"SCi actually managed to screw up a perfect formula."

* I have the UK version of TDR 2000, so keep that in mind while reading the review.


Carmageddon used to be my favorite racing series. It was one of those types of games where it's just plain fun to play. It had a great physics engine and good graphics. When the first Carmageddon came out, I didn't stop playing it until SCi released Carmageddon 2. The games weren't complex at all and it was the simplicity that drew me in. You just run over anything moving - whether it'd be cars or people, and upgrade your car when you had enough credits. Nothing more. However, that's not to say that TDR 2000 is exremely complex. It's still basically the same game, but it's the little things that manage to screw up the whole experience.

First of all, they redesigned the whole physics engine from the ground up. My question is - why did they mess with perfection? In the first two Carmageddon games, you would be able to do huge flips and barrel-rolls while flying 150-feet in the air. In TDR 2000, it's rare to see your car lift 50 feet in the air. And if you do manage to fly off ramps, your car would probably land on its back. Your no longer able to do crazy flips and have the physics engine miraculously make your car land on its wheels. And you know how Carmageddon 1 and 2 allowed you to slowly fall back on your wheels if your car landed on its side? In TDR, that's gone. Also, you can no longer tip your car back on its wheels by tapping the wheelspin (the ''z'' button on the keyboard)button like in Carmageddon 2. Another little thing that pissed me off is that it's too difficult to do the crucial 180-degree spin. If used to be that if I held down the handbrake while turning, I would spin my car around and ram the car that was directly behind me. Now, the handbrake works more like an instant brake. Sure you don't stop immediately like an instant brake, but it doesn't allow you to easily pull of 180-degree spins either. And you wanna know what else is weird? If you're cruising at 80 mph and hit a pedestrian (zombie in the UK version), that pedestrian should go splat and you'd get 15 seconds added to your timer, right? Wrong! In TDR, if you hit a pedestrian at 70/80 mph, they just fly off, get back up, maybe lose a limb or two, and walk it off. Sure, blood spills everywhere, but they're still alive. You have to hit them repeatidly in order to kill them. And since they fly off, you have to find that pedestrian and run him over again. The worse part is, you only get 2 seconds for knocking off a ped. That's right, 2 seconds. Oh, and did I mention the timer does not go above 3:59? Three minutes and fifty-nine seconds... that's all the timer goes up to. How is this possible? Well, for starters, ramming a car head-on will give you about 30 seconds. And you don't get a head-on bonus either. Head-on bonuses are EXTREMELY rare. Now that I think about it, so are the other bonuses as well. The most I got for ramming into another car was 1:23, and that was going full speed and completely wasting that vehicle. In Carmageddon 2, it wasn't rare to have 30 minutes on the timer and be able to cruise around looking for secrets. In TDR, that's now impossible with 3:59. Now that you get the idea of the crappy timer system, is there anything else in the gameplay department that sucks? Yep. Cars usually run away from you. They're no longer wild animals hunting you down. They cruise around for check points. So now, you have to search them and knock them off track. Then if you're lucky, they'll get mad and you'll finally be able to play a good ol' fashion game of chicken. There are some messed up glitches in the physics as well. For example, when I ran over a fallen lamp post, my car suddenly flipped wildly in the air (by the way, if you want that replay, just e-mail me and I'll send it to you).

Alright, enough slamming on the gameplay. The sounds in the game are good, but not great. There are the basic engine sounds and the sounds of crashing cars. Also, the other vehicles insult you. However, they get repetitive real quick. The music is, well, it's Carmageddon... so it's the basic hard rock. Well let's face it, the Carmageddon series were never known for their fanastic audio.

The graphics are definitely better. There are tons of detailed textures and the great dust and particle effects are just stunning. However, I did notice a little slowdown during the heavy dust and particle effects. And this is coming from some one with a Penitium III, 866 mhz processor with 128 RDRAM! But besides the minor slowdown, the graphics are stunning. HOWEVER, the game is not as bright as the previous two games. In fact, I actually preferred Carmageddon 2's nice and clean textures. Somehow, it was easier to see cars and it was most definitly easier to see whether or not you killed a pedestrian. It may sound cruel and violent, but that's what the Carmageddon series are all about.

Overall, the game isn't terrible, but in my opinion, it's definitely a step down from Carmageddon 2. The game is very playable but, again, it's the little things that manage to screw the whole game up.


Story: 6/10
There's a story in TDR 2000? Wow! Anyway, it's nothing great, but if you must know, just go to Carmageddon's website and check it out yourself.

Gameplay: 7/10
It's basically the same Carmageddon, it's not as fun to play thanks to all those changes SCi made (3:59 max on the timer? Come one!).

Graphics: 9/10
Great graphics but I actually prefer Carmageddon 2's clean textures over TDR's complex textures.

Sound: 7/10
Your basic screams and crunches... nothing to write home about.

Replayability: 8/10
Unfortunately, I haven't tried out the multiplayer yet, but the single player should still last for quite a while.

Overall: 7/10
I recommend everyone who wants to buy the game to at least download the demo first. It'll give you an idea of how the small changes made to the game affect its overall performance. Fans of the previous Carmageddon games should defnitely check out the demo.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/00, Updated 09/14/00