Splat Splat Splat Splat Bang Crash Splat. (Carmageddon Rally (PC))

Member Name: Mutalisk

Product:	Carmageddon Rally (PC)
Date:	16/09/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, entertaining, tongue-in cheek, visceral, decent graphics, physics and sound effects.

Disadvantages: not as much fun killing zombies, crude graphics and gameplay mechanics, unrealistic

Released in 1997, Carmageddon is a hyper-real splatterpunk gory driving sim inspired by the 1975 film Death Race 2000.
The game is incredibly violent and involves killing pedestrians in large numbers, their blood soaking the hood of your car and leaving bloody tiretracks in your wake. Strong criticism and threats of legal action prompted the game's designers to edit this heavily, replacing the civilians with zombies full of green blood. Pfft.

Each race takes place on a track, usually a cityscape or other urban area, and there are 3 ways to win. You can either kill every pedestrian on the map, destroy your opponents vehicles by crashing into them until they blow up, or running them off bridges and other elevations, or, if you want to be boring, you can just overtake the other cars like any other driving sim. The game has some decent physics for the time, and you can drive pretty much anywhere, with the exception of going through shop windows and the fronts of houses. - The environments are not as destructible as you might hope, and the levels are huge, but often a bit too simplistic. Sound effects are great and whilst low-bit in places, are often very, very funny.

Graphics are good for the day, and are very punky in style. This really adds to nostalgic value and charm. Whilst the interface is very simple, (you feel you are playing the game as a car, rather than someone driving a car,) its still a lot of fun to smash things to bits to the tremendously memorable score, written by none other than Fear Factory.

Your cars are not customizable, but you can choose from a number of different kinds to buy, including dump-trucks, taxis, drag racing cars with cowcatchers on the front, and bulldozers. This is a lot of fun, as they all feel very different to control. As cars are damaged, bits tend to fly off them. You'll see bonnets and windows and wingmirrors flying all over the place, and in a very strange device by the developers, if you have enough money (accumulating by killing, smashing and winning races) you can magically repair your car in a single frame just by pressing a button. This is a highly unrealistic touch but given the subject and premise of the game, its not important. The emphasis here is on visceral thrills and dark humour, not groundings in reality.

Its an old game and it will run on even the most modest of system specifications. Its also available for Playstation.

You can get it on Amazon or Play for around a fiver, but is not really worth buying again, as its a bit of an outdated gameplay experience. If you're a fan of classic or retro games though, or you've played this game before, its well worth a purchase and good value for money.

Summary: An incredibly visceral, if somewhat crude splatterpunk racing title. Worth a play.