you're probably going to be disappointed. It's attempting to satisify a niche audience and harken back to the "good old days", which I suppose, it does. http://www.carmageddon.com/forum/topic/27781 The must needed mod, if you get the game you must check this out!
• 

  Prawn of Creation

  Jun 25, 2022

  Problems — are gone. Quick map loading, solid 60 fps (best settings, i7-6700 and gtx970). Gameplay is refined also, car handling feels better, and yor car is more durable, as far as I can tell. With those problems gone all that remains is good old Carma as we knew it — bloody fun in casual road violence :) That is what the re-newed Carma should've been on release. Get it, and get to carnage! p.s. — Well, I recommended this for the “Best Use Of A Farm Animal” Award, for obvious reasons :)
• 

  Fr0ntj3

  Oct 28, 2016

  BOOM there it is, who saw that coming....nobody! Just when we didnt expect it, here it is. The Carmageddon we've been waiting for. Those who already enjoyed CR dont have to read any further, go ahead and enjoy the game. Those who couldnt run it, Install this one and try. It runs so much better, for me 60 fps all the time. Havent seen any drops. Plus so much new stuff, new maps, old maps who look new, it looks like a complete new game. More blood left on the streets, on the cars. Ped placement looks better, it doesnt feel empty anymore. AI can still be a bit annoying at times, but hey, who isnt? The loading, what the hell, Installed on a SSD drive, its really fast, no more time for a quick drink or a piss. I almost miss havin the extra time...almost... I think even with all the crap Stainless had to deal with the past years, they stick with their game and delivered a Carmageddon worthy title. Even tho i was a backer i could get it for free, i bought it again. thats how much i knew i would like this game.
• 

  WildmanSteve

  Apr 23, 2017

  This is the Carmageddon that fans wanted. It's classic carmageddon with better visuals and improvments in all the right areas. It also runs 100 times better then reincarnation (120+ fps non stop max settings) and was provided FREE for purchasing that dissapointment. The only thing missing is the Iron Maiden and Fear Factory sound track but that's easily rectified with my own music. Way to redeem yourselves Stainless.
• 

  baddog993

  Jun 20, 2017

  The game is still a mixed bag. The good stuff first. Graphics look good. Its very easy to play thanks to a in game tutorial. You can skip this tutorial if you have already played the older version of this game. A lot of tracks and cars. Doesnt require a super computer to get good frame rates now. The negatives are the handling of cars is still very floaty. The cars feel like they have no weight to them. I really wish they would have improved on the handling because it feels like all the cars all have bald tires. Imagine the physics of Flat out in this game. That would have been amazing. The Multiplayer is boring. It has no pedestrians, no bots. That makes multiplayer dead. I still enjoy the game even with all of the negatives. Its fun to smash into stuff and wreck out other racers. The maps are all large and interesting to drive around in. The price is reasonable for the amount of stuff in this game.
• 

