A Twisted Metal Revival Is Just What PlayStation Needs Right Now

Sony’s been dipping their toes into multimedia with their IP lately. The Last Of Us got a TV show, obviously, but maybe not quite as many people are aware that a Twisted Metal series is right around the corner.

Twisted Metal is beloved, but the franchise has been dead since the PS3 reboot back in 2012. The franchise’s re-emergence in the form of a TV show has led some to speculate there will soon be a game revival, but there’s been no official word yet, so for the moment we’re in the realm of assumptions and rumors.

Having never played the series until I heard about the show, I decided to take Twisted Metal Black for a spin, while researching several longplays of the other games online. And after my experience with them, I think a revival would not just be great marketing for the show, but it could be the one specific franchise to address many of the recent criticisms launched at Sony exclusives.

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Having owned a PS3, which I bought for the launch of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD, I’ve seen how Sony used to handle exclusives before the dawn of the PlayStation 4, and how things have changed.

On PS3, we had variety in first-party games like Puppeteer and Heavy Rain, but things didn’t take off for Sony until Naughty Dog made Uncharted and especially The Last Of Us. Neither of Naughty Dog’s giants invented 3rd-person cameras or character-driven narratives, but Naughty Dog’s take proved extremely popular.

And so came the PS4, and the people behind Killzone make an open-world game with a strong story and a 3rd-person over-the-shoulder camera. Insomniac make a game featuring Spider-Man, which was praised for a strong story set in the open world of New York. God Of War comes back, but not as a hack-n-slash, as a game with a third-person camera and a more serious story about Kratos attempting fatherhood. See what I’m getting at? There’s a formula – a solid formula, but a formula nonetheless.

That’s where Twisted Metal comes in.

Twisted Metal treats its story the way older fighting games did. You pick your racer and go through the gauntlet to find out where their story ends. The racers are all motivated to win this brawl as the evil Calypso has the power to grant any wish their heart desires. Storytelling 101 is for a character to have a want, and usually you then expand on that for the rest of their characterization and scope.

But Twisted Metal plays it pretty simple: the motivation is all you need to establish who these characters are. The character bio will allow you to read what they want, then after you win, you get the cutscene. They are too engaging to be flat, despite how they absolutely are what their bio claims them to be and nothing more. It’s simple, and straightforward, no lens flares or quips or cameras holding on a shot as an orchestra swells. For what Twisted Metal is, this is a great way to tell stories. Stories that have no real continuity, the only story is whatever you are playing at the moment. The other drivers aren’t characters when you didn’t pick them, just something to fight.

Twisted Metal doesn’t care about what you learn about the characters, because it changes its mind and won’t apologize. Anything that’s a fact can be erased not just by the next game. You’d think being within the same game would at least give consistency, but if you do every story you’ll notice contradictions.

I did every ending of Black, and I find that Preacher in his own story really doesn’t line up with Sweet Tooth’s version of Preacher in Sweet Tooth’s story. Preacher is supposed to be nothing more than a delusional man who couldn’t hold back his murderous side. But according to Sweet Tooth, Preacher has ties to the supernatural, as he managed to curse Sweet Tooth so that his head is constantly on fire (it’s a cool look, to be fair). It’s a minor thing, but it feels like the game has a whole ‘unreliable narrator’ thing going on. Who Preacher is depends on whom the main character is; he’s either tragic, a plot point, or just a guy you have to kill.

So then we have gameplay. The main focus is on car combat, and a genre we just don’t much of these days. It’s classic to the point of retro now: you drive around an area shooting enemies with bullets and missiles. You drive over ammo and health pickups, and you build a special meter over time for an attack unique to your car. Take for example Mr. Grimm, the motorcycle (the driver and bike share the same name), where once the special meter is full you throw a scythe directly at an enemy car for massive damage.

Let’s stick with Grimm a bit longer, as it’s one of the few vehicles to appear in every game. The other gimmick with Grimm is that its defenses are terrible, but it’s the absolute best at turns and acceleration. Each vehicle has pros and cons that you need to adjust to if you want to win with them all. There are no skill trees, you get what you get, and you learn to use it. You want something else? Unlock a secret character or discover the combo moves that aren’t in the controls menu.

I’m not much of a driving game person, I am however a Spider-Man person. Why am I bringing him up? Well, despite being bad at driving games I figured out and loved the gameplay of Twisted Metal Black, but I played Spider-Man PS4 twice and don’t remember anything about the gameplay. I know that Spidey had gadgets to use in combat, but I can’t name a single one of them.

Spidey got to do some cool things, sometimes I helped, but it didn’t feel as much as something I did as much as Spider-Man’s cutscenes did it. Versus my favorite level in Twisted Metal Black, The Suburbs, where for no reason at all I could destroy a Ferris wheel, knock it off its axis, and have it wheeling off crushing anything in its wake. No one told me to do this, I just did it (every time I play the level, without fail). No Quick-time-events needed!

Moments like these emphasize to me that it’s time for Sony to switch things up, try something a bit more wild. If Twisted Metal’s show does well, then a revival could be imminent. Unless the next entry *ahem* switches gears and has you playing as Sweet Tooth out of the car and learning to love again, this is the creative shot in the arm Sony needs to win their detractors back.

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