REVIEW – It feels like Carmageddon, which returned to consoles with Max Damage, is a decade too late: while it could have some potential, I’d rather say it would be a fitting title for the PS2/X rather than being a PS4/X1 game. Because of this thought, the game, which manages to Max Damage itself, is likely to disappear off the face of Earth quickly.

In May 2015, on Steam, Carmageddon: Reincarnation quit its public beta phase. Wait, what am I talking about? Quick recap: Stainless Games, the developers of the first two installments at the end of the nineties, took Reincarnation, and improved it a bit further into Max Damage (which is also a name for one of the „protagonists”), releasing it for the PS4, and the X1. Despite the evolution, the entire experience feels outdated.

For the fans

Max Damage seems to be a game for the veteran fans of the franchise. (The first game got a PS1 port in 1999, so the past of Carmageddon has some PlayStation ties after all.) For them, the gameplay is the same as before. Killing pedestrians? Check. The possibility of destroying the other racers? Another box ticked. A ton of power-ups?

Yes, of course! You get X minutes, a ton of pedestrians (hundreds, sometimes over a thousand), and crashing into others, as well as killing enemies, nets you points and time. You can get power-ups from the colored barrels. To avoid frustration, Max Damage has a helpful repairing system. You can repair your car anytime for some of your points, and you can easily get enough to stay on the road.

You can have fun with this game, though. The issue with Max Damage is its genre (and perhaps its outdatedness?) for some people… however, Carmageddon is an excellent title to drive your anger out, and when you’re cleansed, you’ll quickly find yourself bored.

Lost

When I first launched the game, I didn’t believe that I saw a PS4 title on my screen. Max Damage rather looks like a PS3 game, and maybe 2012’s Twisted Metal has better visuals than Max Damage, and Sweet Tooth came out on the PS3! Unfortunately, that’s not all: the frame rate doesn’t feel that stable at all, and I didn’t even mention the noticeably loading textures yet! In case you’re lucky (wow, is it a Russian Roulette all of a sudden?), you will avoid game crashes, because yes, Max Damage can toss you out to the PlayStation 4 UI.

The game’s audio is average at best, but it can be somewhat enjoyable for sadists to hear the screams of the pedestrians, giving Carmageddon a perverted ambiance. What about the music? Honestly, I forgot the BGM, so I don’t think it’s that memorable.

Limited

For a game like Max Damage, it would be a good idea to include couch co-op, right? Getting a friend to play some Carmageddon with you in your living room, making fun of the other person. But nope, Stainless missed this opportunity: there’s no local multiplayer. If there were one, there’d still be the problem with the controls. No matter what car I tried, all of them felt like a brick, none of them felt comfortable…

At least there’s online multiplayer (imagine the backlash if the game lacked this, too!), but I’m afraid that the game’s quality will quickly kill the fun for this opportunity. Having the sometimes stupid AI replaced by human players make the experience much better.

Stuck in the past

I don’t think that Max Damage is worth forty dollars because Carmageddon‘s revival leaks that motor oil at every possible orifice, and there’s also a match nearby – the game can lit itself on fire in any second. It’s outdated in almost every aspect, and it also lacks polish, too. I also have to say that in the long run, Max Damage feels just boring and tiresome to play. If you want to hit pedestrians, play Grand Theft Auto V. If you want a similar game, grab Twisted Metal on the PS3. With Max Damage, another revived franchise falls flat on its face – it’s a low budget game, nothing more. *explodes in the car*

-V-

Publisher: Stainless Games

Developer: Stainless Games

Genre: Racing, vehicular combat

Release date: July 8, 2016 (PS4, X1 – the PC version is launching later)