[xy_game]Wrecked: Revenge Revisited is the long-awaited spiritual sequel to Mashed (Drive to Survive in US). Developed by the cult games Micro Machines and Mashed creators Supersonic, Wrecked should be a no-brainer purchase right? Read on to find out.
Wrecked, much like Mashed, was never about the single player modes. The single player mode consists of 24 challenges split over 4 categories; Speed, Weapons, Skill and Elite. Each challenge has a Gold, Silver and Bronze trophy to aim to beat. The Speed and Weapons categories are fairly straightforward with one lap races and challenges such as destroying all the other vehicles. The third and fourth categories are where you can spend an hour perfecting the challenge to get Gold. Challenges include racing whilst towing a caravan and completing a lap with a bomb strapped to your car, one touch and you are dead!
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It is all good and solid fun while it lasts, but that is ultimately all you can do in single player. There are no single player races against CPU AI to play for example. Normally I would see this as a big negative but Mashed had AI races and I spent probably 30 minutes playing it. As I said at the start, this game is not for single players.
Multiplayer is where all the magic happens and Wrecked mostly stays faithful. The action takes place over a lackluster number of six tracks; Jungle Temple, Blockridge Mine, Jungle Falls, Daredevil Park, Artic Outpost and my personal favourite a remake of the Mashed track Polar Wharf called Ice Bridge. The tracks are good in design, each having their own styles of play such as muddy twists and turns to lay traps on and icy straights to make use of longer range weapons. I would have liked to have seen a few more tracks included, some more remakes from Mashed would have been great. It should be noted that a Day 1 DLC containing two extra tracks was released for an extra 400 Microsoft Points, a bit cheeky considering the number of starting tracks!
The multiplayer games can be played with up to four players either online or locally split screen. The aim of the game is to survive the longest either by outpacing your opponents to push them out the bottom of the screen or eliminating them from the race. Doing so will earn you points which fill the meter, once the meter is full you win. Surviving is not so easy thanks to the many weapons picked up from the track and just straight forward devious tactics. Weapons include your standard machine guns, mines and shotguns through to fancy plasma cannons, electric shocks and ball and chains. Weapons can be used to chip away at your opponents vehicle health or simply blow them off the track. A strategy element does come into play, weapons can cancel each other out, such as a flamethrower can be used to destroy a rocket.
A livestream of us playing Wrecked (More on this link)
A new feature is the ability to shunt, which with a tap on the Right analog stick will swerve your car left or right. It is brilliant for catching out opponents on the starting line, there is nothing as fun as a sneaky nudge on Ice Bridge to send them into the icy water, it can also be used to gain advantage on the corners.
A round in multiplayer can last anything from a few seconds to a minute or two. It is hectic fun and you can have some action packed moments that even your opponent will burst out laughing as they go flying off the track. Playing online can raise some issues; we did experience some game breaking lag, frozen consoles and problems with cars appearing off track and suddenly reappearing back on track. It is less than ideal and should have been identified as this is primarily a multiplayer game.
Graphically the game serves its purpose, but it won’t win any awards in this category. Camera angles can be an issue at times, especially in the single player mode with constant zooming in and out. It works better in multiplayer but you can still occasionally have a dud angle which can lose you a point. The music sounds good with breakbeat styles which instantly remind me of Friday night Mashed sessions. Sound effects are fairly standard gun noises and explosions.
For a single player only experience Wrecked is bare bones and very short lived, you will probably want to avoid the game if you do not intend to play against other people. If however you have a group of friends to play locally or online then Wrecked is perfect. While not a cult classic compared to Mashed, mainly due to lack of tracks and online issues, it remains immense fun. Get a few beers in and let the multiplayer mayhem commence!
| Rating | Description |
| 8.0 | Gameplay One to avoid for single player only. If you have a few friends then multiplayer is amongst the most fun you can have online, though slightly let down by some online issues. Some more tracks would have been nice. |
| 7.0 | Graphics Graphics are fairly standard but do the job. Occasional dud camera angles can cause frustration. |
| 7.5 | Sound The breakbeat style tunes fit in well with the game. Sound effects are standard guns and explosions. Taunts are fairly fun. |
| 7.5 | Final Score |
