Post by Ayen on Oct 15, 2020 19:06:42 GMT -5
Auto Destruct is a driving game developed by Neurostone and published by Electronic Arts for the Sony PlayStation console and was released in North America in January 1998. It stars a retired race driver whose family is killed by a fanatical cult and who is given a pimped out ride with machine guns to avenge his family’s death. Let’s not waste anymore time. This is Auto Destruct.
Gameplay: The bulk of the game is you driving in a blue car with weapons and going on missions through San Francisco, New York City, and Tokyo, Japan. You have a compass with different color arrows that shows you where to go next. The green arrow is your next designation, the red arrow leads to enemies, the blue arrow is the police helicopter you sometimes have to follow, and the white arrow leads you to the gas station when you’re low on fuel or your car is damaged.
There is a nice variety of missions and it never gets boring going from one stage to the next. Enemies include other cars, tanks, and even helicopters. Sometimes you have to follow cars to other locations or race against them. Other times you have to play taxi driver.
You get a mission briefing explaining what you have to do before each mission with gameplay footage of different enemies plowing through the city you’re in. Your main contact person always tells you of another objective throughout each mission and you can meet other allies as the game progresses.
If you really wanted you could shoot innocent cars and run over people. Your contact tells you not to do it after a while, but I don’t know if anything bad happens from continuing to do it. There is also a race against the clock mode you can play around in outside of the game’s main story. Like BattleTanx you can either save your progress or use passwords to pick up where you left off in the game.Story: You play as Booth. A former race car driver who loses his family to a mad cult led by a terrorist named Lazarus. Booth is given a new car with weapons and equipment to take his revenge on Lazarus and protect the people of the world from the terrorist cult. During the story Booth meets a lady who helps him on his journey and is even considered a love interest. Amazingly, they were able to throw a love story into a game like this.
At the end of the game you face Lazarus one on one. Or five on one as he clones himself and you have to find the real Lazarus to pick him off. You chase him into a helicopter and once the helicopter is destroyed you reach the end of the game, and man is it satisfying to see that piece of garbage finally go down.
The ending credits are a little weird. It’s basically just developers' giant faces hovering over the screen. It has nothing to do with the car themes of the game, it’s completely random.
Graphics: Once again I pick a game that has aged really well. The design of the car looks cool and all the different vehicles you run into the game are well defined. The people look alright for the fact the game was made in 98 and I never felt like I was playing an older game. You know where you’re at, and what you’re playing from beginning to end and the graphic design complimente the game very well.
Flaws: One of its main flaws is in the controls. Whenever you’re hit or have to drive in reverse the left and right D-Pad movements reverse. Meaning pushing down on the right D-Pad makes you go left, and the left D-Pad makes you go right. This can be a real bother at a critical moment when you’re racing against the clock.
Sharp corners can also be a nightmare in this game. Slowing you down when you can’t afford to go slow. Every time I turn a little bit the car goes uneven and it’s only when the car is going straight that it goes the fastest. The controls can be a nightmare for beginners, making some levels almost impossible to beat.
Summary: Overall, Auto Destruct is a fun game with a lot of variety in its levels and has a good story to it when you least expect a game of this type to have a good story. If you can look past a faulty control scheme then Auto Destruct may just be what the doctor ordered.
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