Reviewed: January 18, 2004
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Midway

Developer
Midway

Released: October 14, 2003
Genre: Action
Players: 4
ESRB: Mature

8
7
8
9
8.2

Supported Features:

RoadKill Key Features:

• Car Combat – Select from 40 unique, post-apocalyptic-style vehicles to experience the ultimate ride in vehicular combat.
• Potent Firepower – More than 15 powerful armaments to unleash upon your enemies.
• Drive to Survive – Destroy your opponents throughout three enormous living and destructible cities.
• Detailed Missions – Engage in more than 30 core story-driven missions and numerous side missions and mini-games as you roam the streets and instigate anarchy.
• Interactive Chaos – Run over, impale, shoot and splatter both innocent and armed pedestrians in multiple ways, inciting riots.
• Dynamic Reputation System – Gain the necessary reputation to work your way up from a rookie to an executioner and develop a gang following that will provide additional protection to your home turf.
• Multiplayer – Engage in the ultimate test of vehicular combat: 2-4 player multiplayer Death Match Mode.
• Post-Apocalyptic Earth – Face-off against seven rival gangs, killing the members of some while gaining the respect of others.
• Unlock Features – Collect salvaged parts from destroyed vehicles to purchase items such as nitrous thrust, speed boost and armor plating.
• Search and Recover – Participate in scavenger hunts and find the blueprints necessary to build the ultimate weapons and vehicles.
• Rock ‘n’ Roll – Dynamic radio system forewarns of weather events, gives mission updates and allows users to tune into a variety of hits, from rock to easy listening.

You aren’t the only one “packing’” in this game. Most of the other cars and trucks are well armed as are a majority of the pedestrians. Driving around town you will witness all sorts of carnage as people are killing other people and pick-up trucks filled with “good ole boys” exchange their favorite brand of ammo. There is a certain anxiety as you try to appear nonchalant and try to mind your own business. One stray bullet and you can bring an entire rival gang down upon you. The cities are massive, not quite GTA scale, but pretty close and there are three of them that are alive with insane activity.

Gameplay is open-ended to a certain degree. You have a scripted sequence of missions that are triggered by driving through the glowing circle, but between these missions you are free to explore the towns at your leisure, killing and destroying cars, salvaging parts, and earning a reputation. Ultimately, you’ll want to return to your employer to get your next assignment and move up through the criminal ranks.

The missions are loosely tied together with a story that isn’t that great, but is admittedly humorous in places thanks to some mature subject matter and raunchy language that is often forced upon the gamer to a degree where it seems to be there just for the sake of living up to the M-rating.

The missions are unique and varied, at least as varied as they can be without leaving your car. You might be quested to kill a particular person, recover a car, collect an object, shoot-up a building, or anything else that involves death and destruction. Rival gangs will be out to stop you, which is where the car combat comes into play. Some missions have you driving and others your AI sidekick will be driving and you will be manning the turret.

You will collect blueprints and spare parts along the way that can be used in the various garages scattered about the city to improve your car. These items are generally hidden in obscure areas of the city that requires some skillful stunt driving to reach. The garage is also where you store new rides that you unlock during gameplay, so in later missions you actually get to pick the car or truck for your missions, and yes, it does make a difference.

RoadKill is pure arcade driving action that follows a physic model more akin to Twisted Metal than any other driving game. Gravity seems to have taken a vacation, as your vehicles will be able to achieve unnatural air and then brake or steer in midair. They bounce around turns and are just a bit too floaty at times, but the controls are responsive and you can work with the arcade physics well enough to enjoy some great auto-combat.

Car damage is extensively modeled and your car will slowly come apart as it comes under fire, crashes into buildings, other cars, flips or rolls. A quick trip into any of the repair bays around town will get you back into shape. Car damage even comes into play on one of the earlier missions where you have to return the bosses truck in pristine condition. Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of people between the pick-up point and the drop-off point that want to put holes in your truck.

There is a decent multiplayer component that allows for up to four homicidal maniacs to engage in split-screen action. You can choose your particular car and then start collecting the various power-ups to inflict the pain in traditional deathmatch mode. There is no Live support but the game is plenty fun in split-screen and offers a sampling of the Twisted Metal experience on the Xbox.

The cities are massive and quite complex with few repeating structures or textures, at least on the same street. The car models look futuristically cool and deform and break apart under stress. Character models are detailed enough for what little you see them. They too deform and break apart, usually as they are dragging behind your bumper leaving a trail of blood.

Ah yes, the blood. It flows free and is plentiful as it paints the road red and splashes the screen with a sickening spat when you smack a pedestrian at 80mph. What else would you expect from the demented minds that brought us Mortal Kombat.

Also featured is a local bands station, which offers songs created specifically for RoadKill, and “dynamic radio,” which is a police channel station that gives specific game updates. Commercials that run on the radio system advertise for businesses that are featured in the game’s post-apocalyptic streets. This is perhaps one of the best audio packages ever compiled for a game. While it’s not as expansive as the monster that is the Vice City soundtrack, it’s raunchy, politically incorrect, and perfectly suited to the gameplay.

Music and talk radio aside, the rest of the sound package consists of a lot of engine noises that don’t sound all that different, tons of weapon fire that does sound impressive, and plenty of booming explosions. It all works well enough but when you would rather hear the radio station instead of the sounds of car combat something is skewed in the quality department.

There is also some interesting voice acting that follows the vulgar trend of the radio DJ’s but never achieves the same level of quality. Accents are way over-the-top and the cursing seems forced, once again to emphasize this is a Mature game. You’ll take it with a grain of salt and move along to the next mission, perhaps with a guilty smile on your face.

The multiplayer deathmatch is a fun diversion for a few afternoons but it won’t keep you busy nearly as long as other games specifically designed for multiplayer like Twister Metal Black.