Customer Reviews

Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know that I have been guilty, on occasion, of poor driving etiquette, haven't we all? CARMAGEDDON 2 is a primer in the fine art of road rage. Think of it as cathartic, do what you will within this fine, gory game. Your desires to do the same on the roadways of reality MUST, of neccessity, remain unfulfilled.

Similar to the original CARMAGEDDON except with better graphics, the victims are polygonal models instead of sprites, there's tons more carnage to be wrested from the CARMAGEDDON universe this time around.

Most of the cast of regular drivers are back, with a few new crazies to round out the crew. Vehicle upgrades are made whilst on the fly, instead of thru a separate menu as in the original. The cars Eagle & Hawk have returned along with a bevy of new killers. Look for the Volvo mining loader, a humongous yellow truck used to haul boulders. There's even a WWII Stuka dive bomber piloted/driven by looney Heinz Faust from the first game.

Many scenarios are included: A Disney-esque funfair, replete with clowns, circus strongmen and elephants. A modern airport; bonus points if you can manage to wreck the jumbo jet...the trick seems to be jumping your vehicle upon the wing during takeoff.

One minor beef, there's no onscreen camera shot of the driver's glee as in the first game. I really missed seeing Die Anna squeal with joy each time she squashed a victim. Her sick peals of rapture in the first CARMAGEDDON are very remniscent of Xenia Onatopp from the Bond film, Goldeneye. This aside, CARMAGEDDON 2 is a worthy sequel and a hell of a lot of fun for my [$]. I can't wait for the third installment!

This game is full of blood, guts, and destruction. If you're squeamish, if you're really young, then this game is *not* for you. Are you somebody who would relish running over people in real life? Then it's also not for you. However, if you're somebody who, when out on the open road, just wishes that you could do something about the problem of stupid drivers/pedestrians, this game is loads of fun. You must be able to separate fiction from reality, though.

You will probably never find a safer, more cautious driver than me, but this game lets the player let loose. The game is extremely gruesome, with flying limbs everywhere as you run through crowds of people. Pieces of the other race cars fly off as you crunch into them. Every pedestrian or opponent car hit gives you credits and time added onto the game clock.

The object is to finish the race by going through all the checkpoints the appropriate number of times (yeah, right!), run over all the pedestrians (very hard to do, especially on some of the bigger levels where there are over 1400 of them), or "waste" all your opponents.

You waste your opponents by running into them, running them into other objects, etc. It's a good thing that they can't repair like you can, though, or it would never end. There's nothing funnier then watching a car that's down to 1% health, all twisted and wrecked, go around in circles because it doesn't even have all four tires on the road.

The different locales in the game really make this game a visual treat. There's the Canadian northwest (with even Mounties!), a ski resort, a carnival, nuclear power plant, and many more. The assortment of opponent cars is also very nice, though some of them can be *really* annoying to try and waste (such as the plane).

The locales are much better than the first Carmageddon. The graphics are, too. In the first game, running over "peds" would just result in a gooey mass, but in this game, limbs go flying, bodies go flying, sometimes even heads.

The other improvement is the fact that you can get wasted. In the first game, you couldn't. In this one, you have to be careful. If you hit a wall too hard, or let one of those Mac trucks run you into a wall, you *will* be wasted and have to start the race over.

One downside is the lack of cops. Except for one level, where the object is to waste 12 cop cars, there are no cops interfering in the races. I thought they added a nice touch to the first game, where they provided a random element to the race and the other drivers. They were almost tanks, and nothing was more satisfying then getting a "solid granite car" powerup and wasting one of them. You could also push them off cliffs, etc.

The other downside is the lack of vocals. We got a real kick out of the female persona's "That had to hurt" and such in the first game, but in this game, there is none of that. It takes away a bit of the fun.

But make no mistake, this is a great game, as long as you have the stomach and temperament for it. It's not for the squeamish. It's not for kids. But if you can handle it, you'll have a blast.

