Twisted Metal: Black

Moby ID: 4456
PlayStation 2 Specs
Buy on PlayStation 2
$16.00 used, $171.98 new on eBay
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Description official descriptions

Twisted Metal: Black is the fifth game in the car-combat series. Only on the PlayStation 2, the game includes old favorites and a lot of new characters. The game has a very dark and gothic theme to it, with the music to back it up. Detailed graphics, day/night cycle, particle effects, and a constant 60 frames per second. The game also boasts a multiplayer mode, with 1-4 multiplayers, over ten arenas (some specific to multiplayer), and a cooperative mode, so instead of fighting each other, you can work together. The game's soundtrack consists of techno/gothic music, with some industrial, and acoustic guitar bits, especially the ending credits, Paint It Black.

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

223 People (146 developers, 77 thanks) · View all

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Creative Director/Designer
Technical Director
Lead Game Programmer
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Sound and Audio
3D Graphic Lead Artist
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Additional 3D Graphic Art
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 28 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 39 ratings with 5 reviews)

Interesting presentation... But a terrible game!

The Good
I really like the stories in Twisted Metal. They're all dark and delightfully twisted. It's a world where good people are punished in ironic fashion (or sometimes just outright screwed over!) and the wicked are rewarded with further opportunity for evil. It's wonderful fun, if you like the gruesome and macabre.

The Bad
Good Lord, everything else, though! The stories may be interesting, but the game itself is awful. (And the stories were cut from the PAL release, which is like scraping the icing off a supermarket sponge cake.) The cars feel floaty; it's more like controlling an RC car than driving an actual car. The destructible environments, most notably in the Suburbs level, are not satisfying; it feels more like knocking over cardboard cutouts (not even that, really) than any serious destruction. The drivers all have too much health, making battles take much longer than is fun; this is a major problem in the story mode, as the AI favours cheap hit-and-run tactics, making it difficult to even land one hit, let alone the twenty or so you'll need to finish them off. The game simply isn't fun.

The graphics are nothing special. The cutscenes are down through still images, and have that icky plastic look characteristic of mediocre CGI. During the game, everything seems small and sparse, and above all brown. It's very visually unappealing. The soundtrack is uninteresting and the sound effects are merely perfunctory.

The Bottom Line
It's basically the Battle Mode in Mario Kart expanded to be a whole game. Sounds awesome, right? Too bad it's badly done. That few other games attempt this is surely why Twisted Metal is thought at all fondly of. Watch the cutscenes on YouTube instead. If you must play the game, make sure to avoid the PAL version; this version is an utter rip-off.

PlayStation 2 · by Joseph Andrews (15) · 2016

This game is addictive

The Good
The fact that you can drive around blowing stuff and cars all around you is what makes this game fun to play. Plus it's the type of game that you could get very addicted to if you keep playing it

The Bad
The one player story mode is not that great to play. Just play through eight levels of increasing difficulty and that's it. However this might be because the version I have (the European version) has had all the story mode FMV sequences cut out, and without them, the game seems a bit incomplete

The Bottom Line
Despite the lack of story in story mode (at least in the European version), this game as I have said is very addictive if you keep playing it

PlayStation 2 · by Grant McLellan (584) · 2002

Dark and disturbing, yet cool...

The Good
Excellent visuals. Excellent level design, very creative, lots of things to see and do. Exciting gameplay that always keeps you on your toes.

The Bad
Gameplay was often fairly difficult, particularly the bosses. The character stories were too dark for me, but this may be an acquired taste.

The Bottom Line
Think very dark car-shooter here. It's a game which has you glued to the screen looking at buildings being bombed to rubble at one moment, and then turning away while cinematics show a mass-murderer in action the next. If you've got the stomach for it, it's fast and furious car-shooter action.

PlayStation 2 · by Daniel Yu (111) · 2023

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

The European version of the game had all the story mode FMV sequences cut out.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

PlayStation 4 added by Flapco. PlayStation 3 added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Grant McLellan, Victor Vance.

Game added July 9, 2001. Last modified June 9, 2023.