  shekerev

  Jun 24, 2017

  Review Disclaimer - https://medium.com/@nikola.shekerev/review-disclaimer-1281697e23e4 Carmageddon is a ultraviolent car combat series of games with long history. You drive cars, kill pedestrians, collect powerups and crash opponents. The latest iteration of Carmageddon had terrible game breaking performance on launch. Probably budget was over and the developers needed to release in that state. Poor reviews destroyed the game. But the devs continued to work on it, drastically improved performance, added new content and released a new version. Big game review sites slammed the game again. Current state of Carmageddon: - Performance - excellent - Camera - it has been heavily critiqued but I have zero problems with it. I found myself in a few hard to see situations but that hardly justifies the criticism the camera got - Handling - it has been heavily critiqued. A lot of cars are difficult to handle. This point needs a bit of discussion. I believe people misunderstand why the game is intentionally designed like that. When you drive fast, you never feel in control. You are a slip away from wrecking your car. You feel vulnerable. Nowadays gamers are used to power fantasies like GTA, whose mechanics tell the player “Your dick is so huge you can kill anyone”. Carmageddon is a nihilistic power fantasy, it says “Everyone dies”. This also contributes to the feeling that you are driving a vehicle that is not your exact avatar but has a mind of its own, you know, like a real damaged car on uneven terrain. Also cars with poor stats but good handling are viable choices. Handling is as it should be, but I would understand why this may not be your thing - AI - it has been heavily critiqued. In my play sessions enemies were able to navigate the complex levels, find me and kill me. Pathfinding is excellent. Enemies will not hunt for power ups and will rarely use the ones they pick up. So they are not like humans, no AI is, but they are definitely not stupid. - Very heavy emphasis on dark humor - Imaginative game modes - Imaginative power ups - Imaginative levels - Physics engine is a work of art - Imaginative vehicles. Some of them have unique mechanics to kill pedestrians like slicing, impaling, sucking them into a turbine. In previous games vehicles had various blades too, but here there are different parts of the code for realistic behavior according to the shape of the blades - Levels have police cars that are genuine danger to the player. This is cool and contributes to the “Everyone dies” design philosophy. - You upgrade your cars by collecting tokens. This part of the game is very poorly explained so I will do it here. Tokens spawn more if you do not have unused tokens in your inventory. So you are rewarded for experimenting with upgrades and not hoarding them. Tokens spawn more when your car is not fully upgraded. So you are rewarded for experimenting with cars and not only driving your most upgraded. When those conditions are met, tokens spawn everywhere and you are rewarded for exploring the whole level. When you understand this mechanic, it works wonders. Conclusion - in its current state Carmageddon: Max Damage is a wonderful game, one of my best purchases and a true reminder why games are awesome Also Carmageddon taught is 3 valuable lessons - Game development and any software development is hard and bad luck can fuck even the best of us. - Big game review sites like IGN and Gamespot are full of shit - The culture of the games industry is toxically broken. If a developer fucks up hard, but then drastically improves his product, the industry will not care. This is a problem, we do not reward continuous effort to improve. And then we wonder why big companies never fix broken games. This is the most important lesson of Carmageddon For reference this is the full list of all games I have played - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TWIl51GFWuHPMp_amlvFqQCUdcZxsWQqkJgztGJBo0s/edit More articles and mini reviews — https://medium.com/@nikola.shekerev
• 

