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Posted By	Discussion Topic: Twisted Metal Black Preview
Froy King Shit *board owner*	posted on 03-08-2001 @ 7:05 PM
O&A Board Veteran Registered: Feb. 01	Characters and Story The story is about a mysterious man named Calypso that breaks out all of these completely deranged and cursed individuals from an insane asylum so they can battle out in his car combat tournament. All of the characters have a ghastly history as to why they're in the asylum and many of their horrific lives intertwine in some fashion or another. The background stories are all pretty over-the-top and definitely not meant for a younger, less mature, audience. For instance, Mr. Grimm's a character who developed a liking for the taste of human flesh and the reason he came to this and how he began eating people is fully explained in an explicit video. Other characters are equally as risqué. There's Brimstone, who's an evangelist that goes nuts and, and No Face, who was a low level boxer that lost a fight and had his eyes taken out because of it. And then there's Darkside, whose father murdered her mother and forced her to wear a mask for the rest of her life. That's just a small sample of the game's characters and their background. Basically, all the characters have gone through hell and have scores to settle, plus pretty much all of the stories are intertwined in one form or another. Gameplay Modes The game has both single and multiplayer gameplay modes, with the single player modes consisting of Story, Challenge and Endurance. The story mode is about 10 levels long and should only take about one to three hours to beat as the game has been designed similarly to a fighting game in that the single player story mode is used more for just learning more about the characters and unlocking stuff for the multiplayer mode. There's still a lot of value for people playing the game solo, as there are a lot of characters that can be used to play through it and there's additional fun to be had with the Challenge and Endurance modes. The Challenge Mode allows the player to pick any unlocked level and customize different gameplay settings and go at it against up to seven different computer opponents. And the Endurance mode is exactly what it sounds like, it's a mode where the player is pitted against an endless stream of cars and special goodies are unlocked whenever certain numbers are reached, such as 10 or 20 kills. Nevertheless, the developers have spent most of their time making sure that that the game's multiplayer play is where the majority of the fun is to be had and it looks as if they've succeeded. With around 19 to 21 levels and several play modes, including two to four-player deathmatch, two-player co-op, and two-player Last Man Standing, it's arguable that this could potentially be one of the best multiplayer games that you'll find on PlayStation 2 this year. The deathmatch mode is fully customizable and can be played with vertical or horizontal split screen in two-player mode and with four windows when you play with three or four human players. Sadly, at least for us editor types, there's not an option for FireWire network play, which would allow us to hook up four systems and four TVs. On the plus side, the game does have a two-player cooperative story mode, which allows a player and friend to play through the game's story together. And given that cooperative games are few and far between, this is a very welcome aspect of the game. Massive Interactive Levels What really makes this game so exciting, well beyond the story, characters and gameplay modes, is the raw scale and quality of design of all its levels. The levels are huge and contain lots of secret areas and plenty of stuff to demolish. One of the levels is set in a junkyard and pretty much everything that you can see can be either run over or shot down. There are even interactive elements that can hurt you or one of your opponents, such as walls that can close in on you and crush your vehicle. This level also includes a jumbo jet flying in the background, but unlike most games where it's just eye candy, the airliner can be shot down, causing it to crash into a building on the level. And even this isn't just for show, either, as doing this actually opens up an all-new area in the level that was previously reachable. And the junkyard level isn't the only level that's so unbelievably scaled. The level that was probably the most impressive was this deathmatch level that's currently just called Prison. At the onset of the match, the players begin fighting in what appears to be some huge enclosed hangar, but after a few minutes of battling the doors will open revealing that you're actually on a massive cargo ship that's moving to an island. And if that's not already big enough for you, the ship will actually go into port, opening up the level even further to include the island, which even has more stuff to open up, such as a draw bridge. It's a huge level and once everything is open, you can even go back onto the cargo ship and into the hangar where it all started. Another cool level is this one that's based on a suburban neighborhood. The level contains a lot of stuff to destroy, including small homes, a shopping mall, gas stations, churches and even the asylum. Plus, there are people on the street, including old men walking around with canes that can be knocked around, run over or shot and killed. This suburban area also has a couple of very cool interactive background elements. The first of which is a water tower that can be knocked down and used as a trap or weapon against one of the opposing characters. And then there's the Ferris wheel that can be knocked off its hinges, causing it to roll around the level destroying everything in its path. And even though it was tuned to do so in the current build of the game, it'll also do damage to any player who's stupid