And I played it! Boy... What a weird game!

First off, let me tell you, I have never played Twisted Metal before nor have I wanted to. Heavy metal, crazy destruction, truck turning into a robot, scary clowns, everything about it was not something that I could enjoy.

But the excitements around this got me interested and I played it and this is my impression.

Control

Took me some times to get used to but it was not the most intuitive control. I do not know if this is the same control as the PS2 Twisted Metal series but I had to take my times to get used to. They said every vehicle drives differently and they are somewhat right. They all have different speed and some of them can make turns faster than the others. Some cars have more weights than the others and heavy vehicles can, just as advertised, ram into other vehicles, which brings me to the next topic.

Who Would Anyone Use the Motorcycle?

Okay, maybe I am not really good at this game but after awhile I did manage to get into the top five. Even though that does not say anything, I am comfortable to say motorcycle is really hard to use. First of all, this thing cannot take damage at all. Yes, it is supposed to be like that but when a car(not even a big car) rams into a motorcycle, the chances are it will lose its control or just blow up. I understand that you are supposed to drive away super fast so that you will not get rammed by other vehicles. But that is really hard to do when the special weapon for motorcycle is a flame chainsaw that you need to throw without any aim assistance. It is a powerful weapon. I have killed two players with it. But it is really handful when you are running away from a car super fast car, trying to aim someone in front of you, wheeling your motorcycle to "charge" your chainsaw, and trying to throw the damn thing without any aim assistance all at the same time. Even missiles that are not homing missiles do a little bit of aiming for you. Why not the chainsaw? I found the motorcycle very difficult to handle.

Graphic

It looks good. Solid frame rate, which is really important in this type game, and it is crazy. A lot of fires, a lot of blood, just a lot of things going on. Surprisingly detail character model, too. It is also 1080p, which is hard to see these days. I do not know if it is a native 1080p or not but it is what it is and it looked pretty good. Really love the detail on the vehicles and man, everything does look really good chaotically. Your car will take damage and it will show. You will see you car bumper dangling and what not. I definitely see the appeal of it.

Two Online Modes

This is also great! They provided Nuke mode(objective base multiplayer) and Death Match Mode. While both of them are really crazy and chaotic, I would say Death Match is a way to go. It is just really fun to have everybody just driving around and throwing something that is on fire. But that does not mean Nuke mode is bad. It is still good. I just personally like the chaotic nature of Death Match better.

Did It Convince Me?

As I said before, I have never played any Twisted Metals before. Considering that this was my first Twisted Metal game, I can see why people are excited about it. With that said, I do not think this demo has convinced me. But this is only a demo. They will probably balance things out, add more modes, and maybe more vehicles. With all that, I have a good feeling that the final product is going to be great. It is just that, for me, I want to see and wait for the reviews to come out before I make up my mind. But if you are a fan, it has heavy metal music, burning clown head, flame chainsaw and chaos. I strongly recommend downloading it. We need more players online!!

I was thinking about getting it first day until I played the demo. It's good, but there is other games coming out like SSX and ME3, so I'll hold off on this one till it drops in price.

Think I played some Twisted Metal game for like 10 minutes at some point in my childhood, but have been excited for the new one. Went through a single-player traing scenario just to get a grasp on the controls and..... well, I don't really know what to say. This game has a HIGH barrier to entry. Hopefully it'll have a decent single-player campaign that eases people into things, but I think I can say for sure that anyone that hasn't played Twisted Metal before is gonna get completely and utterly crushed online. Will give it another shot some time before the game actually comes out but I have a strong feeling I'll never ever touch the multiplayer aspect, even though it's probably the meat of the game.

i thought they said there was a challenge mode in the demo?? at least thats what it said on the download screen maybe they meant full game :(

im excited, only weird in that they said they removed some characters still look like that have a decent roster though

hope the noobs like sweet tooths flavor of the month , napalm with a topping of hot lead ;)

For a guy that dumped a lot of time in TM3&4 back in the day, I felt right at home, and the controls have actually been, believe it or not, simplified a ton from previous entries. Seriously considering picking this up.

