June 15, 2010 by Paul Curtin
Sony’s biggest and final announcement at their E3 press conference today was that there is in-fact a new Twisted Metal in development for the Playstation 3 with the legendary and original creator of the series, David Jaffe, in charge. Although Jaffe has been denying the existence of a new Twisted Metal, the biggest surprise wasn’t that there was a new Twisted Metal, but that it was already available to play at this year’s E3. We got a chance to go hands-on with a pre-alpha multiplayer version of Jaffe’s latest installment in the series that helped build the house of Playstation.
The first thing players will notice is that the gameplay is the same as previous games in the series. The same controls and weapons from the original are present in the new game, but with some nice additions such as semi-trucks that players drive up to get health and helicopters that fly around the map attacking and extracting players. Although the game looks and plays the same as the originals; there are some big changes we noticed in the E3 demo, most notably the change to character selection. Characters are no longer fighting for themselves and instead are members of two waring factors: Sweet Tooth’s gang the “Clowns” and Dollface’s gang the “Dolls.” Characters in the game are also no longer limited to driving their own signature car and can select from a wide range of new vehicles that have passengers who add a whole new dynamic to the game by being able to help attack with shotguns and sniper rifles. Jaffe’s new Twisted Metal will also feature new modes in addition to the classic Deathmatch. We were only able to check out Team Deathmatch, but there is also a new mode called “Nuke” which allows players to capture the enemy leader and launch them on rockets in a race to destroy the opposing team’s leader statue first.
We enjoyed playing the pre-alpha demo, but question the choices Jaffe is making. While the game looks and plays the same as previous Twisted Metal games, many of the original ideas such as each character driving their own unique car are no longer present, which goes against the original idea of Twisted Metal, but offers a new take on the series that could turn out to be a huge improvement for the series. Another choice that we don’t totally agree with is the art direction and keeping the game’s graphics looking similar to the originals. We were excited after seeing the live-action debut trailer, but that excitement started to fade once we got a look at the cartoony PG-13 graphics showcased in the actual gameplay. Seems as if Jaffe is playing it safe in order to keep older fans of the series happy, but we would have preferred a much more realistic and darker look to the game that really takes advantage of the PS3, just like how Twisted Metal: Black (the best game in the franchise) debuted the series on the PS2 with updated graphics and took the series in a much darker and adult-themed direction. Check out the trailer and gameplay video below.
