Final thoughts about the game

[idbeholdME]

Hi everyone,

As of the recent sale, I am now a proud owner of the GOG version of Max Damage along with all the other Carmageddons. Bought Carma 1 too even though I still have a functional disc just to have a complete set (and splat pack). I played Reincarnation/MD a lot through a friend of mine before actually buying it and now I feel that it's time for me to put here my thoughts about Reincarnation/MD.

First, what it does well:
1) Captures the feel of the original Carmageddons. Almost everything feels as it should and this is how you make a remake. Small improvements here and there, update the graphics and you're set.

2) The graphics are really nice, especially the cars (which is the most important). The visual damage of the cars is also incredible. It is a pleasure to look at.

3) New power-ups are probably the least intrusive way to add new dynamics to a game such as this, without changing the core concept (and don't you dare change it in Carmageddon :D)

And now unfortunately, what I feel could have been better:
1) It attempts to "reincarnate" Carmageddon 1 and not Carmageddon 2. This is entirely up to preference (I'm not trying to convince anyone that Carmageddon 2 is better than 1). But I always liked buying the cars instead of randomly stealing them. I liked the mission grouping in Carmageddon 2 and the "missions" were a nice distraction to help break the constant carnage with something actually requiring a bit of effort (thinks back to the numerous failed attempts of jumping into the airfield control tower or trying to figure out how to get into the belly of an aircraft carrier or the requirement of perfect driving in the last mission to push the button).

I also always liked that there was a threat of you being eliminated from the race not just repair from destroyed or just respawn. You get wrecked, it's game over (helps make the game feel fair, since your opponents cannot repair and doesn't make you feel like you're cheating like Carma 1/MD). Corners and the yellow direction arrows were a game ender if you hit them wrong. Going even 40 or 50 km/h and hitting a corner dead on just seamlessly sliced your car in half (made you care a lot about your driving and avoiding unfavorable engagements). Carmageddon 2 runs with no upgrades other than the 3 starting slots in APO was the ultimate Carmageddon experience for me and accidentally picking up an upgrade slot in a race made me restart instantly (seriously, the upgrades made you super overpowered super quick and ruined the experience IMHO).

2)Remember when I said "Almost everything feels as it should"? There is one MAJOR exception. The damage system is completely screwed up. You can ram anything at 300 km/h and your engine will start blinking green. Do the same thing but TOUCH an opponent and in the next 5 seconds you will be blown to the stratosphere and your car will fall apart if you gently rub anything at near standstill. The "must be tagged to allow damage" model just absolutely sucks and is the one singular thing that feels completely wrong and out of place in a Carmageddon game. In Carmageddon 2, I could die from the opponents just as much as from my careless driving and the damage received felt natural. In Reincarnation/Max Damage the damage only occurs in huge spikes. There are only 2 states: completely healthy or wasted (I refuse to use wrecked). The balance is perfect in Carmageddon 2. In MD, it is an exercise in frustration.

This absolutely flawed damage system is actually the reason for me to stop playing in most of my sessions. It is bearable for a while, but it pushes the Annoy-o-meter quickly beyond the point of no return every single time.

Now, I tried the Psyrgery's damage mod and it does exactly what is says. Makes the damage system feel like in Carmageddon 1. Which unfortunately sways the scale to the other extreme, where you are too resistant to damage (and impacts with anything other that opponents still result in minuscule or no damage at all). But is still is much better than the "catastrophe" that is vanilla.

The best solution would be to just completely get rid of the terrible "tag damage" system and implement something that feels better and makes sense (hint: it's Carmageddon 2).

Because of this alone, the game cannot get more than 7/10 from me. Had the damage been done in a true Carmageddon way, it would have been a 9/10 easily.

PS.

Why the hell does forum registration question "Who drives the red Eagle" not take "Max Damage" for an answer? Just Max? C'mon!!!

TLDR

The underlined sections.