Destruction Derby 2 - Review

Author: Laglord Date: Oct 19 2004 - 16:56 Score: 55 points

INTRODUCTION
Destruction Derby 2 is of course Reflection's sequel to the very successful Destruction Derby; A game that the gamers loved for its carnage thrills. DD2 improves on several parts of the previous game and as you read through this review, you will see why this game has had over 1200 downloads.

If you played the previous version, then you would realize that your car is glued to the road. This restricted the game and it received a whole lot of criticism from angry gamers. Thankfully, that has changed in DD2 and the courses take great advantage of it. Combine it with the brutal crashes and you get one amusing, chaotic game. Picture this. You've just taken a high jump with about 5 other cars, spinning and doing barrel rolls in mid - air. As you come back to earth, you crash land cause an instant pileup with the other cars. The other 15 cars or so, unaware of what just happened, add themselves to the pileup. It´s brutal, but not as brutal as the demolition derby...This has you and all the other vehicles in the ring set out to eliminate your opponents and be the only car that has not been completely obliterated. An interesting addition to this mode is 'total destruction' where the cars don´t go against each other, they all go against YOU. It´s so funny to watch 20 opponents turn your poor defenseless car into scrap in just a few seconds. Sounds good, doesn't it? You'll see how it all comes together in this review...

GAMEPLAY
Much better than the original, thanks to the new and improved tracks and the new car physics. The tracks have plenty of straights and easy turns to deliver a greater sense of speed than before. The whole destructive nature really sets it apart from all the other races and it is definitely the best part of the game. Its great to be responsible for destroying someone else's car but the AI cars will be extremely rough on you aswell. They will try to ram you into the wall and even nudge the end of your car and send you spinning out of control. This makes it a whole lot harder than other racing games as you have to learn to learn how to deal with the other cars aswell as being a good driver. A serious gripe I have with the gameplay is that the opponent cars are painfully difficult to overtake! You can´t do much but drive your best and hope you get lucky and they get crash somewhere. This makes several of the circuit races rely more on luck than skill, which is what I HATE to see in a game. The game controls well and you'll be able to play the game well with a few tracks of practice. If the keyboard isn´t good enough, than you can hook-up a joystick instead. The gameplay is great but it would've been even better if the cars wouldn't be so hard to overtake.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are packed with plenty of polygons with decent textures which really compliment the games great gameplay. The cars are very well done and you will easily notice the detail of damage on the cars. Your engine can be exposed, paint can peel, the bodywork can crumple, your car can lose tyres, and it looks great especially in the demolition derby! You can view the action at either 320x200 or 640x480 which should be high enough to immerse you into the game. One problem I see in the graphics is the draw distance. It is so obvious even at the highest settings. The developers put in an option to alter it with about 10 different levels of draw distance but they all look so similar. Pop-up should have been less obvious at high settings. The option was there, they should have taken advantage of it. The graphics were of a very high quality but the draw distance should have been tweaked a little.

SOUND
The game has a reasonable amount sounds with a nice crisp quality. The main feature here is the CD audio which allows you to listen to your favourite tunes will playing. In game sounds such as the commentator and the several crashing sounds are well done and they all add to the great feel of the game. The engine noise sounds a bit strange though...

VALUE
The game has an incredibly low credit requirement and low file size. It is amazing how a game compressed so well...If you are down to your last few credits then this is the game to spend them on.

OVERALL
This is a game that will most likely earn a well deserved spot in your collection. ALOT of members downloaded this game and you should too...

	Title / Type	Submitter	Date
	Review	Laglord	Oct 19 2004

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