[typing] [heavy metal music]
So I'm a huge Carmageddon fan.
I bought and played through every game several times,
even the censored zombie and robot versions in "TDR 2000."
So of course, I had to back the new one on Kickstarter as soon as I saw it back in 2012.
And with that said, "Carmageddon: Reincarnation" is something I question spending all that cash on.
We'll come back to that, but here's the setup.
"Carmageddon: Reincarnation" is the fourth official entry in the series that began back in 1997 on MS-DOS.
It was a racing game with a nonsensical, graphically violent, comedic slant
acting as a tribute to movies like "Death Race 2000" and "The Road Warrior."
Stainless Games, the developer of the first two, and easily the best, games in the series
are back again to bring this gorefest of a racer to the audience of 2015.
Of course, quite a bit has changed since the '90s
and gory games rarely draw crowds based on gore alone, like they used to.
So beyond the copious guts, the main draw of Carmageddon is the vehicular destruction and racing,
and "Reincarnation" brings its A-game in that regard.
While you can play a free race using any cars and tracks you've unlocked,
it's the Career Mode that features the blood-soaked meat of the game.
Just like old times, you'll select from either Max Damage or Die Anna,
which come with their own unique cars to start out with.
Then you'll progress through the career as fast as you can manage,
with each race having a different set of objectives to complete.
But unlike other racers, Carmageddon is all about freedom to do whatever the nuts you want.
If you don't want to run through checkpoints, why not just run through opposing drivers instead?
Or slice through those squishy pedestrians, earning time and points the more creatively you murder them.
However, not all races allow for you to win in this way,
since there are other modes that force you to play by the rules.
Sort of.
For instance, there are races where you'll have to race through certain spots on the map,
or run over select pedestrians,
and whoever first reaches the set number wins.
But if you don't want to bother, you can always try to destroy the drivers that are playing by the rules,
and for each kill you'll steal a point of theirs.
So, even when restrictions appear, there's always an alternative and often more enjoyable method.
It is the Carmageddon way.
And each race takes place in a completely open map,
so you're free to roam around looking for cool stuff, usually in the form of power-ups.
All the classics from the old games are back
and there are plenty of new ones that up the daft sadist factor by a solid amount.
You can now stack several of them, too,
so anything you collect that isn't controlled by a timer can be kept in your inventory and deployed at will.
It's just as fun as ever to turn your car into granite,
make pedestrians explode on contact,
or repel other cars using giant springs.
And yes, the power-downs are all here as well, making it an enticing gamble to collect any pickups.
However, it's also a game that's rather forgiving, since you can always repair or reset your car at any time,
even if you're out of points to do so or have been completely wasted.
And I absolutely LOVE how when you repair your car,
the parts come flying in from wherever they fell off, slicing through anyone along the way back to you.
The physics in general are absolutely solid.
I have no complaints as a Carmageddon 1 and 2 fan.
The cars feel heavy, the handling feels slick, and the damage model is as impressive as it's ever been.
The way cars deform, crumble and fall apart
from the bumpers all the way down to the chassis is uniquely satisfying.
Although, I haven't found a way to shear my car in half like you could in "Carma 2,"
but maybe I just wasn't trying hard enough. I dunno.
It's important in these games to feel powerful yet vulnerable
because one lucky hit from an opponent or a police car will absolutely ruin you, even at full health.
Of course, not only can you unlock more cars, you can also upgrade your cars
with armor, power and offensive upgrades known as "APO."
You can also change the paintwork and rims now,
which is a very welcome touch when you're trying to max out a specific vehicle, but get bored of the same look.
Upgrades work similarly to "Carma 2" in that you have to find APO upgrade tokens hidden around the map,
which allow you to place upgrades.
But this time, they're just generic and work for any slot,
and you can only earn upgrade slots as you level up your profile in Career Mode,
which is done by earning career experience points during each race.
The more you suck, though, the more points you'll spend on repairs and resets,
and the longer it'll take to level up.
I can't say I'm sold on this personally
because it's one of those systems where you have to replay certain missions over and over
just to grind an arbitrary number of points to progress.
There's plenty of gameplay and replaying of each map without being held back like this,
so I wish you could just give career levels the finger, like every other rule in the game.
There's something else I'd like to give the finger to:
the performance.
This 60 FPS video you're watching isn't messed up, that's actually how it runs on my system
on MEDIUM settings.
A system which easy surpasses the recommended specs,
and can play any other open-world game at consistently high frame rates with ease.
It's not uncommon at all for some stages to run in the single digits.
Not only that, but the load times are abysmal, taking over a minute to load certain races,
and this is running on an SSD.
For a 2015 game that looks like something from 2005, this is unacceptable.
And that's just single-player. Multiplayer is even worse,
which is a shame because online Carmageddon is always a blast.
And this should be a blast because overall I'm very happy with how "Reincarnation" turned out.
When it's running half-decently, I'm grinning like a doofus,
completely content with smashing up post-apocalyptic cars
and crashing through pane-glass windows while literally farting on my opponents.
But when things get even slightly chaotic, things slow down to a crawl.
It's sad because otherwise I'd have no problem recommending this at its asking price of $30 on Steam.
So until this is fixed, hold out for a sale, because while the fun is here,
the ability to fully enjoy it without a very specific computer setup is not.
I'm curious how the still-in-progress PS4 and Xbox One versions will play,
if they ever see the light of day, that is,
and I don't even know, considering the year-long delay on us even getting this one.
At any rate, there's at least a new game in the chaotic Carmageddon series to enjoy now.
I just wish the only chaotic thing about it was the gameplay, instead of the playability.
[heavy metal music]
And if you enjoyed this video, then perhaps you would like to see my videos on Carmageddon 1 and 2
which I'll link to right here.
And you can always watch my other ones as they come out.
There's new videos every Monday and Friday here on LGR.
So subscribing is a thing you can do if you wanna be notified.
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And as always, thank you very much for watching.