Wheels of Destruction is a car combat game that plays and feels a lot like the shooters of yore. You drive quickly and die quickly in arena style combat. You capture the flag or defend your own flag. You kill the dirty blues. There is no story, there is no leveling system, there is only you and your guns. Wheels of Destruction is a multiplayer game boiled down to the most basics and that is not a bad thing.
At the beginning of each round you are given the choice between five vehicles. The five vehicle classes are Tank, Engineer, Soldier, Assassin, and Scout. The names are pretty descriptive of their usage, Scout is fast but weak, Tank is slow but heavily armored, and the Engineer has a radar. The cars themselves look distinct and interesting and all get a cool Tron-like shield wrapped around them. During combat they can have pieces, including wheels, blown off that can change the look and controls of your car.
Every class can use every weapon so you are never forced into a car you do not like to use a weapon that you do like. Every weapon also has a secondary fire that you may or may not find useful. For example, the rockets have a mortar shot that throws your opponent straight up but is less accurate than the regular shot. After one or two shots from the rockets your opponent will probably be dead anyway because rockets, and every other weapon in the game, are extremely overpowered. Shotguns will kill you in one shot, snipers will kill you in one shot, and flamethrowers will crisp you in two seconds flat. The game is snappy and brutal with it’s kills but the respawn time a paltry five seconds and then you are thrown right back into the fray again.
Another interesting mechanic added was the ability to do flips. While the flips themselves just make for a cool flair to your shots, the landing can give you quite an advantage. Doing a “perfect” flip, or double flip, will give you a shield bonus. This mechanic can easily turn a confrontation in your favor if you react quickly enough. The only issue is that a “perfect” flip is hard to distinguish from a non perfect one. You may feel that your double front flip is spot on but upon landing you are granted with +6 to shield rather than the +50 you felt you deserved. A tutorial of any kind would have been helpful to show you what “perfect” is because without one you are left with practice and luck.
The controls all work the way you would expect them too with the exception of one thing, the camera. Instead of having free roam to drive with the left stick and aim with the right they are both bound to the left stick. On top of that you are stuck on an X-axis with no ability to manually aim up or down. This can be extremely off-putting at first but once you learn how the cars handle you will probably find it preferable. The entire game is built around this design choice with things like auto aim and loose drift assisting in your ability to combat your opponents.
Sound is another thing Wheels of Destruction does really well. All the weapons have a visceral sound that give serious impact to the shots. Your engine roars as you feed your opponent a shotgun blast with a satisfying boom and pieces of them plink off behind you. The only thing more satisfying than that shot is the word “REVENGE” shouted at you in an enthralling way. Sadly the music selection does not live up to the rest of the audio in the game. While none of the music is actually bad it is all just a little too stale and forgettable. Adding custom soundtracks would have been a very nice addition.
The last thing of note in Wheels of Destruction is the network. There is not much trouble with the connection once you are into a game. Host migration works really well and games never seemed to randomly kick anyone either. The problem comes from finding a game. Right at the main menu you are given the option to just press triangle and load into a ranked game. Trouble is that half of the time the game loads up an empty map for you to be bored in. It is very possible, and likely, that once the game gathers more players this problem will disappear. This could have also been solved by some sort of lobby system, but alas there is none to be had. As it is, if you are loaded into an empty map just leave and try again. Unless of course you like to drive in circles alone.
Wheels of Destruction is a fun if also very basic game. The levels are well built and the graphics are great. The gameplay is quick and brutal in an obvious throwback to older PC shooters. Music and networking could both be better but are not bad enough to soil the entire experience. Without any “carrot on a stick” to keep you hooked many players will not stay gaming for long. However, if you like pure and simple competitive multiplayer games then Wheels of Destruction is for you.
Seems like a Twisted Metal that may have controls that aren’t completely ridiculous. I’d love to win it and try it. @BrianIMdiesel is the name and tweeting and gaming without any pants on is my game!
Great review I’d like to win a copy to try it out , twitter @Pixolator and following you guys since the beginning :]