I just....I don't know. It's fun to play and all but it doesn't feel finished. I really don't understand the choice for only have 4 playable character (5 if you pre-order, seriously fuck that. It needs to stop.) and you can use any vehicle with any character. So what's the point? To me, a lot of Twisted Metal's appeal and charm came from having a bunch of characters and each one having their own personality and vehicle. Something just doesn't feel right about this game.

@Djratchet said:

For a guy that dumped a lot of time in TM3&4 back in the day, I felt right at home, and the controls have actually been, believe it or not, simplified a ton from previous entries. Seriously considering picking this up.

Wow... 3 and 4.... ok...

I loved 2 and Black, so I was hoping to see what would be done this time around.

The controls are hard to get used to. I hope you can customize them in the full game since none of the controls feel great to me- it's always one or two buttons that feel off. Also what's with putting the shooting controls of the Talon on the triggers? The PS3 triggers are not the best for shooting and having the option to use the L1/R1 would be great. Using the sixaxis for turbo boost was very unreliable as well-sometimes tiny flicks work, other times I have to jerk my hands upwards with a lot of force, leading to me almost hitting my face.

The world is not very detailed but this is countered by destructible environments which are really fun to navigate. Driving straight through a petrol station always feels great. The car models and animations are as good as ever and seeing a guy pop out of a window to fire a rocket is fun.

I was pumped for this game but I was disappointed by the demo, I'm not really encouraged to buy it day one. David Jaffe and his team seem very passionate about this game but I'll have to wait for the game to drop in price before I consider a purchase.

NB: Issues with the game aside, this was a full featured demo which was very refreshing. I wasn't expecting to have access to all the vehicles on offer in the demo which is really good.

@Masha2932 said:

The controls are hard to get used to. I hope you can customize them in the full game since none of the controls feel great to me- it's always one or two buttons that feel off. Also what's with putting the shooting controls of the Talon on the triggers? The PS3 triggers are not the best for shooting and having the option to use the L1/R1 would be great. Using the sixaxis for turbo boost was very unreliable as well-sometimes tiny flicks work, other times I have to jerk my hands upwards with a lot of force, leading to me almost hitting my face.

The world is not very detailed but this is countered by destructible environments which are really fun to navigate. Driving straight through a petrol station always feels great. The car models and animations are as good as ever and seeing a guy pop out of a window to fire a rocket is fun.

I was pumped for this game but I was disappointed by the demo, I'm not really encouraged to buy it day one. David Jaffe and his team seem very passionate about this game but I'll have to wait for the game to drop in price before I consider a purchase.

NB: Issues with the game aside, this was a full featured demo which was very refreshing. I wasn't expecting to have access to all the vehicles on offer in the demo which is really good.

it has online pass

slso they locked out some of the vehicles

Played a lot of TM1, 2 and 4. Bought Black 2 years ago, as I sorta took a break from consoles in the early mid 2000s.

I pre-ordered from NewEgg, 48 bucks, no tax and ill get it in 2 days or so. Prob not on release date.

I just....I don't know. It's fun to play and all but it doesn't feel finished. I really don't understand the choice for only have 4 playable character (5 if you pre-order, seriously fuck that. It needs to stop.) and you can use any vehicle with any character. So what's the point? To me, a lot of Twisted Metal's appeal and charm came from having a bunch of characters and each one having their own personality and vehicle. Something just doesn't feel right about this game.

@TheHBK said:

@Djratchet said:

For a guy that dumped a lot of time in TM3&4 back in the day, I felt right at home, and the controls have actually been, believe it or not, simplified a ton from previous entries. Seriously considering picking this up.

Wow... 3 and 4.... ok...

I loved 2 and Black, so I was hoping to see what would be done this time around.

