Rockstar changed the
videogame world in 2001 when they released a little game called Grand Theft Auto
III on the Playstation 2. The game was cool to gamers (it was fun), cool to
non-gaming adults (it had style and mature themes), and cool to young kids (they
were playing a "mature" game). Needless to say, GTA3 sold like hotcakes. When
its sequel launched a year later, it enjoyed some very nice sales. And finally
this month, an Xbox version of the two games (bundled on one disc!) is going to
be available, undoubtedly set for some high sales figures as well.
All these sales mean that
copycats were right around the corner. So I can imagine one day Midway
executives were holding a meeting, and they decided that they needed their own
super-violent car-driving game. Roadkill is the result.
The game is violent, loud,
and in-your-face. Guns, explosions, and inevitable blood are extremely common
sights while driving down the street. Constant cursing and especially strong
use of a friendly four-lettered word are here in full form. There are cutscenes
that are so politically incorrect that if any raging mothers might get their
hands on this title, it would shoot right up there with GTA on their hate-list.
Roadkill actually plays less
like GTA3 than it does like another violent car-based game. Its gameplay is
largely based on combat which is reminiscent of the Twisted Metal series. You
actually never leave a vehicle at any one time; though it’s possible to change
cars at certain points, you always are in the driver’s seat of one car or
another. There are your basic acceleration and braking controls, and you can
fire a gun or use some secondary weapons, like a proximity mine. It’s also
possible (and not uncommon) to carry around a man in the back of your truck who
controls a large gun turret. It seems that all of the cars were designed to
take advantage of this kind of gun, which I suppose bodes well for defense.
You’ll take part in a number
of missions, then watch a cutscene or two, and go on to do some more missions.
After a while you’ll move on to the next level. This is essentially how the
entire game is set up. There are missions where you need to find certain goods
and retrieve/destroy them, destroy other cars, run over a number of pedestrians,
or race other vehicles, among others. Some of the missions are optional and
others are required, and while the developers have done a fair job of mixing the
objectives up, I still got pretty tired of performing these tasks in a short
time. They just aren’t original enough – it feels like I’ve been here and done
that countless times before. And since most of the tasks are fairly simplistic,
they don’t require a lot of skill or finesse – generally, if you want to blow up
a car, you approach it and jam on the fire button. You usually have enough
health to keep from dying yourself, and if you do happen to get low, it’s not
hard to lose the bad guys and find a power-up to fix your car up.
All three of the levels
actually are quite expansive. While they don’t dwarf most other games by
comparison, there are a fair amount of things to see. It takes a good few
minutes to get from one end of the map to the other, and the landscape is
littered with side streets and multiple paths. It’s also easy to reach high
ground via parking garages, airport runways, and so on. There are even a good
number of angled ramps, which can lead to some fun jumping. Unfortunately, it’s
not always very easy to find your way around; though the game employs an
onscreen map like that of GTA3’s, it is too hard to make out separate streets
and determine the best way to get to your destination. Sometimes there is only
one road which will get you to your target, and it can be tough to find that
road on the map.
The graphics are not
stunning, but they get the job done. Models are a bit rough around the edges,
but they do animate fairly nicely. The environments are also okay, with a few
interesting spots to investigate. Pedestrians really don’t look that good,
though; they animate in a stiff fashion, and don’t really look realistic. In
other bad news, the frame-rate could stand to be a bit better, too. It’s not
that it’s unstable or ever makes the game unplayable, but next to other car
games, it is not as smooth. Explosions, on the other hand, are actually pretty
cool and satisfying to watch.
The sound in the game is
also a mixed bag. Sound effects are okay, and generally appropriate with the
action onscreen. The voice-acting is generally convincing, and while not
ground-breaking, it works well. Though often unfunny, I heard a few humorous
lines here and there while playing. The music element nods to GTA3, again, as
it features a radio-station setup. There are a few stations that play music,
and a few stations that feature talk-shows and the like. I found a few okay
tunes, but as it consists of mainly rock and rap songs, I wished I could import
custom soundtracks to spice things up. The talk shows come off as cheesy and
fake, which wouldn’t be bad, except they really aren’t written that well – so I
found myself avoiding those stations when I could.
All in all, Roadkill is a
game that tries to mix a few popular games together in order to come up with
something good. The problem is that the developers really didn’t add anything
we haven’t seen elsewhere. The gameplay becomes tiresome within a few hours,
and frankly, it just doesn’t offer new material. It’s not that there’s anything
terribly wrong with the game as a whole; in fact, I can see one having a fairly
good time with it – for a while. This is the sort of game that makes for a good
rental, but perhaps not a purchase. If you’re interested, give it a rent. You
might have some good fun with it.
Gameplay: 6.0
Roadkill plays a lot like
Twisted Metal, with definite GTA influence. If you’ve played Twisted Metal, you
know what to expect: this essentially plays exactly the same. That isn’t always
a bad thing – I had some fun playing, but it wears thin quickly.
Graphics: 6.5
The graphics have their high
and low points. On the bad side, pedestrians look cruddy, the framerate could
be smoother, and generally, car models aren’t impressive. On the other hand,
explosions really look cool, and the environments have their neat points.
Sound: 7.0
Voice-acting is solid, and
there’s a lot of it – but the writing is hit or miss, and it doesn’t hit quite
as much as one might like. The music here is generally rap and rock – nothing
too exciting, and there were a couple of tracks I did like, but I did wish there
was custom soundtrack support.
Concept: 5.0
Here’s where the game could
have used a lot more work. Most of the things in it are solid, but it really
doesn’t push the car combat genre to any new heights, nor does it even add any
interesting features.
Difficulty: Medium
Most of the objectives can
be completed with a little practice. Once you know what you’re doing, you
shouldn’t have much trouble completing all of the tasks.
Multiplayer: 7.0
There are a couple of
multiplayer modes included; nothing groundbreaking by any means, but the few
modes might help a few buddies kill a couple hours’ worth of time.
Overall: 6.5
Roadkill is the sort of game
that one might play as an alternative to the other games it is being compared
to, or for fans of those games that want more of the same. If you’re looking
for original content, you aren’t going to find much here. If you’re interested
in seeing what it’s all about, give it a rent.
