Chaos on Wheels Reviews

2004 called. They want their graphics back!

Where to begin...? As a car combat fan, I had high hopes for this game coming in. But as of now I cannot recommend this game. Firstly, the load times are atrocious. I may not have the best PC, but it can run some fairly graphically intensive games no problem. This game, on medium graphics settings took 2+ minutes to load just to the MAIN MENU. Okay, not the best first impression, but maybe it'll get better once I get into the game? Nope. The game is a choppy mess, which isn't helped by the less than stellar control scheme. I was playing with a controller, and was constantly trying to fumble to remember what button corresponded with what weapon. Simply put, there are too many different ways to attack. You have your top mounted turret, which shoots both bullets and rockets. You have different rockets you can pick up and swap to that fire from this turret (the tutorial doesn't explain what each type does, so you have to figure it out yourself). You can only fire 3 rockets from the turret before it has to reload. You still following? Good. Then, there's the hood mounted guns, which fire in a fixed straight line. These guns, along with your top turret can overheat, and both have their own separate temperature gauge that you have to keep track of. Finally, you have your homing rockets. According to the tutorial "the most powerful weapons in the game". How these work are that you have a limited number that can't be replenished. You have to select whether they home to hostile sentry guns that spawn throughout the map, or the opposing cars on the map. I never managed to land a single hit with these. Or if I did, it didn't do any damage. So much for "homing" missiles that are the most powerful. For those keeping track, that's 4 different methods of attacking, assigned to 4 different buttons, with 4 different things you have to keep track of (ammo, temperature or assigned target). It's especially difficult to keep track of all of those things, because the HUD is a complete mess of gauges and meters that are spread throughout the entire screen. Compared to Twisted Metal, which has all of the info neatly in the bottom corner, with 2 methods to attack that can be swapped through quickly. Another grievance I have is there's no damage on your car or alert sound for low health. I died several times, thinking I had more health than I actually did. There may be no health warning, but there are certainly character voices. That you can't turn off. After one battle, you'll have heard all the voicelines for that character. And finally, why on Earth do car combat devs insist on having realistic car handling? Twisted Metal figured it out in 1995: that in order to have fun run & gun gameplay, the cars need to handle like hovercars, so you can spin in place and make super tight turns. Instead, in this game, the cars turn super sluggishly, leaving you open to attacks with no great way to defend yourself or make an escape. Maybe one day this game will live up to it's potential, but that day isn't today.