I know, I know. Oh and 2. But I barely touched 1. Mostly 3 though. The endings sucked, but the gameplay itself was alright.

Grim/Reaper has always been risky to play, he's weak and his special is easy to miss. But his damage if played right is easily the most devastating.

Just make sure you don't get rammed by Darkside.

I liked the demo. But, I think I am going to pick up Syndicate and Mass Effect 3, instead. I will pick it up during a Gamefly sale or B2G1 at Gamestop.

@Redbullet685 said:

I was thinking about getting it first day until I played the demo. It's good, but there is other games coming out like SSX and ME3, so I'll hold off on this one till it drops in price.

Odd I coould not get online with it.

I think I am going to have to pass on the Vita so I can get Twisted Metal and Syndicate.
 
Twisted Metal is a hard ass game to play. I can't quite get the method down of how the hell you kill people. All I see is you shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and BOOM someone takes your kill.
 
It's still pretty wicked though. I think I heard Straight Outta Compton playing in there too. DAY. ONE.

I played it for an hour or two yesterday, and I enjoyed it so far. I'm still on the fence about preordering it though. I want twisted metal black, but I'm not convinced to the point of dropping 60 bucks on it.

I'm having a great time playing it, and I'm sold on buying it. I agree 100% with the controls though, they take some getting used to. I "hope" the final game lets me customize my own controller buttons, but it seems doubtful.

Also, the motorcycle is what I play as. You have low health, but you're small, fast, and have the most powerful special attack in the game.

For anybody who might be confused, there's not just four vehicles. Theres four gangs and four storylines. There's still just as many if not more cars to choose from. I played the single player demo last night and MAN this game is hard. Hard enough that I think releasing the demo was a mistake. I'm a huge twisted metal fan and twisted metal has always been hard, but this is as difficult as 2 was if not MORE. I'm going to buy it, but i think it really needs some FAQ type data to talk you through the levels and let you know where stuff is.

@nohthink: I think the controls are defaulted to the "classic" setup. Some reason square is the gase button and you shoot with the triggers like any other shooter. Though in the demo you can change things around so the triggers are the gas and the guns are the face buttons.

I like the demo. I played the reaper with no luck though. I might want to try vermin or the meat wagon. They seem not too slow and have more health. I really hate that if you die during the single player challenge you don't respawn. Because I got wrecked. Though I really like how crazy it is. If I'm able to get use to the demo i may pick it up.

Anyone know a good car I could try out to actually be decent at the game?

@Nottle: Try the cop van. I can't remember the name. It has a pretty good amount of health without sacrificing too much speed.

Really enjoyed the demo so far, my only complaint on the controls side of things is the whole 'Right analog to reverse', why not just make O brake and reverse?

Online is enjoyable but derpy team-mates are pretty frustrating in Nuke, however I see myself getting this game more for the offline split-screen but I am thoroughly impressed from what I have seen so far

@Shookems said:

@Nottle: Try the cop van. I can't remember the name. It has a pretty good amount of health without sacrificing too much speed.

Agreed I found this to be the best way to go; the special attack is pretty reliable aswell.

In terms of how to do well in challenge, you should just learn the Health drop locations. Once you have those down you should just be able to head over there and replenish. Once I started doing this I found challenge ALOT easier.

(By the way I think the car is 'Outlaw')

Pretty keen to check out videos of this demo, 1.5GB is a bit steep a download on a cap. (Australian Internet rules)

Excited about the full release.

I enjoyed the demo but I may hold off until a price drop. I've got my eye on SSX more at the moment.

Have no nostalgia for Twisted Metal. My PS1 (or PS2?) ethernet add-on thingy crapped out like 2 hours into playing Twisted Metal online and I've never played an other one since.

• The control scheme feels, for the lack of a better word, crowded - but functional for the most parts. Am a bit perplexed about the lack of a rear view camera.
• The graphics and UI/HUD - the overall presenation felt like a, to put a positive spin on it, throwback.

