Twisted Metal(2012) Review

Twisted Metal 2012 or PS3, this game is a weird one. I played the game 9 years ago back in 2014 on PS Now and I didn't like it very much then I played it again 2022 and still couldn't beat it but after the release of the show and since Sony didn't provide a modern and updated new entry in the series, I decided to play TM 2012 yet again, and shockingly, I was able to beat it and get to the end credits, and even more shockingly, I think this is one of the best games in the series and is one of my favorite PS3 exclusives, I will admit the game has some issues particularly with some of the difficulty spikes in the campaign but overall, this game was mostly a joy for me to play.

I'll start with the good and by addressing the elephant in the room, the single player campaign in particular the way it's structured. In TM 2012, you don't play as a wide array of drivers with their own vehicle and endings like in the previous games instead you play as three drivers and you get to choose a wide variety of vechicles for most of the missions. This may sound like questionable design but what I like this campaign structure is that trying to get to the end and roll credits takes a lot longer than doing one driver route in the previous games. On top of that, I love that this game had mid campaign cutscenes like Black and the there is more of an overarching plot by comparison to the previous games where each driver went the fighting game arcade mode route where every character had their own ending which are all isolated incidents rather than having a larger interconnected story while I get why games like this are designed this way, it's hard to really make myself beat all the characters routes and be exposed to the same enviroments and bosses over and over really starting to slowly make me dislike the repetition of the asset reuse. Plus the live action cutscenes in TM 2012 have a decent production value to them and it beats the original PS1 TM's text crawl endings.

This new structure allows to at least make it feel like I am slowly going through a fully fledged campaign rather than forcing myself to get all the character endings and hope I don't get burned out by the before mentioned heavy asset reuse and going through an hour or two of gameplay to get an ending that lasts less than 5 minutes.

Another thing that helps the campaign feel more fleshed out and this is also a big point of contention for TM 2012 is the attempt at variety from the usual free for all deathmatch fares. In TM 2012, there is different game types outside of that like endurance, fighting "Juggernauts" where they keep spawning more contestants until you take out the former, fighting in a constantly moving arena or you will take damage, racing, and different takes on free for all like traps or changes in the map. For a guy who likes it when games try to use their base mechanics but change up the situation and context in which the mechanics are used, TM 2012's campaign felt like it was made for me.

Most of these are hits and the only ones especially the moving arenas, and the endurance matches since they all involve the core gameplay of attacking other vehicles by getting pick ups and using special but adds a different spin on things than just trying to simiply destroy the other enemy. I am not a big fan of is the races and the later "Juggernaut" battles. Most of the attempts at situational depth does a good job of not having every objective be the same deathmatch which works since the campaign overall is much longer to get to the "end".

I also like about this campaign that is also more "accessible" to newcomers and while it can be offputting that the AI has a knack for coming after the player alot, the game also balances this out by having most levels giving you a garage to switch vehicles, health pickups being showing on rader and during gameplay, driver kills, and letting your switch between most vehicles during gameplay or before you get into a level.

The game has an amazing soundtrack that fits the game extremely well both licensed and original music both do a great job at fitting the game and enhancing the action. The licensed metal music and the original metal and techno tracks all sound great and does a good job at immersing the player in the action rather than just have battles be nothing but awkward SFX the whole time. The annoucer voice sounds great and is up there with the Halo multiplayer one when it comes to listening to them saying their lines. He does have a knack for telling you the obvious like "find health" even though you could already tell by looking at your health bar, but it's not a super big issue. I do like that he tells you that your special is refilled which is a nice way of reminding the player that you can use them instead of cycling through everything and then seeing your special just so happens to refill. 

Final positive is that the gamefeel, polish and feedback is the best the series has ever been, every hit, the vehicle handling during the battles, and the explosions and "driver kills" all feel awesome. The blood splatter when running over a driver does a good job at provining a satisfying stimulation as well as serving a gameplay purpose by rewarding the player with health. 

Now the bad, the difficulty spikes particularly with bosses, races and Juggernaut battles can be pretty bad. The races can be cheesed with Crimson Fury and his forgiving handling in fact, I can even say his handling regarding how well he can drift is more forgiving than many racing games. The final race with the Sweet Bot all though you might need to do a couple of restarts and memorize the track as well as learn the controls of the Sweet Bot in order for you to get past this. The big issue with the final race in Dollface's campaign is the the vehicle physics are just too unforgiving with how you need to do super precise jumps since you make the jump and then move so fast that you will fall off and then be in last place and missing a jump or falling off might as well be a restart from the begginning.  

Juggernaut in Dollface's campaign can be with helicoptor known as "Talon". It can be a good vehicle to cheese the later parts of the game in general since he can fly and every other vehicle are strictly land based but don't let that fool you Ghost Town Gulch is a hard level since the map is very small and the Juggernauts can rip your health in half very quickly and they can be quite the damage sponges, just remember to use the Special and try to avoid getting into it's path way too much and pick up the mega guns and with enough patience, it's beatable. 

The bosses are pretty decent for this kind of game but can be frustrating since they poorly explain themselves. The Brothers Grim is easy enough. Iron Maiden however can be bad regarding this. There is multiple steps in the first few phase to damaging and it never tells you to destroy the red limo and then launch the hostage and then fire a nuke at the Dollface mech, figuring this out can be quite difficult since barely hints at this when fighting her.

The final boss in particular is solid and has enough going on to have it be more than just spam pickups and specials while doing hit and run tactics. The first phase is that but later on you fight in a pinball machine of sorts and you have more than enough opportunities to recover health and you can summon explosive clowns to help you destroy the Sweetooth face mask, and the timing window to launch yourself at him is forgiving enough too. Then you go through a death trap gaunlet that will admittedly take a few tries to get past and the final battle is pretty good and a solid challenge without being super challenging provided if you knew how to use the Talon vehicle before reaching this point. The magnet can also be very finicky but that's my only major gripe outside of that. 

Luckily there are mid boss checkpoints and what could be very rage inducing moments is allievated. Once you figure them out, they are decently entertaining fights and have far more going for them than say a lot of FPS bosses do.

Overall, TM 2012 is a very good game, but there are difficulty spikes along the way, and their might be frustrating moments that might make you want to rage quit but just remember to look up some walkthroughs and tips from time to time like every game with difficulty spikes. It's easily one of my favorite games in the series.