enough to get in its way. The levels are just insanely cool and many even contain different weather or lighting effects. In one of the levels, you start during the evening and while playing the game, the sun will go down, making it night, and then as you play even longer, it will begin to rise. The lighting is realistic and it really helps give you the impression that you've been in some long, drawn out combat that lasts from sunset to sunrise. The Means of Destruction You just can't have a good car combat game if you don't have good weapons and the developers of Twisted Metal: Black knows this better than anyone else. Using a weapon system similar to what was used in Twisted Metal 2, TM: Black sports one of the most advanced weapon system in a car combat title and some of the coolest weapons and power-ups. Each vehicle has the normal machine gun plus two character-specific special weapons with multiple functions that rewards players for being more skillful while still allowing for pick-up and play capabilities. Additionally, there are numerous pick-up weapons including: the fire missile, which has a slight home and does medium damage, the homing missile which has a high home and does light damage, and power missile that does major damage, but no home. There's also a gas can that can be simply thrown and detonated, or dropped (by pressing down, up, down, on the d-pad) and detonated as a trap. And to reward those of using it more skillfully, if it's dropped and powered-up for three seconds, it'll do immensely more damage to the unsuspecting opponent. Another cool pick-up weapon is the ricochet bombs that bounce off the walls and can be used to knock opponents upside down, making them even more vulnerable to attacks with stuff like the power missile. The next weapon type are the Skill weapons, of which there are three different kinds. One puts a big green box on the screen with a countdown meter, and the longer you're able to keep the enemy in the box, the more missiles are shot at them when you press fire. There's also a satellite weapon that'll target the enemy and shoot down at whatever spot you decide to fire at. There are also energy moves, like freeze and invisible, that use up an energy bar that can be replenished over time and environmental attacks that allows the player to use background elements to attack the opposing players. Additionally, all the cars have their own special weapons. For instance, Crazy 8 has a taser attack that's used by pressing the fire button repeatedly when in the near vicinity of another vehicle. This attack can also be done for more damage by specifying a side by performing a d-pad movement. Just like in Twisted Metal 2, all of the special moves require simple d-pad movements in some form or another. The Control All of the stuff mentioned above is definitely important, but all of it would be a complete waste if the game didn't have the gameplay and control to back it up. In fact, this is one of the areas that seriously hampered the general enjoyment level of games like Twisted Metal 3 and 4, as they both featured physics models that were too realistic and not really meant for a car combat title. The guys at Incognito realize this and with TM: Black, they've gone back to the same basic physics and control model that was used in Twisted Metal 2. While it does support the analog sticks, the optimum way to control the vehicles is by using the direction pad, with pressing up to go forward, down to go in reverse and left and right to steer. The vehicles are insanely responsive and once you learn to use the turbo button and quick turn abilities, then you'll find that you can pretty much do any maneuver that you wish without that much of a problem. The Sights & Sound As you can see by checking out the screenshots and movies, the game is a testament to the power of PlayStation 2. In single player mode, there's very little slowdown, even at this early preview stage, and the framerate is typically locked at 60 frames per second. And even when you go to four-player split screen, the slowdown, while readily apparent in some areas, isn't ever really a significant problem. And again, this is based on a pre-beta build of the game and things should be even better when it finally ships to stores. Beyond the fast framerate, TM: Black also scores high marks with its sensational lighting and special effects. Not only do you have stuff like the time turning from evening to night and back to morning as mentioned above, but there are numerous other light sources that help bring the environments alive. When it's dark out, all the vehicles have their own headlights and rockets and missiles will light up the surrounding environments when they're fired. Some of the vehicles are somewhat tame when it comes to texture detail and none of them have been rendered as detailed as the cars in something like Gran Turismo 3, but they all still look good and have interactive elements. Unlike other titles where weapons are just shot out of the vehicle, when you have a special weapon of power-up loaded on the vehicle, it actually shows the weapon on the vehicle being fired. Vehicles will transform and weapons will come out of hoods or compartments. It's a great looking game. As far as sound is concerned, all of the music currently in the game is considered just placeholder for now. Some might make it into the final build, while others wont, as deals and decisions still have to be made. And the voiceovers for the characters that I've heard so far all seem pretty good and befitting the dark and gloomy people that they're representing. Something worth mentioning is that the actor doing the voice for Sweet Tooth is actually the same guy that did the voiceovers for the original Punch-Out. The Wrap-up While in recent years car-combat games have lacked that spark of creativity, depth and fun that made them so attractive in the early PlayStation years, the