Destruction Derby 2 Review

8.6

Format PC

Developer Psygnosis

Publisher Psygnosis

Genre Unknown

Patrick McCarthy

People who play computer games can be broadly subdivided into two distinct types. Those who take due care in what they're doing and those who don't. When some people first get their hands on a driving game, they spend hours poring over the manual trying to make sure they know exactly what does what, which buttons to press, which are most likely to be the best cars for a particular track, and what the most successful tactics are likely to be in any given situation. They might spend a little time checking out the courses, then a little more time making sure they've tweaked their chosen car, where possible, for the circuit they're about to use. Then they'll start to play... Put them in front of a flight sim, or a city-planning game, and they'll take exactly the same care.

Then there are the other sort of people. As soon as this type get their hands on a driving game, they load it up and launch straight in. They pick whatever car is the default, and the first track on the list. As soon as the race starts, they turn round to face the wrong way and, putting their foot to the floor, race off in the wrong direction in an attempt to cause the biggest multiple pile-up in the history of motor-sport. If it's a flight sim, they'll see if they can fly in through the window of the conning tower and land on the air traffic controller's desk. If it's a city planning sim, they'll try to build a town on an area of land usually only seen in Dr Seuss books. And so on. Destruction Derby is aimed squarely at these personality types.



Kapow...

The original Destruction Derby took an approach that nobody had ever thought of before in a racing game - or if they had, they'd dismissed it. There'd been games before in which you could damage your car if you smashed into something else - notably the very first version of Indycar, Indianapolis 500, in which people actually used to save their crashes and show them to their chums. The devastation was incredible, for the time - shards of polygons flying all over the shop.

But there'd never been a game in which smashing into other cars and wrecking everything in sight was almost the sole reason for its existence. And yes, as a result, the original DD was a laugh. Only a short-term laugh, though. Because there are only so many times you can crash into something head-on and find it exhilarating. After a while you want some kind of long-term objective. And you get bored. And that's where the first game let itself down. The racing, actually haring about on the track part, wasn't really very good. The tracks were restricted (and restricting) with high-sided walls, and had too many right-angled turns to allow you to get much speed up. It got boring very quickly.

Kablooey...

So here's the follow-up. And it's much improved. For a start, the graphics are vastly superior to those in the original. There's real-time lighting and full gourard shading on all the cars; the cars themselves are far more detailed, and the collisions a lot better as a result. You get proper debris in a crash - your bonnet flies off, your boot becomes a spoiler, then a flying saucer... your car can even lose its wheels (which makes lovely little sparks fly out if you keep on driving: always nice as a treat for the kiddies). Oh, and you can come into the pits for repairs, now, too. If you're a big girly.

The tracks are better, too. Where the first game's were narrow, looked a bit like they'd been built through the middle of a shanty town out of old advertising hoardings and had all those difficult to negotiate corners, the new ones are lush. They're longer, and so much wider you might be indulging in a lovely drive across the African veldt. (Except you don't get loads of other cars trying to reverse over your in-car stereo on the African veldt. I don't think you do, anyway... if we have any readers in the African veldt, write in and let us know.) There are a lot more features on the tracks. Features that will make life more difficult for you, like lumps and jump ramps and trenches and sheer drops and stuff. There are more crossover sections, more tunnels, banked corners, Wipeout-style alternative routes... one of the best jumps has you barrel-rolling, James Bond-stunt style. And if you get it wrong, you revolve lengthwise, which is rather more disconcerting (see film-style panel able).

And the collisions are better. Instead of just crashing, you can flip, roll (and roll and roll), and spin in the air. In one of the destruction derby bowls you can get so high you come down with angels' toilet paper draped over the windscreen.



Ka-ching...

There are one or two things which are a bit irritating - not the least of which is the direct porting of the way you have to save and load games and control set-ups. All the menus in which you have to enter information, such as when you choose your name for the Championship mode, are a complete pain in the arse: okay, we know the game was originally designed for the PlayStation - but on the PC we have new-fangled things like keyboards and hard drives. So having to select letters from a block and type them in one at a time with the press of a button is a wind-up. As for having a bank of memory blocks to save games into in the same way as a psx... The other thing is the lack of a network option. Psygnosis have confirmed it won't be on the version when it's released, but will come out on a free patch later on.