Not sold on it. The controls are functional enough to allow mastery and I guess then it'll come into its own, but I yet fail to see why I would want to master it. There's many competitive multiplayer online games with a lower barrier of entry, lots of depth and better tech and presentation. If I had nostalgia for competitive car combat arena gameplay - yeah, I think I'd grow to love it.

It's not for me.

I've only played Single Player, and after about twenty attempts I was able to get about 3 kills before game overing. Is... Is that bad?

@DonutFever said:

I've only played Single Player, and after about twenty attempts I was able to get about 3 kills before game overing. Is... Is that bad?

No, the AI in the single player are like hawks. The best thing you can do is double tap square and high tail it the fuck out of there. The AI never attacks anybody but you in the opening but they let off once you get some distance between them and yourself. TM: Black did the same thing, surprisingly. It takes a lot of getting used to.

The Twisted Metal games have always been tough. Tough to control, tough to really get a grip on. I'm downloading the demo tomorrow. Been a fan of the series since the beginning, so I hope this bad boy's got the goods.

@DonutFever said:

I've only played Single Player, and after about twenty attempts I was able to get about 3 kills before game overing. Is... Is that bad?

I suggest playing with one of the more mid sized cars. The helicopter, sportscar and motorcycle are kind of weak and until you know where the health pickups are they will be hard to use. But when I use Death Warrant, Meatwagon, or outlaw I am able to wipe out everyone in the single player.

@DonutFever said:

I've only played Single Player, and after about twenty attempts I was able to get about 3 kills before game overing. Is... Is that bad?

they have the ai set to hard -__- at least thats what the developers have said

soo dont fret you dont suck its just the since its hard the ai will always try to kill you its not like that in the normal game or at least never was on other twisted metals

The controls were mapped terribly. Everything was in the wrong place. And it started to get a little confusing when I went through the tutorial. And I honestly don't think it played all that great, either.

Twisted Metal for the PSP handled better than this game. The combat was fun, and the game looks good and runs pretty smooth, but I just wasn't feeling it.

@nohthink: I've been using the motorcycle almost exclusively. It's all about the hit and run, the flame saw fully charged will one-shot the weaker vehicles, and everything else will fall to a shotgun blast or a few missiles afterwards. I only change to the sportscar when I need to make a super fast leader run.

@Centimani said:

@nohthink: I've been using the motorcycle almost exclusively. It's all about the hit and run, the flame saw fully charged will one-shot the weaker vehicles, and everything else will fall to a shotgun blast or a few missiles afterwards. I only change to the sportscar when I need to make a super fast leader run.

has that been working online as well?

@TechHits said:

@Centimani said:

@nohthink: I've been using the motorcycle almost exclusively. It's all about the hit and run, the flame saw fully charged will one-shot the weaker vehicles, and everything else will fall to a shotgun blast or a few missiles afterwards. I only change to the sportscar when I need to make a super fast leader run.

has that been working online as well?

Onlines what I'm talking about :P I actually get get stomped pretty well by the bots no matter what I do, but it works great online. I went 16-3 with two points in nuke earlier with nothing but my bike :D

I'm having a hard time getting into this game. The controls feel stupidly complicated, surely there would be a much better way of doing what they want with fewer inputs? I spent the entirety of my first match not knowing what to do or how to do it. I couldn't figure out what half the weapons did or how some of them even worked. The primary weapon of the truck in particular, I couldn't figure out if I was suppose to tap or hold R2 to get it to function properly. The whole thing just feels poorly explained even though the first thing I did was play the tutorial. It doesn't help when the AI can tear you apart in no time.
 
For some reason I can't help but feel like the game isn't finished. I don't mean a few months worth of polish, I mean it feels like it's still in the early stages of development but with the graphical quality of a finished game. I seriously can't explain why.  
 
I'm going to give it another go, I don't want to write it off based on a bad fist experience.