Carmageddon is violent, gory, crude, and over the top. That's why sickos like us like it! There's nothing better than nailing an old man on a walker crossing the road going 80! This is racing like you've never seen it before... unless you've played the first one.

Carmageddon 2 is based on the concept of car combat and racing. Instead of fancy gold goins or boxes filled with bananas (ie: Mario Kart), you run over pedestrians for score and hit boxes filled with bombs, oil slicks, drugs, and ped zappers. Even though this is a racing game, I don't think I've ever actually won a race by racing. The game is more of a what if Mortal Kombat was based with cars as characters to me. All you really need to do is ram other cars until they die in this death race.

The graphics aren't a masterpeice, and I don't even think they were really impressive when this game came out. However, what is impressive is teh fact that the maps are huge, there's a ton of pedestrians on screen at once, they cars break apart in a some-what realistic manner, and there's more exploring to do than you would think. For instance, one level pits you in a circus with a roller coaster. I had more fun trying to race on the roller coaster track and do the super jumps at the end than even playing the game. I was actually stuck on this level for days because the level is so fun. Plus, when you get board, you can break into the zoo portion of the level and run over penguins, employees, and even elephants! Yes, exploding elephants (after heavily damaging your car) is incredibad.

The sounds are meh. They're not The best in the world, however, the soundtrack features Iron Maiden, so it's pretty balanced. I'd say the worth thing about the sounds is the lack of variety in screams and tire sounds. You'll hear the same sounds for the tires and wrecks over and over. Then again, this is a CD-Rom game so they couldn't jam-pack the disc with good quality sound variety and textures.

Another thing that will keep you coming back is the huge list of people supporting the game with new vehicles (including on some sites, the Scooby-Doo van, a Porche, or even the Flintstone's car!). The lasting appeal is there with tons of secrets through the nice list of levels. Each level is unique and doesn't just repeat. Plus, killing people means you get to buy their cars, and there's a good chunk of cars in the game. There is multiplayer, but I'm sure it would be hard to find a match unless using GameSpy's servers.

I liked this game cause I could kill people with out getting into trouble. This game helped get a grip on reality and killing things and such. This game releases my anger on the world by BLOWING THINGS UP!!!!!!!!! I also liked how the people scream when you run them over, and over, and over, and over, and over!!!!!!!!!And killing the dogs............lol

Pure evil. Pure violence. Pure carnage. And I love it!

The graphics engine may be old but it still looks sexy despite its age. The powerups are hilairious, the levels are very well designed, the new cars are really good. Just in case you don't know (although you bloody well should by now) Carmageddon is a violent "racing game" where you have to complete a certain amount of race tracks and "Drive To Survive"! You can complete a race course by trashing other cars (driving into them a la Destruction Derby - although they do it to you to!), running over pedestrians or actually completing the track (boring!). Its fairly open ended, you don't stick to a rigid track.

It improves on the original due to better race courses, far superior graphics, way more power-ups, much better AI, extra missions where you do something a little more constructive (it certainly gives a bit more variety) and this is well worth the hard-earned cash you have to pay for it.

There are few complaints though:-

In the original there was a "Prat cam" which showed the face of the driver and was damn funny when he started yelling out profanities due to the fact that he was flying through the air upside down. They should have kept this in.

You have to buy the "armour", "power" (better engine) and "offensive" (like studs at the front of the car) stuff on the road. The satisfaction of saving your cash in order to buy that stuff at the end of the race is now left out. Also you have to buy opponents cars instead of winning them. I really don't like that.

The peds don't always die with a satisfying squelch like they did in the original either. Oh, and the camera still messes around a bit. Play it and you'll see what I mean.

Generally though, this is excellent. Pick it up pronto!

This game is awesome. The main thing that I found amazing about it is that it is SO interactive... you can knock down street lights, drive absolutely everywhere, do nearly anything that you can think of doing with a car. Flap the doors... or wait... you don't want the doors? Ok, just ram the open doors into an object to tear them off. Squish some padestrians without the guilt... they're just zombies after all. Push another opponent into the ocean then hit the brakes real hard to stop yourself going in after him! This is the kinda stuff you'll never find in games like Need For Speed... there are no rules here, do whatever you want, and the best part is, you'll probably earn credits for it... Very original and a lot of fun...

