I had written about Twisted Metal. How I beat it and even got Platinum Trophy. Long story short, today in the morning I decided to check out the second one. Out of pure curiosity.
I did and what can I say? It is a bit different, yet the same, yet different, yet the same. I don’t know how to explain it, but the game basically takes what the first one did good and made it better. It also took a few irritating moments and made it worse too.
I played as a huge, muscular black dude trapped in a set of giant wheels and with two rocket launchers strapped to his shoulders. To make things worse (and I forgot to mention it yesterday) his damage model is fucking brutal. When his health falls below 50% (or maybe a bit lower), his right arm gets torn off. That’s freaking crazy, man. I mean, the guy is at a clear disadvantage just because while everyone else drives armored war machines, this dude is basically a messed up combination of Jesus Christ and Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci if they were on steroids and strapped to a pair of monster truck wheels. This doesn’t seem fair.
Anyway, besides the initial impression, the game got both easier and harder at the same time. It got easier because now killing enemies isn’t hard, they aren’t as sturdy as they were in the first game, and also it feels like their AI was dumbed down to give new players at least some fighting chance (with a quirk, but about it a bit later). The game got harder because maps are now more complex and bigger, there are teleports, the battles now take place in the arenas with a lot of things that can harm you (and won’t harm bots if they are far enough from you… like driving on motherfucking lava off screen). Graphic-wise? Not so sure. For me, the graphics look pretty much the same if not slightly worse. Maybe I am wrong, but there’s only so much you can do with PS One-era graphics.
So far everything looks good or at least alright. What is bad about this game? Well, the weapons got even less distinguishable and I’m not talking about application, but rather about collecting them. The icons make no sense at least for me. In the first game, it was hard to say on the go which weapon was which, and now it got impossible. At least for me, perhaps there’s something wrong with my eyes (and I know it is, I’m wearing glasses).
Besides that, I have a certain amount of bitching to do about the controls. In the first game yesterday I used the Run’n’Gun layout. Naturally, I went for it too. I mean, why change something if it worked? Turns out they changed it. The R1 button doesn’t work for me anymore to go in reverse. Yep, now I can move only forward with R2, but to go in reverse I have no other option but to hit down on the D-pad. That sucks. Put me in more situations that I could’ve avoided if only R1 worked and I wasn’t hitting it like an idiot.
But this is all nothing. The main drawback is the biggest of them all – an obligatory difficulty swap. So, here am I, playing on the easy difficulty, doing my stuff, and grinding all this crap. I reached Amazonia (the level with lava and AI enemies that don’t get any damage from lava if they are far enough from you), I beat all the enemies. Then the boss from the previous game, the Minion, appeared. I beat him too. And then I get a huge red STOP sign all over the screen telling me I’m a weakling and only real men are allowed further. And it kicks me out. If I didn’t know the codes for the levels I would’ve been kicked out from the campaign for good. So I start the next level, New York, now on Medium difficulty, and I get my ass handed to me. Yep, turns out Easy difficulty dumbed down AI. The moment you put it on Medium they start harassing you like there’s no tomorrow.
Now, I hate that crap. Always hated it. Like when you are locked out from the game because you choose to play on easy difficulty. Especially now, when I’m a damn adult and have damn responsibilities and some other damn goals in life except sweating over the game I should’ve played as a kid, but didn’t because I had no idea there even was a second game. And yes, I think I’m overreacting, but in my opinion, you either give the full experience regardless of the difficulty level or don’t include the difficulty level whatsoever. Dark Souls made it right. Twisted Metal 2 made it wrong. End of discussion.
Oh, and yes, I didn’t finish the game. Because I’m a loser. And also maybe because this is the last thing I need in my life, to struggle with the game that soon is going to be 30 years old. Also regarding the plot… I don’t know what the plot is there. Except that the Minion wants to get his revenge on Calypso because of reasons. That’s pretty much it. Chances are I won’t finish the game because I’m not this hellbent on Platinum Trophies and not very interested in playing with cheats like immortality. So, yeah…