Gory, destructive high-speed racing fun (Carmageddon Rally (PC))

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Carmageddon Rally (PC)
Date:	10/08/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: simple, visceral fun, colourful appealing graphics, darkly humorous, lot of gaming freedom

Disadvantages: None

Carmageddon is a racing game that is a mixture of the playstation game 'Destruction Darby' and the 1970s film 'Death Race 2000', in which a bunch of drivers race wacky-races style cars race through a city to the finish line whilst trying to mow down as many innocent pedestrians as possible. The game caused outrage when a demo of it was released, as it allowed you to run over people relentlessly and leave bloody tyremarks on the tarmac, forcing the developers to hastily remove the pedestrians and replace them with zombies with green blood. Fortunately though, there is a patch available for the PC version that reinstates the pedestrians once more, and is well worth getting.

There are three ways to win each race- drive through all the checkpoints ahead of your opponents, kill each and every pedestrian on the map, or smash your opponents cars into pieces, thus disabling them and knocking them out of the race. The first two ways of playing are rather tedious, and the only real way to play is the third, though the game allows you to basically drive wherever you want, tearing through streets, up ramps and over hills and flying across the roofs of skyscrapers, and is immensely good fun. You start with a futuristic looking sports car with blades mounted on the bonnet but can choose to drive your opponent's vehicles later on, which range from drag cars, monster trucks, high-speed bulldozers, Lorry cabs, dump-trucks, Cadillacs, VW beetles- all sorts really!

The car models take damage each time they are hit, becoming increasingly battered and unresponsive, with bonnets flying off and steering columns becoming bent and twisted, and crashes are immensely satisfying and entertaining. You can repair your own car with a simple press of the backspace button, assuming you have the money to do so, with money being earned by running people over and damaging opponents cars. The levels are huge and well designed and the graphics are crude but appealing, the game having been released before 3d- acceleration became the norm. The car handling is satisfying if unrealistic, and some rather nice industrial music by Fear Factory adds to the game's destructive, high-octane appeal.

Simple, visceral and full of dark humour Carmageddon is a great game to unwind with and remains a timeless classic.

Summary: A classic racing game