Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now is the direct sequel to the first game, now with many upgrades from the graphics and the violence to the maps and new cars. It was released in November 30, 1998 for both PC & Mac, with versions for PS1 and the N64.
Like its predecessor, Carmageddon II was subject to criticism for the level of violence portrayed in the game. It is rated 15+ by ELSPA. In some countries, the pedestrians (and animals) are zombies, and blood is turned to green slime: In Germany, aliens replaced the pedestrians. Internet-released 'blood patches' restore the original human pedestrians. The blood pack was later released in the United Kingdom in 1999, earning the game an 18 certificate.
It had many improvements, one that no racing game had at the time and was pretty innovative was the deformable models on it's cars, making for more realistic dents and crashes.In fact, the player's car can even be bent in half, leaving the player to drive with only the front wheels on the ground. The car can also be sheared in half, causing retirement from the race if the damage is not repaired before the vehicle touches the ground.
As with Carmageddon, there are 3 ways to finish most levels:
- Complete the race, passing every checkpoint before the time runs out
- Destroy all the opponents
- Kill every zombie/pedestrian in the level
It features a heavy metal soundtrack with songs from Iron Maiden and instrumental tracks from Sentience.
As the player progresses through the game, sets of levels are gradually unlocked (10 in total), each consisting of 3 standard "Race, Wreck, or Wreak havoc among the zombie/pedestrian hordes/populace" levels, followed by a mission. Each mission has specific tasks that must be completed before unlocking the next set.
The graphics were very improved since that in the first game, the polygons were very primitive, also, now the pedestrians/zombies are tridimensional, so now you can have a different bloody roadkill with nice looking sprites. The maps also are mostly made of cities with open world, free to explore.
Carmageddon II has been ported to the Macintosh (1999), Nintendo 64 (Carmageddon 64, 2000) and Game Boy Color (Carmageddon, 2001). The game titles suggest that they are ports of the original Carmageddon, but the maps and opponents are from Carmageddon II. Cars cannot break in half in any of these versions (aside from Mac), suggesting that it is in fact the Carmageddon 1 engine being used. The N64 version substitutes dinosaurs for people as well, making it resemble even less of the original game.A Playstation version of Carmageddon was released in Europe, adding elements from Carmageddon and Carmageddon II to its own exclusive vehicles and tracks.
Carmageddon 2 has that something the first one had, that "emotion" to play the game, a game that doesn't bother you or makes you bored after playing for a long time, only because the more you play, the more you want to complete every map a different way, "Let me take that road besides this one" or "Whoa, didn't know I could enter there!", this only happens because each time you play Carmageddon 2 it looks like it's the first time you play it, it makes you feel like that.
Today racing games may be pretty normal, because they are just all the same, only races and completing challenges or exploring the city, but the first game that attempted this and did it was Carmageddon. Not only it's polemics made it even more known, but it became what it is today for only a reason, classics never die.
