HomeReviewsGas Guzzlers Extreme Review

Gas Guzzlers Extreme Review

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When I’m driving through London in my little SEAT hatchback, at 10mph, because I’m stuck in traffic for the millionth time, I often daydream. What would it be like if I could bounce the cars out of the way without killing myself or the other drivers? Or even better, what if I had two mini guns attached to the bonnet, a rocket launcher on the back and some nitro to give me a boost across Westminster Bridge. I often daydream, but now with Gas Guzzlers Extreme those thoughts can become a reality…but with the bus lanes, traffic and cycle paths replaced with mental mayhem and car-on-car violent action.

Gas Guzzlers Extreme is a mix of Mario Kart, Blur and Destruction Derby. It’s a violent, racy, crazy concoction of high speed racing, shooting and some zombies thrown in for good measure.

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The main campaign is where the central action is and a good place for us to start. Here you have a small amount of money and a free smallish car (not unlike my SEAT), to play with. There is a garage where you can spend that money and buy a weapon, some upgrades such as nitro, engine, brakes etc. You can also customize your car with paint and stickers, to make it the best it can be in your eyes.

The first load of modes available in the campaign fall into three categories. First up is Power; this is basically a race game without weapons. But you can barge your enemy’s car into smithereens, leave a mine for them to drive into, release some oil onto the track, or pump out some green smoke for their vision to be obscured. The second is Battle; which is where you race until, at a certain point, your weapons are activated and all hell breaks loose. There are shotguns, mini-guns, rockets and grenade launchers to choose from and all exact brilliant mayhem. The third category is a mode called Knockout, which is pretty much the same as battle, but the person finishing last at the end of each lap gets knocked out from the race until there are only two.

When you’ve finished the race you get rewarded with money, new cars, new weapons, skins and stickers. There is also a ranking ladder, where by when you get to the top, a tournament opens up for you to compete in. Now as if that wasn’t enough, as you progress you can get sponsors and they open up a series of events for you to take part in. These might include Demolition Derby, where by you just have to smash the other cars before they do the same to you, Capture the Flag modes, Deathmatch modes and even survivor and defend the base style events. In the last two modes you have waves of zombies attacking and it is up to you to mow them down while defending your base. As the waves increase in level the zombies increase, massive hyena’s appear and then eventually big trolls begin to get in on the action.

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I think that just about covers most of the modes, and it’s not bad for £20. But how does it play?

Well, pretty good is the answer to that.

It’s like playing a game down the arcade or Twisted Metal on the PS1, with the focus firmly pointed towards the fun. The cars handle great, but it’s not a game about engine customisation and torque speed – it’s a game about how your car can kill the enemy car the quickest. There are a good number of tracks for this size of game and the races feel fast and furious. When you go into the sponsored games like Deathmatch, it’s really great fun playing all the different modes. The campaign gives you a nice progression as you move further up the ranking ladder, gaining faster cars, better upgrades and massive weapons.

It’s all good stuff, and Gas Guzzlers Extreme would be perfect if it had an online mode. WHERE IS IT? Now I can understand that it would cost the developers a small fortune to add this mode in and that would probably double the price of the game, but where is the competition? There isn’t a game like this out there and online would be superb. Imagine the contests, imagine the chaos, imagine the legendary battles, imagine….Oh well maybe in the future. Some DLC perhaps?

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Looks wise, all is fine and pretty. It’s not outstanding if comparing to the likes of Forza, but it is still good enough. The worlds look great when going at high speed and firing rockets at other cars. There are some wonderful tracks with great details and shortcuts, whilst the cars that shine at the start of the race, end up pretty knackered after taking the punishment you would get from a rocket up your bonnet. The audio consists of a heavy metal rock track that occurs when you are racing. At first, this really grates, but by the end of your 20th race you can’t imagine hearing anything else. In the garage area there is some brilliantly relaxing music, including for some reason a German Christmas carol. The voice over’s come down to a number of “Duke Nukem“ type quips, that are entertaining at first, but soon run dry.

Overall and I really have enjoyed my time with Gas Guzzlers Extreme. It’s a fun, arcade game that I had a lot of time for in the past and now I get to relive those feelings again. There is a lot to do for the £20 price tag and all the modes are fantastic. The lack of online is a great shame and will cut down on the longevity of this game; also long loading screens are a massive pain. But if you want your racing fast, furious and violent then this might just be the game for you.

Gareth Brierley
Gareth Brierleyhttp://www.garethbrierley.co.uk
I am an actor and a writer. I act quite a bit on stage, a little bit on tv and never on tuesdays. I have had some of my writing published and have written for TV and stage. I have been playing games since they begun and don't seem to be getting any better.
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