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

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 28 ratings)

Players

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

The Darkest Twisted Metal Yet

The Good
First, there was Twisted Metal. And it was good. Then, there was Twisted Metal 2. And it was better. And then the series was given to 989 Studios, who almost ran it into the ground with the inferior Twisted Metal 3 and 4. But then the original developers, once SingleTrac, now Incognito Inc, got the franchise back for its PS2 debut. And it's the savior of the series. Graphically it's the best of them all, but that's to be expected when it's PS2 vs PS1. Gameplay-wise, it rivals 2, although I'll let you decide your favorite. There are three types of play in single player, challenge mode, where you just pick a car, a level, your opponents and go, endurance mode, where you pick a car and an arena and fight a never-ending series of opponents trying to get a high score, and the main single player mode, story. In this mode you pick your car and driver and go through a series of levels until you reach the end and your character gets his/her wish. The difference between this game's story mode and the one in the Playstation titles is that in the earlier games, you didn't give a damn about the person you pick, or what fate awaited them at their ending, Characters just weren't very important. It's entirely different in Black, however, as each contestant's story plays out in three cutscenes along the course of the game, a Prologue, Middle, and Epilouge. There is a lot of detail in their lives, backstories, how they ended up in the asylum Calypso recruits from, and such. And, except for a few totally evil characters like Sweet Tooth and Cage, as you get to know them you actually care about the people and their fates. An example is when playing through John Doe's story, I experienced happiness along with him when he got his memory back, and sorrow when I found out what happened to him. The characters are a well made, demented lot, and I consider the storytelling of the game to be one of its best points. One of the best points about this game (in my mind) is that they finally made an M-rated Twisted Metal. Incog Inc did a good job making this game as dark and disturbing as they did. The cutscenes that tell the contestants' stories are full of violence, as that is the nature of the game. Seeing shots of the psychotic clown serial killer Sweet Tooth in action might turn some younger or more sensitive players' stomachs, but I'm fine with it. Violence is good... Anyway, moving on to the gameplay, it's quite good, and balanced. All the cars accelerate and handle differently, and have different special attacks, but there is no best car and, with practice, you can win with any of them. They look really good, with many nice touches like the makeshift bumper for the semi truck Darkside made out of a wrecked police cruiser, or the way, unlike the other titles, you actually get to see the missles pop out of the bays on the side or top of the vehicle before firing off. The weapons are very mixed, with various missles with different ratios of damage vs homing ability, ricochet weapons which rebound off walls, and the versitile gas cans, which can be catapulted or dropped as a mine. Add the many energy attacks and you get a lot of different weapon startegies. The levels are all graphically very good, with plenty of stuff to destroy, lots of secrets, and with such a large selection for multiplayer (most need to be unlocked in single player), you'll be able to find ones you like. Which brings me to multiplayer. It's really configureable, with straight free for alls, team battles, and the 2 player co-op game through the single player story. it's improved with the multi tap for three or four players, and as for playing it online, that's a different review.

The Bad
Well, some people might be too squeamish for the blood of the story cutscenes, but hopefully not. The other thing that might turn people off to this game is the difficulty. The computer players kick your ass, even on normal, and it doesn't get much better on easy. I really don't mind it though, because although it was frustrating in the beginning, I got better, I learned the tricks of the game, and can now storm through easy with not too many deaths, normal's still a challenge though... Also, the middle and final bosses seem impossible when you first meet them, but you get better and learn their strategies, and it's a rush when you finally beat them, a real sense of accomplishment, like when you beat the next difficulty level. If you can suffer through learning the game, it'll pay off.

The Bottom Line
Twisted Metal: Black is a quality car combat game with good graphics and a better story. It's also really evil and dark which is a big plus in my book. And with a greatest hits price of twenty bucks, why not buy it?

PlayStation 2 · by John Armstrong (2) · 2003

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

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.