My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon part 7...

Publisher SCi would like you to believe that there were three main Carmageddon games. I count three all right, Carmageddon, the Splat Pack, and Carmageddon II Carpocalypse Now. The one known as Carmageddon TDR 2000 was released in 2000, and has only the name in common. Many were hopeful that the TDR stood for "The Death Race," but again SCi failed in acquiring the license, so it actually stood for "Total Destruction Racing." It slightly resembles a Carmageddon game, but it certainly doesn’t play like one. Something happened with the franchise that came as a shock to fans. SCi had a contract dispute with Stainless Games. This was nothing new in the industry. Developers have been hired, and fired since the industry was founded. What was uncommon was for a developer with a proven track record to create a hit, be let go, and replaced with a relative unknown.

Torus Games out of Australia took over the IP. I hold no ill will to Torus for what went down. In my photograph archives I actually have a picture of myself shaking hands with the President of Torus.We met at the E3 in Los Angeles back in 1999. We talked about what they had planned for Carmageddon 3. The Australian company was trying to make a name for themselves in PC development, and in this case they bit off more than they could chew. It was apparent from the get-go. 

What happened between Stainless Games, and SCi, mirrors what happened between SingleTrac, and Sony. The Twisted Metal series was pretty much the brainchild of David Jaffe, and his team at SingleTrac. They had cut their teeth developing many of the first generation hits for the Playstation, and Playstation 2. The first wave included Warhawk, Jet Moto, and Critical Depth, in addition to the first two Twisted Metal games. They showed that they were capable of innovating in the combat department. It didn't matter if the fights were in the air, on the ground, or underwater. It was a niche they had carved out for themselves. This track record gave them the creative flexibility to begin developing another string of original games for the Playstation 2, including War of the Monsters (another of my absolute favorite games), and Downhill Domination. These titles were all good, but it was Twisted Metal that really took off for them. Then Twisted Metal 2 completely rewrote the book on vehicle combat. Everything that made the first game good was expanded upon. This included the library of characters, cars, physics, animation, combat design, levels, storytelling, music, and especially control. The things that were lacking were polished, and made better. A studio may get lucky out of the gate, but it takes real talent to build a greater sequel. This leap from game to game was not unlike the work that went into Carmageddon, and Carmageddon II by Stainless.

Fans were excited about a third game was in the works from Sony. It would debut two years later, but this time by a new developer. That was roughly the same window of time that Torus had to create an all-new game. 989 Studios took over for Sony, and although they had helped a little with the previous games, they had never been directly in charge of the franchise until Twisted Metal III. Audiences, and reviewers could tell that the game had taken a considerable dip. The control was unpolished, the vehicles lacked the creative spark or the prior games, the combat felt sluggish, and the story didn’t seem to fit the mold. When SingleTrac was dropped the team turned around, and released Rouge Trip which audiences could tell was the spiritual successor to Twisted Metal 2. Even with Sony’s powerful marketing arm, and great soundtrack (although Rob Zombie’s “Dragula” seemed to be featured in every other game), it was not enough to convince audiences that Twisted Metal 3 was  good. Things improved in Twisted Metal 4, which came out in 1999. Most sites commented that the things that were lacking had been fixed, and 989 had finally made a good sequel. By then the damage to the franchise had been done. Word of mouth killed the momentum, as did the bad reviews.

The best thing Sony could do was save face, and ask Jaffe and his team to return. They were given lots of creative freedom to reboot the franchise. The much darker Twisted Metal Black debuted in 2001. It was possibly the highest rated entry in the series. Shortly after Jaffe moved to Sony Santa Monica to begin development on another new idea, a game called God of War. Carmageddon TDR 2000 had dismal reviews, only SCi wouldn’t be able to save face by going back to Stainless. The franchise seemed dead, and buried. Fans got word of mouth that the new game was bad. Really, really bad. Those living in denial waited for a review from a trusted site, or magazine before deciding to pass on it. Their fears were only confirmed. GameSpot gave it a 5.7 out of 10, IGN gave it a 5.8 out of 10, PC Gamer gave it a 59%, and PC Zone gave it a 6.9 out of 10. 

The fallout from critics, and audiences was almost immediate. For starters the game was ugly. Yes it was in 3D, and yes the models, pedestrians, and environments had nice, high resolution textures, and improved lighting effects. But all of this was on a clunky engine. It wasn’t just rough around the edges, it felt like a tech demo for things their company could do. Had this game been on the demo disk I tried out in 1996 I would have passed on the series. The story became a convoluted mess about the apocalypse, a zombie outbreak, and the Carmageddon tournament being a chance for Max Damage to be let into a gated paradise. None of it felt thematically like anything that Stainless had even set up prior. Stages were dressed more like levels in a console game. The whole racing in a dystopian future seemed to take a back seat to mission objectives, and elaborate set pieces. Exploration didn't seem to be as much of a priority as the game seemed to hold your hand from start to finish. Not to mention there was a time traveling element to the levels. Where did that come from? To be fair however, the studio did a few things right. They returned the Suppressor, and squad cars of the first game. Also the studio added pedestrians that fought back against the cars, some even threw molotov cocktails!

