Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now

Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now
European cover art
Developer(s)	Stainless Games
Publisher(s)	Sales Curve Interactive
Series	Carmageddon
Engine	Blazing Renderer
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS
Release date(s)	November 30, 1998
Genre(s)	Vehicular combat, racing
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	1 CD-ROM (WIN, MAC, PS1) 1 cartridge (N64, GBC)

Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now is the sequel to the graphically violent vehicular combat video game Carmageddon, released on November 30, 1998. The game was developed by Stainless Games and published by Sales Curve Interactive. It has been released for both PC and Macintosh.

Description

On the starting grid of the first level (Windows version)

Like its predecessor, Carmageddon II was subject to criticism for the level of violence portrayed in the game. It is rated 15+ by ELSPA. In some countries, the pedestrians (and animals) are zombies, and blood is turned to green slime: In Germany, aliens replaced the pedestrians. Internet-released 'blood patches' restore the original human pedestrians. The blood pack was later released in the United Kingdom in 1999, earning the game an 18 certificate.

It features a heavy metal soundtrack with songs from Iron Maiden and instrumental tracks from Sentience.

Carmageddon II was one of the few racing games at the time to feature deformable models on its cars, making for more realistic dents and crashes. In fact, the player's car can even be bent in half, leaving the player to drive with only the front wheels on the ground. The car can also be sheared in half, causing retirement from the race if the damage is not repaired before the vehicle touches the ground.

As with Carmageddon, there are 3 ways to finish most levels:

• Complete the race, passing every checkpoint before the time runs out
• Destroy all the opponents
• Kill every zombie/pedestrian in the level

As the player progresses through the game, sets of levels are gradually unlocked (10 in total), each consisting of 3 standard "Race, Wreck, or Wreak havoc among the zombie/pedestrian hordes/populace" levels, followed by a mission. Each mission has specific tasks that must be completed before unlocking the next set.

The time limit in the game is generous, and the player can kill pedestrians, crash into opponents, or do tricks to gain time as well.

Soundtrack

• Sentience - "Machina Directa"
• Sentience - "Finer Scale"
• Sentience - "Pressure Them"
• Iron Maiden - "Man on the Edge"
• Iron Maiden - "Be Quick or Be Dead"
• Iron Maiden - "Aces High"
• Iron Maiden - "The Trooper"

Movie and real life influences

Themes, cars, and ideas from many popular movies are present in the game:

• The title "Carpocalypse Now" is a reference to the movie Apocalypse Now.
• Death Race 2000 is the source of much of the ideology of the game. A game character "Silvester Stallion" was named for Sylvester Stallone, and a powerup in the game, "Oil slicks from your arse" is one that Sly's character can be seen using in the movie.
• Back to the Future is the inspiration for the inclusion of the otherwise rare DeLorean "DeGory'un" car.
• The Blues Brothers is the source for the cop car, and features a quote from the movie to describe the car: "It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant. It has cop tires. Cop suspension. Cop shocks..." Additionally, a level requiring the destruction of 12 cop cars - the number of Bluesmobiles used in the making of the movie - exists, with the level description "Trashing that donut shop was a big mistake...". One of the pickup items in the game causes all your car's panels to fall off, in much the same way as the Bluesmobile toward the end of the movie.
• Su Borg's "Mach 13" pays homage to the famous Mach Five driven by Speed Racer.
• Herbie the Love Bug is undoubtedly the source of the VW with the curly-lettered "Hate" emblem on its side.
• The purple TVR Cerbera in the game was based on the car driven at the time of development by Stainless MD, Patrick Buckland and was used without the permission of TVR, much to their irritation.
• Two cars featured on the game are based on real life racecars: the Porker 2 is based on the Konrad Motorsport Porsche 993 GT2 from the BPR Global GT Series, and the Tashita2 is based on the Hasemi Sport Unisia JECS Nissan Skyline GT-R from the Group A era JTCC series. The latter competed between 1991 to 1993 and was driven by Masahiro Hasemi.
• Twin Peaks is the inspiration for a game map depicting a mountain town called Twin Shrieks. All the major elements are there: the cafe, the inn, the mill, the bridge, the pines, and the mountains. There is also a hidden "Red Room" Easter egg located by jumping into a seemingly solid mountain wall. The room, has minimal furniture, red curtains on all walls, a black and white zigzagged floor and driving physics comparable to driving underwater. Most references only slightly resemble elements of the show, but the sign identifying the town is clearly inspired by it.

Ports

Carmageddon II has been ported to the Macintosh (1999), Nintendo 64 (Carmageddon 64, 2000) and Game Boy Color (Carmageddon, April 2000). The game titles suggest that they are ports of the original Carmageddon, but the maps and opponents are from Carmageddon II. Cars cannot break in half in any of these versions (aside from Mac), suggesting that it is in fact the Carmageddon 1 engine being used. The N64 version substitutes dinosaurs for people as well, making it resemble even less of the original game.

A PlayStation version of Carmageddon was released in Europe, adding elements from Carmageddon and Carmageddon II to its own exclusive vehicles and tracks.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 80.31%[1] Review scores Publication Score AllGame (PC)[2] (MAC)[3] Game Revolution B+[4] GameSpot 7.8/10[5] IGN 7/10[6] PC Gamer (UK) 84%[7] PC Zone 9.5/10[8]

The PC version so far has a score of 80.31% from GameRankings.^[1]

References

External links

• Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now at MobyGames