I'm probably one of very, very few people who liked Carmageddon 3 better than the second one. The controls are poor. More often than not, the enemies would fight me a bit, then run away somewhere, usually getting trapped in some tight corridor where I couldn't get enough speed to destroy them, or the godawful water. I must've spent a third of my time trying to work underwater. Sure, it gives you an underwater ability powerup, but it doesn't help very much.
I guess killing peds is fun, but it gets old pretty fast. So does ramming your car into your oppenents over and over only to have nothing happen. No damage. No credits. No time bonus. Nothing. Even once I had built up a lot of armor, power, and offensive, I still had a problem with it.
There's a lot of flipping over in this game. A lot. Way too much. I got stuck upside down or on my side even from just hitting a slight bump. The enemies got flipped over a lot too. Not very fun.
The game was alright at first, but it got old really fast.

Am I entirely twisted that I delight in running over pedestrians and receiving extra points for "piledriving" them? Or getting up on the sidewalk so I can hit two/three/four at a time and get bonus points? Or delight in driving my car off a roof and then repair it with the click of your backspace key? Maybe I'm a little twisted - but this game is FUN!

I agree with the critics - if you actually think this is something you'd want to attempt in real life - then stay away. But if you're like me - a safe driver who always obeys the rules - but delights in a game where you can slam other cars into light poles or run over pedestrians and growling Dobies - then give it a whirl. The realistic graphics make you feel like you're really in the action.

Hey I gotta run - my keyboard's calling me!

This game is awesome, I'm surprised that a certain big shot lawyer and enraged parents haven't rained down on this game and the Interplay. The game features a number of "evil" cars which you'll eventually get to drive as you earn them by smashing them into pieces. The old rules of original CarmaGeddon simply don't apply here. Smashing the cars often won't kill them but destroy yourself instead. Instead you'll have to employ using your car along with shoving your enemies into land mines, off of cliffs, into walls, etc. etc. The body count is much much higher than the old CarmaGeddon, sometimes as many as 4 times more people to crush, maim, burn, drown, splatter, and bounce on each level.

And yet. . . There is something wrong with this formula. The crucial thing is how the player advances through the game. CarmaGeddon simply let the player advance each level one at a time, with the option to replay the last 5 or 6 levels. This method is especially useful if the player likes a particular level or needs to increase money or to grab a certain car. CarmaGeddon 2 groups three levels and a final level into group. The player is forced to only play within these four levels and to defeat the fourth one before advancing to the next one. It's this fourth level in each group that cripples the game. Instead of Destroying the opponents, or killing all pedestrians, or completing all the laps, the game forces the player to ONE goal and to complete this goal. Sometimes, this goal seems near impossible. For example, one level requires the player to destroy all satellite towers within a very specific time frame. I managed to defeat the level with just barely 1 second to spare, after several tries. Another requires the player to nail a massive dump truck (One tire alone is bigger than your own car!), this is difficult to manage at best. I managed to do it by finding land mines and mine "dropping" ability (edited for G rating) and luring that yellow monster into them.

Interplay really should have kept the same formula found in CarmaGeddon. Despite the problems, this game is rather fun, especially if you're a driver in nasty city. It's a nice way to let your aggressions out with out actually killing real pedestrians.

Carmageddon II is a great game if you like driving games, It's very exciting and gory. You can run over people, animals, crash on buildings. You can do lots cool stuff with the powerups. The levels and cars are very cool. The things the car does are quite unbelivable, It can destroy a truck but it's a lot of fun. It is a lot better than the first carmageddon. The graphics are just average. The controls are very difficult, It is a bit hard to drive the car but gets easy after some time. A beautiful game with lots of blood and gory and not for kids or the weak hearted.