This isn't as much of a problem as it would have been with the first version, because the one-player options have a lot more to them. Many people don't have access to a network anyway, but it does smack slightly of a game that's being rushed out.



Krunch...

Anyway, as far as the gameplay goes, not much has changed. There are still the options to race properly for position, to race for a combination of position and get extra points for smashing the shit out of other people, or just gather round in a big circle and try to kill people by driving through their front windscreen.

The one major difference in the gameplay is the level of difficulty. It's rather like the first version of Wipeout, in that it takes a long time to get the hang of handling the car. Most people around here are pretty handy at driving games, but we all found it difficult to get anywhere at first. Perseverance is the key.

Overall, though, the game is a huge improvement over the first version. The graphics are better, the tracks are better, the way the cars handle is better. In case you're wondering why, in that case, it has a lower score than the first version, it's quite simple: things have moved on, and racing games in particular have made a huge leap from the time the first version of this came out. Whether you want arcade thrills and spills, or a proper simulation, there are already a great deal of very high quality games available - and more on the way. This, however, is still a much-improved game with a lot to offer, and provides a good long-term challenge. Well worth a look.



ADDITIONAL INFO:

Three ways to play:

Wrecking racing

Wrecking racing is a proper race, with points gained by doing well in the traditional manner. Yer man Damo would be comfortable with this form of racing (as long as his car was miles better than anyone else's): a set number of laps, winner gets the most points: the traditional arrangement - except it gets a bit rougher than the average touring car championship event. You can take part in a Championship, have one-off races, or do time-trials.



Stock car racing

It's a race, but who comes first is not as important as how many points they get while doing it - and you get points for smashing into other people so hard that their car pirouettes - the more degrees it turns, the more points you get. In stock car racing, you might win the race, but end up with fewer points than some psychotic with a knack for bouncing other people over the barrier. You have the same options as in wrecking racing - championships, one-off races and time trials.



Destruction derby

Racing goes out the window. And so do your windows. Everyone starts in a circle, evenly spaced around what looks like a giant salad bowl, facing inwards. The man says go, and you charge headlong into everyone else until your car dies. Again, the more you can get other people's cars to behave like something from a sick version of Holiday On Ice, the more points you get. There are only two options: practice, or get involved in a bit of Total Destruction, in which your only aim is to survive.



The tracks:

The tracks are a lot better than those in the first game: they're wider, for a start, so you can actually go round the corners without losing both doors in the process. There's even room to overtake. Many of them are very twisty, and offer alternative routes - almost Wipeout-like, you might say. They're also a lot better looking, and many of them have nasty little (and sometimes not so little) humps to throw you arse over tit.



The first four can be accessed at any point, so you can see those for yourself in any shop. But the last three have to be earned: get to Division Three for the first, then Two, then One for the other two. And good luck.



Black Sail Valley Depressing, dark and gloomy circuit with a number of alternative routes. A bit like one of the harder Wipeout tracks - except if you do any hovering in this, it will be against your will.



Liberty City

A fast, twisting city circuit that takes place at night, and suddenly becomes a fast, twisting off-road circuit with a disturbing jump, thanks to the road being under repair.



Ultimate Destruction Speedway

Murderously tight sections of track (where, if you get wedged sideways, you can get permanently stuck) and a steeply banked bend. Again, lots of alternative routes are available.



The bowls:

Red Pike Arena

The only bowl you get at the start of the game has a large mound in the middle of it. It's like driving on a gigantic, recumbent Bernard Manning.



The Colosseum

Much the same as the first bowl, except that the surroundings are a bit more House Beautiful: lots of Roman columns and big white facades. A bit like Regent's Park.



The Pit

Has a very steep drop into the middle. And no, it's not full of sweaty hair. But if you wait a second or so at the start you can park on someone else's roof.



Death Bowl

The Death Bowl sounds like one of those 'futuristic' American football games. But in fact it's a big bowl with a sheer drop on one side to push people over. What larks!