I was once a proud Gamecube owner (now I just have a Wii) but it wasn't always easy. Sadly, one popular series that never arrived on the old system here was the gritty urban Grand Theft Auto. If a game like that can make millions of dollars then you can rest assure that there will be someone to cash in on a good thing, right? Midway is ready to answer the unoriginality call with the GTA clone called Road Kill; a crazy car combat game where you fight for survival in a post-apocalypse world. This isn’t Midway’s first song and dance either because with help from Atari Games they were able make the famous Rush racing series which was one of best extreme racing games for the arcades during the late 90’s. Can Midway’s magic strike again with Road Kill’s new edgy story and multi-player options here? Oh, hell no!
Although it’s hard to believe, there is actually some kind of story here in this simple and typical game. The world has been hit hard by a deadly virus called ‘The Rot’ and everything is now in total chaos. There are no laws, no rules, and many street gangs are running wild. You play the role of generic survivor Mason Strong (I’m serious, that’s his name) who is looking for Paradise City, a place that wasn’t affected by the massive plague here. If you want to find this city however, you have to do a lot of odd jobs first to earn your keep in this new lawless world. Instead of stealing vehicles at will, Mason already has his own truck with a build in gun mounted on the back which is not too different from a game like Twisted Metal.
If there’s only one real thing that makes Road Kill so different then a Grand Theft Auto or a Mario Kart is what the extreme lengths the game goes too here. Instead of the usual TV friendly swear words like Dam, Fart, or Hell we hear all the time in shows like Heroes or 7th Heaven you get all the big four letter words like the ‘F’ word, the other version of crap. This game even has the dreaded ‘N’ word on the FUOK radio station. You know you have a bad game when you hear or see openly racist material in it (Kakuto Chojin or Clay Fighter 63 1/3 anyone?). Road Kill lacks of any sophistication, yet the all action based game is still really boring at the same time.
Not only does this game play like a 3D GTA, Road Kill even looks the same as well. A lot of the gritty urban environments are very interactive so you freely run over street signs and the human by-standers that get in the way. You can even drag your on-foot victims for several seconds if drive over them which is fun to see for a few times anyway and then quickly gets pointless. Unfortunately, the textures in the backgrounds are very bland especially since the GC is capable of so much more. Road Kill looks just like that: road kill.
This game also comes with a radio like a lot of video games do now of days (the game ripped off everything else so why stop here). Some stations even have a couple of morons just talking their miserable lives and it gets old real fast. There is nothing ‘laugh out loud’ funny here at all, it’s just here to try and shock you and it doesn’t even do that well because we already know the end of the world plot of the game. We don’t need to hear somebody’s dismal life story every 5 seconds here Midway.
Road Kill is obliviously targeted to the gamer who thinks Grand Theft Auto is too complex. You just kill, shoot and drive around here so you can forget pressing any ‘steal’ button. Although the game has a fun multi-player that borrows a lot from other great car combat games, this is still no Halo killer. Hell, this game couldn't even kill Hello Kitty Roller Rescue! Overall Road Kill tries to be the next big thing in crime based video games but the end result was just disappointing. The story is dull, the game play is nothing new, and everything else like the graphics and sounds are second rate as well. If you have a car, place the game under your tires and run it over!
Road Kill overall rating: 30/100
Publishers: Midway
Original release: August 2003
For 1 to 4 players
Rated (M) for Mature
graphics: 5/10
sound: 1/10
gameplay: 2/10
replay: 4/10
This review can also be found on:
videogames101.com
gamingtarget.com
Select from 40 unique post-apocalyptic style vehicles Destroy your opponents throughout three enormous living and destructible cities Engage in more t...More at Amazon Marketplace
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