  yoječ

  Nov 15, 2017

  This is one of these games that deserve a "meh" rating, if Steam had such. But, in the end I think it's more recommended than not - consider it being "above meh". Long story short - while I definitely had fun playing Carmageddon: Max Damage, the fact of the matter is that Carmageddon 2 did nearly everything better. I'm not a die-hard fan of the Carmageddon series as a whole, though I have to admit that Carma2 is one of my all-time favourite games. That's why when I first heard about the new instalment in the franchise (Carmageddon: Reincarnation) I was extatic, but the more news came, the more my excitement subsided. It was getting clear it's not gonna be a AAA title of any sort... so I held off buying it for a while. Had I played this game on the release day, I'd probably be heavily disappointed. I don't want to sound completely negative. This game has captured most of the Carmageddon "magic" and is worthy to bear its name. You get a feeling that the people behind Max Damage have lot of creativity, and it really shows. Sadly though, it also feels like they lack enough experience, and also possibly they lacked the time (or funds?) to give the game enough polish. The ideas are excellent and I really appreciate all the hard work put into making this, but most of the time the execution is subpar. What's the most fun thing to do in Carma series? For me, it has always been wrecking opponents' cars. The damage model in Carma2 was so cool, the vehicles could bend in such crazy ways it made your head spin. How does Max Damage compare? Well... it doesn't even come anywhere close. Most of the time you just see the car panels flying off, and that's about it. Hardly ever the vehicles get bent at all. Having played the Next Car Game demo (which has really nailed the way the autos get damaged, so awesome), I hoped to see something similar in the new Carma, but nope. The addition of a few new touches like wheels falling off, tyre shredding, etc. is nice, but not nearly enough. And don't tell me the modern PCs aren't capable of what was possible back in 1998. At least you can still rip cars in half. The other thing that really bugs me is the damage calculation. Despite having put a decent number of hours into this game, I still have no idea how it works. The head-on collisions do pretty much no harm to you or your opponent (unless you have some powerups). I am yet to find a reliable way to wreck enemies. On the other hand, sometimes it feels like your car gets obliterated even by a gentle touch of your opponent, especially in the rear. Bottom line - if you want to kill and not be killed, you need powerups more than ever. Speaking of powerups - they're awesome. It's cool to see most of the classic PUPs return, and the addition of many new ones is welcome (the anvil launcher rocks!). However, they had to spoil the fun by introducing more harmful powerups. Granted, there were a few ones in the earlier games that made your day a bit more miserable, but here some of them will pretty much kill you outright. One wrong move and boom, you get wrecked. Thanks. Whose bright idea was this? Speaking of getting wrecked... well, get used to it. You're gonna die a lot. Gratefully, unlike in Carma2 this doesn't fail your current event, you can always repair, costing you a great deal of credits. Unfortunately, credits are absolutely essential to progress further. The game is divided into episodes, in which you need to gather a set value of credits to continue... and you're constantly spending money on repairs. Not only sometimes I had to replay some of the events just to grind more cash, but it also encouraged me to play it safe instead of having more fun being reckless (and also renders the ability to buy powerups impractical). Apart from that credits are useless, since you don't use them anymore to buy cars or upgrades. I reckon this whole system wasn't well thought out. With that said, the game actually gets easier later on, when you gain access to better, more sturdy vehicles - but in the middle of the campaign it can be unforgiving. The AI is just dumb. If they get in your vicinity, they will pretty much always try to gangbang your ass and never let go. When fighting more than one enemy at once, you stand absolutely no chance. In Carma2 it wasn't the best either, but I feel like at least there was more variation in their behaviour. Here, they are either sworn to wreck you (when nearby) or just run aimlessly (when far away). From what I saw in the early reviews, the performance of Reincarnation used to be atrocious even in high-end PCs. Some users reported it got a lot better with the patches, and that's something I can confirm. My PC has seen better days for sure, and I still can play this game on reasonable details. It definitely doesn't run as good as you'd expect, but it's decent enough. Loading times are also acceptable. No major issues here, then. Apart from the winter course that is, because it can lag the game quite heavily. Graphics-wise, the word "acceptable" springs to my mind again. Nothing spectacular (especially given the hardware requirements), but they won't make your eyes bleed either. The game is enough to look at, even if just barely - occasionally it can feel like an early PS2 title. The overall map design deserves a praise though - each one of them feels unique, and they're a real pleasure to explore. Sometimes, it's just a joy to take a break of all of that vehicular manslaughter, take a moment to enjoy the views and search for all the hidden powerups and upgrade tokens the maps are riddled with. Max Damage has a typical Carma driving style - that is, all of the cars feel extremely slippery. This might throw a lot of people off, but it's just something you have to get used to. I was a bit confusing for me at first, but after some practice it isn't a problem at all. It could be improved for sure, but it's not something I'm going to pick on. This isn't primarily a racing game after all, at least I don't consider it as such. Even though there are some events that can be won only by racing through checkpoints. Unlike Carma2, which had just a few events other than classic death race, there are also many other competitions to choose from. I don't mind any of these - although to be frank, Car Crusher and Carnage Accumulator can get a bit troublesome on larger maps. You'd be driving for hours, just to be a hair too late and the new target appears somewhere far away. Irritating, but fair... I guess. They're a nice change of pace, but they're better suited for multiplayer. Last but not least - the cars. This is where the new Carma shines. No two vehicles in this game look alike, they all have their distinct personality. You can meet a lot of your old friends again (Degory'Un <3), but there are also quite a few new contenders. I absolutely adore the creativity that went into designing them, taking real life cars and turning them into something new and ridiculous. Ever wanted to drive a combination of Mercedes SLS and a tank? No problem! What's even better, all of the extras that the cars are equipped with can come into play. You can use any of the sharp parts of your vehicle to slash and dismember the pedestrians. While it's fun, it doesn't always work in your favor. The case and point is the aforementioned Degory'Un - it has sharp spikes on the front which can be used to impale people, but that severely compromises your auto's performance. The handling, top speed and acceleration dwindle, and quite often you can barely steer at all. A real pain in the butt, trust me. Bottom line - if you're a Carma fan you should give this game a go, but don't get your expectations too high. It's worth giving a try when on a sale. If you haven't played any Carma before and don't know what to expect, I'm pretty sure you won't like it.
• 

