[ Transcript of review for Unreal Demolition Beta 3 | Posted by Bean on 2004-07-06 | Score: 7.2 ]
Destruction? Derby? Where Do I Sign Up?!
I am not going to lie. I came into this mod expecting...fairly little. But I came out impressed out of my smoldering pants! This mod is so much goshdarned fun! If you took the old school Mario Kart 64 (that's as far as I played...sorry Double Dash), took the battle mode from that godlike game, and gave it a heavy, burning dose of Unreal, this is what you would get.
Blow'd Up
Yes, oh yes. There are four forms of fantastic vehicular carnage. You have Demolition and Team Demolition, where you just ram into each other with extreme prejudice, or do that as a team. Then you have two even more delicious game modes. You have Soccer, where your fleet of vehicles faces off with the enemy team, throwing a Soccer ball around a gamefield, trying to score a goal. And lastly, you have Sumo, where you have a set amount of lives, and you try to last as your opponents smash you and ram you off the Sumo platforms.
In game, you have two extra maneuvers taht you use while battling. You can jump using the primary fire. While in mid-air, you can twist and turn in a variety of manners, or primary fire again to stomp down on your enemies. Very Manta-like. Secondary fire boosts you through your enemies like a manned missle of pain. Ahhh...
Everytime you get destroyed, you cycle through vehicles. You start out with the Scorpion, then the Kart (personal favorite), then the HellBender, and then School Bus. Each have different levels of health, boost, and maneuverability. The models for the Kart and Bus aren't terrific, but they serve their purpose.
The maps that come with the mod, are simple and fun. I'd venture to say a few are very, very well made, but none are "bad". Even the super simple maps are fun because they allow for raw mayhem. I was very suprised with the map quality. Strewn about the maps are powerups. Health powerups are wrenches, and blue barrels give you boost power.
It's also worth mentioning that this mod has cool little player indicators. You see name, team color, and health (if a teammate
But What Works?
Of course, as it is in the early stages, it doesn't work perfectly. Bots don't play soccer...they just sit there. On some Sumo maps, they just sit there too. And in general, they aren't very aggressive. They don't use the boost, or stomp. But, they will smash around, and that ain't bad. Also, I am not terribly sure how scoring works, especially in deathmatch. Often, you would nail someone, and they would blow up, but they got the point. Or even another player. That's ok though, because I still crushed them!
But besides all that, this mod is just too much fun. This mod has brilliant screen shot potential. So much kick ass stuff happens while playing this mod. Unfortunately, there were no online servers, but I KNOW this mod would be a blast in multiplayer. I will tell you right now, this is one of those perfect LAN mods. I just know this thing would be crazy fun. Oh well, all of you, download this, so I can stomp you online!
Bean