Imagine a classic arena style shooter, then imagine that with cars thrown in on top, sounds good? Of course it does! This is what Wheels Of Destruction tries to be, and in some ways it succeeds, but in others, not so much.

Wheels Of Destruction is like Twisted Metal as it’s a combat game in which you drive one of five vehicle classes in a variety of maps aiming to kill as many rival riders as possible. There are 5 different vehicle classes ranging from the Soldier, Assassin, Scout, Heavy and Engineer. Each one of the cars all have their own strengths and weaknesses which makes trying them all out worth it to see which suits you the best.

In game you can have up to 12 players battling at any one time. You can customize the game settings to choose how many people are battling and also choose the game mode and the map. There are 3 game modes, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture The Flag, these game modes have been seen in plenty of other games so they’re nothing new. The game also features 5 different maps for you to compete in ranging from Paris, Seattle, London, Tokyo, and Rome. Each map is surprisingly packed and pretty big to boot.

Your objective is mainly to blow up as many of the enemy riders as you can within the time limit. While speeding around the levels you’ll gain new weapons by finding them in the level. Packing weapons such as rocket launchers, flamethrowers and gatling guns each weapon can be found during matches throughout the maps and all range greatly in their damage output and overall usefulness in situations. This is one of the reasons the game feels like a classic arena style game with another being all around the maps there are boost pads and ramps to gain you access to some sneaky vantage points and high ground.

One problem to me is the controls and camera. You steer with the left analog so you’d assume you aim and move the camera with the right, right? Nope, it’s also set to the left analog, so while speeding around is fine, when you crash or have to reverse and are moving slowly sometimes it gets annoying as you’re essentially controlling the camera and the steering with the same singular input. The game works fine but at times can get annoying, especially as the right analog isn’t used whatsoever in the game.

One thing great about the game is the graphics. The game looks great and actually looks a small bit like Borderlands. It’s running on the popular Unreal Engine so no surprise it’s lighting and shaders pop out so much on screen, it being a PSN game makes it all the more impressive. As mentioned earlier it features three game modes and online play for up to 12 people. At the time of review not many people are playing online but I was able to play a few games and it runs great with zero lag – a plus for everyone. The game is much more fun to play against online opponents than single-player as it offers up more of a challenge, and we all know playing with friends is better then playing with computers.

Wheels Of Destruction is a fairly fun game at times. The maps are great, the graphics are impressive and it has great online aspect; but the controls can be awkward, there’s little choice between cars, maps, and modes and we can’t see the online staying lively during the coming months. If the game gets a few regular players then we don’t see why you shouldn’t give it a go for $9.99, but don’t get to excited.

Final Score 3/5