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Not quite Twisted Metal meets Grand Theft Auto, but close enough. I’m pretty that nobody, Rockstar included thought that Grand Theft Auto III would be the breakthrough success that it was. Since then a number of companies have tried to make their own GTA. Everyone from VU Games (Simpson’s Hit and Run), Activision (True Crime) and even SCEA with Jak II has taken inspiration from the multi-million selling franchise. The latest is Midway’s RoadKill. I’m all for vehicle combat and driving around at my leisure, so I was looking forward to the game.
How do you make a game world full of this much mayhem? Make it revolve around a character that was frozen and just recently reawakened. The world of RoadKill isn’t particularly nice with its gangs, violence and tons of prostitution. Don’t like blood or cursing? Steer away because Midway used the “f-word” as often as it possibly could have.
In RoadKill you can wander around the city killing people for as long as you want. When you’re ready, you can begin the missions to earn money and therefore be able to buy upgrades for your vehicle. The game structure is very similar to GTA, there’s a radar and city map with key points shown on the maps. You save the game in a garage and the items are surrounded by a bright-colored glow.
At first, you’re vehicle isn’t very good. A standard machine gun has to defend you from everyone else. As you travel around you’ll find a lot of weapon upgrades to make your car better. You can also upgrade your car’s durability and speed. As you move on you’ll find different cars. Be careful which you pick since some of them belong to a gang, making you a target for rival gangs.
The missions in the game aren’t too exciting. There isn’t anything really interesting to do and most of them you have seen already. Most of them revolve around following someone to make sure they reach their destination safely or killing them before they do so. Luckily, if you attack other vehicles around the city, you can earn money. That proves to be quite fun in the game since you can attack various ones and they’ll return fire. There are also side missions in the game like delivery missions, survival or riots (kill X of certain enemy).
If you’re tired of single player, you can always bring some buddies to play the game’s multiplayer mode. The environments in multiplayer are noticeably smaller (thankfully) and its quite a blast to attack your friends.
The game’s visuals are pretty well done. The areas are massive and the vehicles are modeled well enough. The people in the game go about their business without you doing anything, which is pretty fun to watch. They’ll attack each other and just generally cause mayhem. The areas do fit well with the game’s story and atmosphere.
Roadkill has a neat sound package, too. The sound effects are decent but the soundtrack steals the show. There are lots of radio stations full of music and DJs and talk radio guests. It isn’t quite as humorous as the GTA games, but they get the job done very well.
I wasn’t expecting too much from RoadKill. I just wanted a game that I can drive around and shoot things. While that remains its main forte, there is a pretty good game wrapped around that. If you’re also looking for a game where you can drive around and shoot things, pick this up. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Nov 16, 2003
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