  Nem

  Dec 16, 2017

  Despite all the complaints this game has gotten and the lack of updates it's still a perfectly viable purchase. I'm at around 800 hours at the time of this review and it's still a great deal of fun! I've had absolutely no dire problems with this game whatsoever, as a Carma fan since the original many years gone this is everything I could have asked for. The cars and drivers are even more demented as ever, the environments have been vastly improved, splitting your opponents in half is fun as ever and the damage system in this game is one of the best out there right now, close to BeamNG levels. All the complaining thats going on is quite pathetic to be honest, most complaints come from Graphics, Optimization and Car handling. Graphics are fine, this isn't PS2 grade or 2001 era as the millenials claim, we didn't have these graphics until late 360 era - early XBone era. In some areas like nighttime maps the graphics are pretty nice to be honest, personally hardcore photo-realism has never been interesting to me anyway. Optimization is good, at least for me since I have quite a powerful PC, so I can't really grind to much on this. But out of my 800+ hours I've had about two crashes. Game runs consistantly at 60FPS like a charm. Car handling, another complaint that is benign is that the cars feel like butter. They don't, straight up. The reason kids are complaining about this is because Carma doesn't hold your hand when driving. I admit in this game it took me a couple of hours to get used to the countersteer, which corrects your car if you drift. If you drive over a piece of your opponents car it might spin you out as it would for real, this complaint is just redundant and laughable because mainstream sheeple can't adapt from game to game. The game is incredibly fun if you like smash ups and stress-relieving violence. Don't listen to the likes of IGN and all their shitics, they'd compare this to Call Of Duty if guns were in the game. If it was shit, I'd tell you that and not recommend it, but it's genuinely a solid game! 10/10. As a Carma fan I got what I wanted, even if the devs disappeared, I still have the game.
• 