tide is about to turn. It appears that the car combat genre is truly going to receive a blessed new metaphorical chassis, set of tires, and more importantly, a new engine, with Twisted Metal: Black. Fans of the genre and the Twisted Metal series (especially the first two) should start saving up their cash for this one because it looks like a sure winner. TM: Black has been in development for 19 months and will have about 24 months of production time spent on it when alls said and done, and it really shows. And while the game still needs some tweaking and we haven't spent enough time with it to make any final judgments, it's safe to say that things are definitely looking good. -- Dave Zdyrko -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previous Information At Sony Computer Entertainment America's first ever Gamers' Day, held at the Argent Hotel in San Francisco, Ca., Senior Game Designer David Jaffe, who worked with the original Twisted Metal team, demonstrated a fully-playable version of the next-generation in the Twisted Metal series, Twisted Metal: Black. Jaffe first demonstrated pre-recorded video footage and followed with the playable version of the game, which is indeed dark and menacing. After introducing himself and the team, Jaffe made clear that he was happy with the first and second versions of the series (all four appeared on PS), but specifically went out of his way to clarify that Incognito Studios, which is designing Twisted Metal: Black, is made up entirely of the first and original Twisted Metal team (which happened to have designed the first two versions of the game). Certainly, most critics would agree that the first two games in the series were the best of the four. With the intention of restoring the series to a more dignified level, Jaffe said that this new version in the series, just like the original product, is meant to be a fighting game played in vehicles. In the demo shown today, players get the chance to play brand new versions of old favorites, such as Sweet Tooth, but to explore new vehicles and experience a new sense of destruction and mayhem. After the video and the playable demo, the audience burst into a round of applause. After all, this was the first sign of life in the series in years, and this brief glimpse in some way represents a return to Sony's still young roots in the game industry. What we saw were highly refined cars with what seemed like dozens of protracting parts and interactive projectile weapons, each of which produced sizzling fire and flame effects, huge explosions, and immense lighting effects. The sense of speed, even at this early stage in development, was quite impressive, as was what seemed like precise car control and lightening-quick response time. What drew one of the biggest reactions was Sweet Tooth's car. Initially, you couldn't tell whose car it was, but soon the car transformed in realtime from a white box-like vehicle into a fully functional miniature ice cream truck with Sweet Tooth himself popping out from the top, looking maniacal and as "twisted" as ever. The landscapes were built on at least two to three stories, and at least one of the ones we saw took place in a carnival. The most spectacular interaction with the backgrounds that we saw was a projectile that knocked the Ferris Wheel off its axel, after which it came rolling off into the fair grounds. What perhaps was the most unusual or maybe surprising aspect of Jaffe's demo was group of films that influenced the team's game concepts. The list includes the dark and troubling films Silence of the Lambs, Seven, and Jacob's Ladder. The game is set to have 14 inventive vehicles that can perform some amazing transformations that seem straight out of the Transformers. Players will be able to use these vehicles of mayhem in the game's multitude of single-player modes that feature more than eight different dark and gloomy environments. The most intriguing aspect of the battlegrounds is that they feature traffic, ever-changing weather conditions, living pedestrians and interactive objects that make for a highly charged, living world of destruction. The weather conditions in particular are quite cool and add a lot of realism to the general look and feel of the game. In addition to the eight single player levels, the game will have 10 levels designed specifically for multiplayer deathmatches. The gameplay modes include the following: Pure Death Mode, Endurance Mode and Co-op Mode. Twisted Metal Black will also make use of the power of the PS2 by including some advanced vehicle physics with dramatic jump and landing physics, more exaggerated powerslides and more responsive turn rates. The control should prove to be more precise and more responsive than what we've ever seen in the heralded Twisted Metal series. The game looks great and the developers are promising that the game will be running at a blistering 60 frames per second when its finished. Twisted Metal: Black will be released for PlayStation 2 sometime in 2001. ~Matt/Froy from Jersey The Hell Hole Official Protector of Gay Marco & SwampJunk...if he ever decides to post. Also providing total immunity to Fayth
CrackSweat	posted on 03-09-2001 @ 6:27 AM
Psychopath Registered: Oct. 00	Thanks for the review, the game sounds great, I'm a huge twisted metal fan, and this sounds over the top. But as usual, after reading your review posts, I'm dying to play it, and now I know it's coming and the waiting begins. AND WAITING SUCKS!!! But thanks, its also cool to know whats coming out. ;)
ArchKain	posted on 03-09-2001 @ 1:23 PM
Hanger-On Registered: Mar. 01	the game looks very promising. If you click on the link I provided, you can see a quick video of Twisted Metal Black. Enjoy and Drool. http://www.gamespot.com/live/streamer.html?format=asf&speed=300&path=tmblack_ps2-1.asx&title=Twisted+Metal%3A+Black+Movie+2

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