Carmageddon: Max Damage Review | Xbox One UK

Carmageddon: Max Damage is the latest in the popular PC smash-em-up racing franchise, and the first instalment to zoom on to Xbox One. Carmageddon's been around, in one form or another, since 1997 – the original inspired by the 1975 cult classic Death Race 2000. With Carmageddon approaching its second decade, has it matured well, or is it starting to creak?

Remaining true to its roots, Carmageddon: Max Damage is incredibly violent and thick with dark humour  - and one needs to embrace the pantomime of it all to enjoy it fully.

Disappointingly, it feels like Carmageddon’s day ended – at very best – a decade ago. It’s difficult to be subtle about humour that’s centred around different ways of smearing people across the scenery – and given the subject matter developer Stainless Games has done a good job at reinforcing the cartoonishness of it all – but even crude humour has evolved. It’s a shame that Carmageddon hasn’t kept pace. Add in uninspiring vehicle handling, weak networking, poor AI and dull game design, and the natural conclusion is that Carmageddon should have been sent to the scrapyard years ago.