  John Meadow

  Sep 11, 2019

  It makes me sad to give this game negative review, as it is almost a propper Carmageddon, and I loved it at first. But there is something off that makes the game feel unsatisfying. If I had stopped playing 5 hours earlier It would be a positive review. Pros: - It is a Carmageddon - Car destruction effects - driving mechanics feel like carmageddon Cons (mostly visible after hours of play) : - damage system is unbalanced for game modes other than classic making them fell unfair and unrewarding. - driving mechanics feel slightly to slippery (surface has no visible effect on handling) - too much pickup types. too much useless pickups, no proper way of navigating between them - too much pickup clutter on the maps - new cars feel more like filler, and are not memorable as the classic vehicles The game looks good and in a style of its predecessor. Not great, but enjoyable. Damage effects are cool and quite entertaining. Driving mechanics are fine, but it looks like there is no difference regarding surface you are driving on, so there is constant sliding and drifting. It feels like old Carmageddon, but 20% more slippery. This makes high speed driving not possible. Now for the progression. You gather points from reces to unlock more tracks. You collect upgrade tokens on maps to upgrade your car. There is multiple race modes. Classic mode beiing the most fun, as you basically can't lose since you have repair ability, and your opponents don't. So you have loots of tyime to explore maps and do whatever. Other modes are bad. E.g. Standard race does not work, as this game was not designed as a reacing game. So maybe 1 or 2 opponents are actually able to race and the rest stumbles around the map. So there are 2 outcomes, either you mess up are never able to cath that one oponent, or you win by many laps ahead. Deppends on the cars taking part. And there is the Destruction mode (wreck X cars first to win). So this is where you discover what is OFF about the game. The damage system might work for classic mode, but in any mode that opponents can respawn, makes the game disappointing and unsatisfying. So at progression level 10 I have noticed what damage system does.And what can be observed is: (This happens with any car that is fully upgraded in damage and armor) if you drive at 200 kph and hit a environment you get dammage, something might fall off. The same happens if you hit opponent, They get most of the dammage, you might get no dammage. Now if oponent hits you at 100kph you lose half of your car. I you are against a wall, than it is instant death. If opponent hits another oponent at 100kph it heavy damage of instant death. This dammage model is fine when you race against time. But if you race to get the most werecks, it is a pain because of the other thing that is Pickups. The game features allot of pickups. Some are triggered on contact and last for a time.But there is like 20-30 pickups that end up in your horrible inventory. Some are completely useless, some can kill oponent instantly, so usually you end up scroling throught the list checking if you have anything useful. So in wreck mode, instead of focusing on car combat, you end up searching the map for usefull pickus (wchich are mostly random) while oponents insta-kills each other.
• 

  Breaker Alex

  Jan 16, 2020

  Good ol' Carmageddon! Feels like the original.
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  Egyptian Batman

  Feb 13, 2020

  I wish more people liked driving games like this. pretty much the reason video games exist is for games like this. that messed up mentalness that is fully unacceptable in the real world
• 

