You jump in your souped-up hot rod and race against a group of speed demons through varying landscapes in an attempt to be the first one to reach the finish line. Along the way you'll earn extra time and upgrade credits by passing through various checkpoints and collecting power-ups. What makes Carmageddon different is that you can also earn credits for running down pedestrians. That's right, each living thing you mow down will earn you money that can be spent on improving the condition of your car or buying power-ups and new cars. It is, but no matter how much I want to win a race, the races always seem to break down into repeating runs through a crowded square trying to see how many folks I can kill at once.
Money is money after all.
Control has been improved over the original Carmageddon, but the cars still feel just too darn floaty, like you're racing on some low-g planet. I also ran into some framerate issues when I had the details turned all the way up. While the races get a bit tedious, especially at the higher levels where it seems nearly impossible to finish a race in the allotted amount of time, the multiplay aspects actually offer up a good bit of adulterated fun. Carmegeddon 2 supports up to eight players over a LAN or the Internet, so you can get your buddies together and pound their cars into stubby little blocks of metal. It's a good thing I installed those new windshield wipers.