Carmageddon: Max Damage

Any good racer offers either a sense of speed or a sense of control, but Carmageddon fails to provide either. [October 2016, p78]

Carmageddon: Max Damage try to live with the old good days, but that's not always a choice. We expect something more from this reboot.

Carmageddon is a enjoyable game which seems to have a lot of power-ups, foul language and silly driving. The singeplayer is fun for a decent amount of time but the multiplayer is the mode where the game really delivers. Unfortunately on the PS4 it is quite impossible to play due to the fact that there seems to be nobody online.

Max Damage is a game that comes filled with frustration, from the awful handling model to the bare bones limited visuals, from the tedious and drawn-out races to the generic music, everything about this recent Carmageddon game is just middling and sterile, and what fun is to be had is often in small spades that it is a struggle to play for extended periods of time.

The disappointing car handling, aimless AI, and basic visuals all come together to make a real clunker, which even with its few interesting aspects, doesn't come close to being classed as roadworthy.

Carmageddon: Max Damage tries the nostalgia approach, but offers unfinished gameplay in scandalously low graphics quality. Times are different, games had moved on - but this Carmageddon title still clings to the past.

Carmageddon doesn't impress or scandalize anyone anymore. Nostalgia isn't enough to sell a game filled with bugs and serious issues, where the only redeeming factor is the plenty of cars and gameplay hours it offers. Technical and gameplay issues may disappoint even the brand's most loyal fans.

Carmageddon: Max Damage is an enhanced version of last year’s PC reboot, but a few addictions and more of the same gameplay simply aren’t enough to offer a high level product. Bad graphics and frame rate issues are the biggest things to complain about. The gameplay is loyal to the series, but 20 years later it just does not have the same appeal. It offers some big time fun moments, though.

Carmageddon: Max Damage tries really hard to bring back the memories of the weird, yet successful Stainless Games series. Unfortunately, it reaches the goal: the gameplay is almost identical to the original (with very few fresh ideas), the AI is as bad as before, and the technical quality is definitely subpar. A mediocre game that will probably please the fans of Max Damage, and just them.

It’s really fun and challenging, but unfortunately, due to the crazy loading times -- and the fact I know the graphics could be better -- I have to give it the score it deserves, rather than the score I want to give it.

Unless the nostalgia makes you forget about all the issues, Max Damage is a really weak game when it comes to gameplay. Definitely, the franchise has seen better days.

Carmageddon: Max Damage ended being a new attempt to give us back the fun we had in the game that started the saga. However, it has a lot of technical issues, and there is too much to improve.

Carmageddon: Max Damage ain't no Cadillac, but it's no jalopy either. Rather, it's just alright: fleetingly frustrating, often enjoyable, but never transcendent the way killing pedestrians should be.

Max Damage is a collection of ideas that looked good on paper and sounded good in its Kickstarter pitch, but in practice it would only have been an acceptable sequel if it’d come out in 1999.

The mindless destruction is amusing, and it’s all presented in such a gleefully tongue-in-cheek manner that it’s hard not to chuckle at the absurdity of it all. The game is best enjoyed as an arcade-style time waster.

A messy, obnoxious but yet utterly loyal update to one of the industry’s most unruly red-headed step children, Carmageddon: Max Damage manages to elicit fun in occasional bursts but its general lack of polish and innovation means that it’s an effort that can only really be recommended to long-time fans of the franchise.

Yes, it’s better than last years’, Carmageddon: Reincarnation, but a bit of polish and a few extra game modes can’t save was is a fundamentally flawed video game.

Carmageddon: Max Damage is an ugly, annoying and downright tiresome game. Particularly so when played too much. But it's not without its charms. A strong variety in weapons, vehicles and maps. Crude humour that can work, at times. It's actually good in small doses, but not worth the current entry fee.

Carmageddon remains an unique game, worthy of your attention even if you weren’t there when the original one came out. It may be graphically not excellent, but Max Damage is full of modes, has a long campaign, three difficulty levels and a really working online mode. If you want to have fun in front of your tv without complications, although a few slow loadings may turn your nose up, Max Damage will surely do.

Short lived, but quite engrossing B-game with absurd ideas and over-the-top fender benders.

Another failed attempt to revive a franchise whose time seems long since passed, especially given how frustrating and unrewarding this reboot is to play.

It doesn't deserve your time and money.

For console gamers or those approaching this fresh, this is an easy recommendation. It’s fun and just the right kind of depraved.

Carmageddon’s revival gets off to a sloppy start, though it gradually gets better with perseverance. Drawbacks such as the fickle handling and the so-so presentation become easier to overlook, but those first few hours can be a major slog.

This is yet another cash-in designed to pull the wool over your eyes. Poor games don't deserve your attention, no matter how much you liked something in the past.

Sweet, blood-soaked, unashamedly offensive catharsis - Carmageddon: Max Damage has all of the above in spades.