  BenyoBoy

  Mar 28, 2020

  When I'm writing this, I just completed my profile in Carmageddon: Max Damage to 100%. I still haven't unlocked all skins and rims, but did collect every smelly bushes, completed every races in every way, completed a lot of challenges, etc. I decided I want to write a review, just about when I was halfway through this game. I have a weird feeling towards Carmageddon: with the first episode I played just about 5 mins on my older cousin's old PC, TDR 2000 was a pile of garbage, but Carmageddon II... Oh boy, let me tell you, when I was a little kid I've spent literally thousands of hours with it. That game was like a drug to me. Don't worry, I have no driving license, and I'm not a psychopath. Actually the most satisfying thing was never running over pedestrians, but how the arena based stages gave you freedom, and how the car model's deformed into surreal sculptures after huge collisions. That melted my brain when I was a kid and it still does to this very day, Carmageddon II is an all-time favourite of mine. Not gonna lie, I was pretty hyped when the first news surfaced to the gaming sites, that there's going to be a new Carmnageddon game. I was pretty hyped, even though TDR 2000 was a big let-down (at least for me). I even bought an ED 101 t-shirt from the official store which I still wear it carefully (still looks brand new). So I bought this game as well and played a couple of matches and it was fine, really, but somehow after few races I quitted the game and never played it again for about a year. The game still having on my computer, while I was bored, I was like... let's play it again. So I started paying with it again a week ago, and here I am, with a 100% profile. And honestly, I did have fun with it! Have to state the obvious first: the game is not perfect, and yes, it has some faults. The graphics are... how I could say... functional rather being nice and sometimes the pedestrian movements look like animated GIFs. Music is OK, we have an instrumental Fear Factory song which is nice because I love Fear Factory, but while rest of the songs are still OK, I got bored out of them fast. My biggest problem was with the handling. It's not as smooth as in Carma II, but not that bad either, you have to get used to it, and you simply have to make good decisions what kind of car you want to bring to a certain stage and race. For example, speedy sport cars are good for racing and especially Fox 'n' Hounds stages, but on off-road surface they will handle horribly. You have to counter steer almost constantly, so you can't just drive casually as before, you have to concentrate which gave me a bit of challenge, and I liked it. There are cars of course with better handling than the overall, for example Shredlight is amazing, and overall really easy to drive. There are various new modes: checkpoint races, lap races, killing marked pedestrians races, and Fox 'n' Hounds races which is probably the most broken race type of all, because I've never lost a race in that and I'm not even a good player. Maybe because the AI is super dumb. Around Level 9 I tuned down the normal difficulty setting to easy, because that's when cars are damage sponges, and every race started to be miserable to play. I had a maxed out Towmeister and I had to spend 5 to 10 minutes to eliminate a low-tier sports car... and I'm not even mentioning really tanky vehicles like Blitzkrieger. So yeah, sometimes the game is not that fun. But, there's tons of power ups, the stages are quite big with huge variety, and except the snowy stage I loved them. The car model's details are also nice, you can tear them apart, they deform just as well in Carma II. Drivers are now also 3D models, so they can fly thought the windshield and you can run them over, or they can blow up into bloody chunks in their car after getting eliminated. There's a huge variety in pedestrians as well, you have many animals like bears, penguins, cows, dogs, and humans from cyclists to fat security guards and skinny pompom girls. Credits now only used to gain more EXP so you can unlock new races. You can't buy new cars, you have to eliminate them in certain (I guess randomised) races to obtain them, and upgrading cars are way easier than in Carma II as well. Now you have to collect upgrade coins which are scattered around the maps. Extensively I used around 5-6 cars during my playthrough and I didn't even have to look around them, and still found so many that I was easily upgraded all these cars to max level. There are collectibles in "smelly bushes", and some of them are quite challenging to get, but there are many great guides how to find them. Completing classic carma races with running over all pedestrians is still boring as hell, so wait till you get Electric Blue, which will definitely makes your life easier. There is also a multiplayer mode which I haven't tried so I don't have any experience with it. Also, yes, the game sometimes crashes but it happened to me like 3 times during my entire playthrough. So yeah, that's all my thoughts about this game. I'm happy to own this, I liked it, I can recommend it. It's not perfect by any means, but it's still a fun game and probably the best Carmageddon experience since Carma II. It's a "good game". A term I rarely see nowadays, everything is either a perfect masterpiece or a pile of garbage. No, Carmageddon: Max Damage is a good game in classic terms. Give it time, learn the new handling, tone down the difficulty when you feel like it, and you'll have plenty of fun with it, I promise.
• 

  Judassem

  May 12, 2020

  Carmageddon II - Carpocalypse Now was my entire childhood, together with Age of Empires II. Yeah, I know, playing such an extremely violent and gory game so early on in life is probably not a good idea, but I think I turned out to be an OK person lol. When I saw that Carmageddon was going to have a sequel (I do not acknowledge the existence of Carmageddon TDR), I was so excited. Fast forward to 2020 (it took me 4 years to have free time to play this game; having a huge backlog and a toddler does that), and I finally finished the game (Not 100% though, it'd take an insane amount of time to do that). All I can say is, this is the perfect sequel for Carmageddon II. It has everything that game had, but with better physics, graphics and sound effects. Even the gloomy, depressive and oppressive atmosphere that made Carmageddon so good is here. We have a mix of drivers and cars from Carmageddon Max Pack and Carmageddon II. We have a lot of new modes that we didn't have in the previous games like Fox 'n Hounds, Ped Chase, etc. You expand your garage by destroying cars marked "unlockable" in that specific track. You can also customize all the cars with different paint jobs and rims, and every car can be upgraded just like in the previous games. You unlock each chapter by earning a set amount of credits from the previous chapter. In short, think of this as a bigger, better and more modern version of Carmageddon II. You'll find here everything that made the original one a cult classic. I absolutely recommend it.
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  linksofsphynx