My only complaint with the controls is the alt fire button that is on the triangle button. If I want to change to alt fire the game demands that I let go of the gas, screw that! But that is my only real problem AFTER I got usd to the controls. I played with the classic TM controller set up.

I also got overwhelmed by the difficulty in challenge! I could barly keep myself alive. My TM skills are serioulsy off right now. Will the final game have difficulty levels? I think it needs it if Jaffe and the gang don't want to scare away new players. For me I started the tutorial to understand the control and after experimenting with different controls and cars I went on to single player challenge mode and got smoked, REALLY hard. As I said... I hope they have difficulty levels in the game because if the single player campaign AI is that hard there will be no room to actually have time to try out the systems in a real combat situationen. You don't have much time to think and try stuff when all you do is run for your life or trying to attack randomly. Some breathing space would be nice...

But overall I dig this. I just have to give the demo a bit more time. I really loved the handbrake. Totally unrealistic but extremly tight, responsive and satesfying.

I think the single player challenge mode is geared for fans of the series. I managed to complete it after 5 or 6 tries, but I'm a big TM nerd. The controls, again, make lots of sense to fans of the series (except for the reverse...). still only gotten 1 online game, matchmaking is borked.

Haven't been able to get into any online, but the challenge mode was fun. I can barely hold out in there, though. Been a loooong while since I invested any time in a TM game... only other one I've played was TM2 - which I did at least get damn good at.

I am thoroughly not impressed. Seriously wondering about my preorder for this

I liked the demo and it only got better the more I played it. The depth of the game will not come across in the early hours of play.

@Minion101 said:

I liked the demo and it only got better the more I played it. The depth of the game will not come across in the early hours of play.

this ^^^ times a thousand once you begin to get could with the controls and start experiment with power using there alternates etc it just becomes so much better :)

im now really good at reaper freeze stun flaming chain saw "oh you had our leader how do you like being insta gibbed" :)

@JazGalaxy said:

For anybody who might be confused, there's not just four vehicles. Theres four gangs and four storylines. There's still just as many if not more cars to choose from.

I played the single player demo last night and MAN this game is hard. Hard enough that I think releasing the demo was a mistake. I'm a huge twisted metal fan and twisted metal has always been hard, but this is as difficult as 2 was if not MORE.

I'm going to buy it, but i think it really needs some FAQ type data to talk you through the levels and let you know where stuff is.

the tutorial helps a lot and the singplayer from a preview at gamespot showed that its actually pretty forgiving in sp mode in the first 2 levels you can switch between cars in a garage and you come out with full health

I was really excited for this game, I then played the demo, I am no longer excited for this game.

Tried to demo today on Nuke mode. Thought it was pretty good. Like you guys have mentioned the controls are a mess. Won't be buying in brand new. Will pick it up after a couple of months when it's cheap. As much as I hate to say this, and I hope I'm wrong, but this has got tank written all over it.

Had a lot of fun with what I got to play of it so far. Haven't played much of the other Twisted Metal games so can't really compare it to those. I found the speed of the game harder to get used to than the controls. Going to have to play some more before I decide on if it's a buy or not but so far enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

My biggest problem is I felt like I wasn't hurting anyone with my attacks and it was too hard to hit. I also didn't love the way the vehicles handled overall.

I played the hell out of TM2 both when I was a kid, and even recently on my PS3 (coop with my bro). Looking at all the previews leading up to the demo, I was absolutely unimpressed.

After getting my hands on the demo, I'll probably pre-order it. Man, does it bring back memories! It's amazing, and it looks a lot better than I expected it too. The controls feel right at home (compared to TM2, and I rarely ever use my PS3 so I don't have any control normalcy to contend with.) Beat the challenge mode after a few tries; I'm pretty excited for the full release!

Absolutely, loved the demo. Controls definitely have a learning curve to them, but the game really opens up once you get them down. I was really surprised at how much depth is in this game, multiple firing modes for many weapons and tons of secrets and shortcuts on the map. Very impressed, will be picking this up day one.