Motor Mayhem Review

Wow, does this look familiar.

In a world where original ideas are more sought after than the Holy

Grail, it’s no surprise to see game developers constantly pumping out expensive,

technological ubiquity.

In many cases, it’s even desired. A company produces a good game and we want

to see others take a hint and follow suit. Sounds reasonable.

Infogrames’ new vehicular combat game Motor Mayhem is one that has obviously

borrowed heavily from the Twisted Metal games…and can we blame them?

If you’re gonna snag ideas it might as well be from the masters.

Motor Mayhem brings ease of gameplay, fantastic pyrotechnics and a score

of weaponry to the table. Unfortunately, all of the intricacies and some of

the fun are missing in action for this extremely arcade-oriented title.

The story for Motor Mayhem is long, well thought out and completely

underrepresented in the game. Many years after a huge war with some age-old

subterranean civilization, the descendants of genetically altered soldiers are

now without a battlefield. So what do you do to please the adult offspring of

violence-prone, gene-spliced supermen capable of destroying small cities? You

reinstate the technological equivalent of the Roman Coliseum so they can kill

each other for our amusement, naturally. This new age spectacle is called the

VCL (Vehicle Combat League).

Motor Mayhem plays almost identically to Twisted

Metal: Black. Choose from one of 8 characters and proceed. A set number

of players (much fewer than TMB) are dropped down into pleasantly interactive

arenas (much smaller than TMB) to do battle. Here powerups can be picked

up to enhance your arsenal.

Your goals vary depending on the game mode. There are Eliminator (last man

standing), Deathmatch and Endurance modes – all are pretty self-explanatory.

The instruction booklet says that each character has a specific rival. Okay…so

why is there no hint of this in the game? No visually pleasing cinemas with

characters trash talkin’ and while in battle the players show no obvious added

interest in seeing rivals dead. You’re just supposed to trust the instruction

book. “I’m Chromium and my archrival is Orion.” If you say so, oh

masterful booklet, but what about the other two competitors? If Orion is my

rival, are these other guys my friends? No, of course not, so what’s the point

of this silly rival business?

Which brings me to my next gripe. Did you notice I said “two” other

characters? That’s right – at any one time you will engage a staggering total

of three other characters in vehicular combat. That’s a grand total of

four vehicles, and some of the earlier stages only have two other

competitors. All of the previous car combat games allowed for much more than

just four players per battle. This is just inexcusable.

To add insult to injury, the AI…well, just isn’t. Don’t expect the

challenge that can be found in TMB. Enemies seem to just fire at whomever

is nearest. Weak! Also, don’t expect the intricate and detailed level design.

The maps in Motor Mayhem are small, nonsensical and very uninspiring

for a next generation game.

But

you can deform the levels for some great effects. I shot down a huge overhead

monitor displaying the battle for the crowd and it fell on one of the competitors,

destroying his vehicle. And there’s more of that kind of thing on different

maps, which is really cool.

Another cool tidbit is the game’s immense arsenal of weapons. They tip the

scales at 40 different types, including vehicle specific ordinances. Some of

these armaments are a little useless (like the energy mines, since seeing behind

you can be really difficult while driving), yet still it should be a while before

players have mastered all the weapons and powerups.

And they’re pretty nice to watch, too. The particle effects, missile trails

and explosions are great, as is the overall look of the game in general. No

gripes there. The vehicles are huge (I mean HUGE) and incredibly detailed with

many moving parts. Often when you activate a vehicle specific attack, your character

will stand up so you can actually see him/her/it as they go into the animation

for their move. It’s nice to see and well implemented.

But have fun trying to aim those cool weapons. The vehicle physics are something

special, and I don’t mean that in a good way. All vehicles seem to have this

out-of-place weightless thing going for them, which makes control a problem.

Even the heavier armored cars suffer from this. Now throw a bunch of pads on

the playng field which launch you into the air ala Quake

III Arena, and you have the makings for some truly annoying physics.

Multiplayer is an eventual bust as the novelty of playing with a friend wears

off when you discover it’s just you and your friend and no other players. Boring!

This is the area where a lot of car combat games go awry. We’re happy to take

on a friend, but the excitement is always lacking when it’s just you, a buddy

and a lot of empty space.

It’s also hard to not notice the shameless promotions. Ads for Logitech, Mad

Catz, Iomega and even PSM Magazine (sure, that’s not a conflict of interest.

Can’t wait to read their review!) can be found in rotation on the very

first level. Look, if you’re going to make us stare at ads that have nothing

to do with the game and are clearly only there for you to make money, how about

knocking down the price of the game a few notches? This kind of slimeball advertising

makes me sick.

Still, Motor Mayhem is bright, colorful and mildly entertaining. It’s

just not a purchase and definitely not a keeper. A rental is your safest bet.

Bad physics, bad level design and a paltry choice of vehicles overshadow the

cool weapons and interactive maps. Where’s TMB when you need it?