Twisted Metal 2 Review by Domingo 

Only a year after the award winning original, SingleTrac has unleashed one of
the most awaited sequles in history, and it's worth every cent ! The original
was one of the greatest 2 player games ever created, but had numerous flaws.
First of all, only 2 of the 2 player courses had any size to them (Warehouse
District and the Rooftops) making a pretty limited level selection for those
who truly like to have some room to work with (a la Mario Kart). Second, some
of the cars should have never even been there. Outlaw, Yellow Jacket, and
Crimson Fury were all nice ideas but fell way short in 2 player competition.
They had neither the power to compete with the big vehicles nor the speed or
special weapons to compete with the faster ones. In other words, it's like Dan
Vs. Akuma in Street Fighter Alpha, nuff said. If you won with these guys, it's
because you were that much better than your competition. Lastly, several
weapons were just plain useless. The Tire Spikes and Oil Slick are about as
useful as having skill at Primal Rage.
Well, in Twisted Metal 2, all of those things were fixed and there are only a
few major problems.

Graphics : Not a gigantic leap over the original, but a definite improvement.
In the original Twisted Metal, everything was a blur of green, brown, black
and fire. Only the Cyburbia level had any real color or personality. In TM2 on
the other hand, nearly every level is full of colors, details, and
interaction. That's probably the biggest improvement: you can actually do
damage to the levels. the Eiffel Tower can be destroyed to make a path to the
rootops, you can destroy the Hollywood sign, and you can even re-sculpt the
Statue of Liberty ! The cars have also recieved a facelift with only Specter
looking worse (which is debatable) than his former self. Contrary what some
have said, you could see the damage done to your car in the original, it just
wasn't as graphic. In TM2, when you're on your last legs, you really know it.
Lastly, the endings and opening are genuinely amazing, the fire actually looks
real. Way to go SingleTrac.
Grade - 9

Gameplay : If it ain't broke, don't fix it. No major changes here, except the
switching places of the tight turn and brakes (Brakes....why not just press
back ?). Other than minor grievance, control is great although a bit looser
than the original. I'd kinda like to see a button configure screen, though.
The "advance" attacks are a breeze to pull off and it shouldn't take long for
you to be able to pull off a series of reverse missiles and mines while
cloaked.
Grade - 9

Replay Value : Incredible, possibly the game's greatest asset. With over a
dozen vehicles (no duds either), a Vs. and co-operative 2 player mode, and
even a 1 player one on one mode for practicing Vs. mode and you have a lot of
options. On top of this, you've got 8 tracks and at least 3 hidden tracks (2
from the original) to play on. This game has it all in terms of replay value
and most people will still be playing it when Twisted Metal 3 comes out.
Grade - 10

Music : As with the original, the music is phenomenal. While some levels are
better than others, all of the songs are well done and usually fit the mood. I
especially enjoy the "Frere Jaques" remix in Paris and the remix of the
original Twisted Metal tune in Holland. Lastly, anyone else ever heard of the
Insane Clown Posse ? If so, don't you think their music fits the mood of the
game perfectly ? Violence combined with circus music and humor makes a perfect
match with TM. I'd love to see them on the soundtrack to the 3rd Twisted
Metal. After all, lots of bands are starting to soundtracks to games.
Grade - 9

Sound Effects : Even better than the original ! From every scream, explosion
and tire screech to the dialogue in the endings, the sounds are flawless in
this game. The only thing that could be improved would be the option to have
Duke Nukem 3D style talking macros to taunt your opponent.
Grade -10 

Problems : While fixing the problems with over and under-powered vehicles
(although Warthog and Mr. Grimm still seem to be the best) there are a few
flaws in TM2. The most obvious problem is in the Freeze weapon. To be honest,
it REALLY should have been tweaked heavily for 2 player mode. As it stands,
the move : freezes you for 5 seconds (or a special move, whichever comes
first), can be repeated up to 3 times, takes off nearly as much energy as a
fire missile, and it heat seeks. Let look at this : If you freeze your
opponent on any straight-away, even if you have no special weapons at all, you
can remove nearly half of his life simply by hosing him with machine guns the
entire time, firing a napalm, freezing him again and hitting the turbo to
escape. With characters like Mr. Grimm, a frozen opponent = a dead one. Simply
freeze them (again, keep shooting machine guns), shoot his special, Freeze
(start the motions while firing his special), Special, Freeze, any weapon of
your choice. This will either kill your opponent outright or leave him with so
little energy that you can kill him with your next hit. Single Trac should
have made the freeze deplete your entire special energy bar and remove no
damage. As it stands, 2 Player mode is usually fought at an extreme distance
simply because direct confrontations lead to being frozen 3 times and being
unloaded upon with specials and/or time bombs. The second major problem is the
getting stuck problem. For some reason, about half of the characters have the
ability to get stuck in walls to where they lose their life slowly and cannot
escape. While not a serious problem, it happens in about 1 out of  every 25
battles.
Lastly, in 2 Player VS mode the Energy Packs NEVER come back ! This means
essentially that the first match is the only one that is really a war (with
comebacks and such) unless you want to keep resetting the level over and over
again. The weapons return just as they did in TM1, but when the energy is
gone, it's GONE. It comes back in the 1 Player and Tournament modes, why not
in 2 Player VS ? If you're playing one of those 35 match marathons in 2 Player
mode, it's kinda frustrating to only be able to grab the Energy Packs once.

Overall : This game is wonderful despite the problems with the freeze. You can
start a house rule about no re-freezes to keep it fun, but that's like saying
no throwing in Street Fighter. If it weren't for that one problem, I'd give it
a 9.5 or maybe even a 10, but as it is.....

Overall Grade - 9

Domingo@tusc.net