Carmageddon: Max Damage

To me, Carmageddon: Max Damage is the reimagining of a classic done right. Whilst some remakes or new entries in bygone series’ are so far detached from their original source that they are no longer recognisable, Carmageddon: Max Damage feels and plays just like Carmageddon. Sure it’s got some new bells and whistles, but there’s nothing that feels out of place or extraneous to the experience, and that makes a refreshing change. Violent, vulgar and crude, Carmageddon: Max Damage is downright offensive and all the better for it. And with a highly entertaining gameplay loop that gives you a great...

Carmageddon: Max Damage feels like it was designed in and for the year 1999, which on paper is a noble goal when trying to revive a franchise. Unfortunately, in practice it just doesn’t work, instead reminding us that time moves on. Max Damage is a collection of ideas that looked good on paper and sounded good in its Kickstarter pitch, but in practice it would only have been an acceptable sequel if it’d come out in 1999.

Successfully preserving the spirit of Carmageddon, Max Damage is addictive and good fun. Unfortunately, it's also a hideous looking game, with a dodgy handling model and repetitive race types that add up to a frustrating, and ultimately disappointing whole. Carmageddon: Max Damage has a certain appeal, but if you don't get the game's uniquely sick sense of humour, you're going to hate it. Otherwise, you'll love it regardless, like an ugly dog with three legs or something.

Lock up your children and ready your moral outrage as Camageddon is back, bringing with it a not so healthy dose of 90s vehicular mayhem. With original developer Stainless Games once again behind the wheel of the franchise that helped make its name, the biggest question that comes to mind is that now we're close to 20 years down the road from the release of the first game, is there more to Carmageddon's racing and wrecks than just the shock value of turning pedestrians into red mist?

This is yet another cash-in designed to pull the wool over your eyes. Poor games don't deserve your attention, no matter how much you liked something in the past.

Another failed attempt to revive a franchise whose time seems long since passed, especially given how frustrating and unrewarding this reboot is to play.