You could almost sum up what was wrong with the game by looking at the rides. The Eagle was a shadow of its former self. It was fatter, rustier, and sported a jet exhaust, barely resembling what audiences remembered. Not only that, but the co-stars of the game, Die Anna, and her Hawk were nowhere to be found. Torus was keenly aware of the reputation of the series, their home government  had been very vocal about banning the game. They knew that violence was a strong selling point, and the cars had to go above, and beyond in their design. Several of the cars were very odd, whether they were three-wheeled, shaped like a brick, a hamster cage, or were made of translucent material with a naked driver. Torus was trying to be creative. Yet they would then turn around and put a garbage truck in the lineup. It was a literal work truck that didn’t have any extra flair added to it. To be fair Stainless put a combine in Carmageddon II, but at least it was designed for mowing down wide swaths of pedestrians. Torus also knew how influential the Mad Max movies were to the creation of the franchise. A car styled on Max’s Interceptor from the first film, both the black, and yellow versions, was featured in the game. Other cars like KITT from the TV show Knight Rider was introduced as KNAVE. It was an odd mix of street cars, hot rods, movie cars, and science fiction vehicles that didn’t mesh well together. Torus was trying their best to keep the series going, but they were just the wrong team for this project.

Part of the greatness of the original series were the vehicle designs. I hold the library with the same reverence I have for the Street Fighter cast. Every ride seemed to have a following. It wasn’t enough to just copy a design from a movie. Stainless put a lot of forethought into the look, and handling of each car. It is true that many were inspired by real world rides, but they were made to fit thematically as modified killing machines. The use of colors, spikes, blades, drills, and scythes gave each vehicle personality. No two looked alike. They could easily be made out even in the most heated multiplayer game. More important, each ride had a different effect on the game play experience. Stainless made sure to give the vehicles appropriate handling. It wasn’t meant to be a perfect simulation of driving, or even racing. A real big rig could have up to 18 gears. It would lose half a lap to a sports car just getting out of the first three gears. All you had to do in Carmageddon was point the Rig O’Mortis in the right direction, and mash the gas pedal. No shifting required, and in about four seconds you could be breathing down the neck of almost any opponent. This was arcade control, this was arcade handling. No driving experience needed, not even a steering wheel. A keyboard would do the job. From the biggest truck, to the smallest buggy, Stainless had built a simple-to-use universal set of controls. The cars from Carmageddon, the Splat Pack, and Carmageddon II were all easy to pick up, and play. 

These vehicles not only accelerated faster than their real world counterparts, they often handled better too. Plus they were much stronger than any real car. Audiences could randomly choose any ride, and enjoy the experience. Granted, some cars were more difficult to control, and this was a design choice from the team. It created a challenge for those looking to see the benefits of each ride. There was often an upside to a car that went too fast, or one whose suspension seemed to have more travel than the others. When it was on the right level, perhaps the street vs off-road, it was the car that could dominate the opponents. Then there were the cars that simply existed because they were over-the-top. Maybe they were too slow, rolled, or spun out easily. They’d be extremely difficult to win a race with, but the challenge was worth it for many players. Don’t believe me? There are people that try to beat first person shooter games using only a knife, instead of the biggest guns. To them a greater challenge is the experience they want. I find myself doing the same thing by choosing cars much smaller, or difficult to control, than my opponents. These subtle but important game play elements were lacking in TDR 2000. The majority of the cars were evenly matched, any real strengths or weaknesses were negligible. Torus tried to fix their shortcomings by releasing an expansion pack. The Nosebleed Pack could not hold a candle to the Splat Pack.

SCi had painted themselves into a corner. The franchise had sold millions of copies earlier, and was a game of the year at one point. Now it couldn’t find an audience. No studio would touch Carmageddon because of the controversial reputation. Now they wouldn’t touch it because it was a bad game. The publisher merged with Eidos in 2005. They were eventually taken over by Square Enix in 2009. Square Enix did not want to tarnish their reputation by bringing back the franchise. To audiences it was dead, and buried. That made me sad, but it wasn’t the first game that would never get a worthy revival. Work seemed less interesting after Carmageddon II. Most of my coworkers graduated, or transferred. I left college too, and started working at JPL. It was there that I got news that changed everything. Find out about the Reincarnation in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!