RoadKill Review - PS2

Mason Strong - the main character in RoadKill - is on a mission for vengeance. Kicked out of a gang by the leader, Axl, he has lost his source of income, and decides that Axl must be killed. He drives to a city called Lava Falls in Hell County, looking for a temporary gang to join so that he can earn some money and therefore acquire supplies before taking on Axl himself.

Gameplay

If you've played Grand Theft Auto III or Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, you'll notice the many similarities between those two games and RoadKill immediately. To name just a few, RoadKill has you playing as Mason Strong, building a reputation and earning money by carrying out jobs for the different gangs within the three cities in the game: Lava Falls, Blister Canyon and Paradise City. You also have a garage in each city for storing your cars and saving your game; weapon and item pickups are situated within transparent, coloured spheres; and the pause menu is a large box filling almost the entire screen, with sub-menus located along the top of it. Sound familiar? RoadKill also borrows from the Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal series' in the sense that you drive around in cars armed to the teeth, blasting anyone you like to pieces, leaving them on the road as a blackened, flaming scrap heap or bloodied corpse. Look past the immoral and blatant copying, however, and you'll find a very enjoyable game that blends the best of the Grand Theft Auto, Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal series' together.

Your three garages within RoadKill can hold as many cars as you put in them, and move them all across to the new cities and back again as you progress through the game. Each car has a distinct look to it but they all have a grungy look to match the run-down nature of Hell County. Each car handles differently ... (continued next page)