  Aug 20, 2020

  Carmageddon: Max Damage isn't a racing game in a traditional sense. It doesn't involve speeding around the Nurburgring in order to get the fastest lap time. It doesn't revolve around unlocking photo-realistic vehicles, customization options, and story cutscenes. CMD doesn't have you analyzing upgrade specs to try and get the perfect balance of speed, weight, and cornering. CMD is, "the ultimate antidote to racing games," indeed. At its core, CMD is a toybox; a collection of digital Hot Wheels cars that you smash together over and over to the cackling of your inner child. The game's core mechanics encourage destruction and doughnuts, discouraging actual racing, which is absurdly therapeutic. Instead of getting time penalties for taking shortcuts through the grass as the cardboard cutout crowd stares at the action blankly, a la Forza, in Carmageddon everything the game is composed of discourages you from following the checkpoints present in each large, open map. Though there is a more structured campaign mode, it's really just a slightly limited freeplay mode with uninteresting and tedious progression. I have never touched the multiplayer in my 62 hours playing, but I can tell you the competitive modes in single player are not engaging nor do they compliment the game's mechanics. Carmageddon is a one trick pony that knows that trick very, very well. Upon choosing freeplay mode, you have the option to choose which race and car you want. The races in the game are made up of roughly 10 maps with several different checkpoint layouts. These races may also have different minor changes in scenery, changes in pedestrian placement, and changes in powerup placement. The cars all have different specs including top speed, attack power, and strength, but these are ultimately nullified by the game's mechanics. Choose whichever looks the coolest and get going. As soon as the race loads you have the option to start before the countdown finishes, triggering a minimal credit cost. After that, the player is completely free to abandon all the opponents in search of powerups and pedestrians, ram right into the closest opponent, or, if there's something truly wrong with you, attempt to complete all laps as fast as you can. Kill all the peds (takes forever), finish all laps in first (BOOORING), or wreck all your opponents to complete the race. There are a multitude of bells and whistles that make this simple formula work. One of Carmageddon's signature features is its ridiculous cartoon physics. All the cars are as bouncy as marshmallows and flop around the levels with delightful imprecision. Twisted Metal is to Devil May Cry is as Carmageddon is to Goat Simulator. The game fundamentally is made to create slapstick comedy moments that prevent it from getting old. You may completely miss a turn, throwing you into a minefield, which then throws you into a pinball mode powerup, which then sends the entire map into chaos. You may also make one wrong calculation, end up flat against a wall, and get wrecked in the first 30 seconds. This is all moot, though, as Carmageddon is played more or less in god mode the entire time. Don't like how beat up your car is? Hit repair twice and watch all your pieces come flying back to you. End up on your roof? Hit recover a couple of times and land gently back on your wheels in another part of the level. There is basically no way to lose Carmageddon unless you choose to restrict the mechanics yourself. This makes for a very passive and stress-free experience. The damage model is another part of Carma's claim to fame. Before the days of Flatout and Wreckfest, Carmageddon boasted its extremely detailed destructibility and delighted players with exquisite mangled cars. The destructibility in CMD is top notch, though perhaps less impressive in today's game landscape. Doors and hoods flap open, hitboxes become comically crushed, and your driver can get thrown out of the windshield, leaving the vehicle to drive itself. Some of CMD's powerups exploit the damage model extremely. The 'ave a Banana ray twists the front and rear of your opponents making them look like a crescent moon with wheels and the Splitter Ray leaves half of your victim spinning around in circles desperately trying to navigate the level. Remember when I said the game is geared towards comedy? That's embedded in everything from game mechanics to the text descriptions and sound clips. Carma's developers are obsessed with dirty puns and will have you rolling your eyes immediately. Aside from the vanilla CMD package, the PC version is especially worthwhile due to fantastic modding by Mad Mike. The base vehicles are fine and bring many original designs to life, but all are very over-the-top and toy-like. Mike's extensive catalog of more realistic vehicles truly adds a layer of enjoyment to the game that can't be ignored. In a racing game culture that largely caters towards realism and simulation, Carmageddon is a bloody, retro breath of fresh air that encourages stupidity and violence for no reason. Pick a brum brum, turn your brain off, and go smash some steel. STRIIIKE!