Yeah, I agree with several of your points.

As an offline game TM PS3 sucks. Simple is that. It's a bad game that doesn't deliver what was expected from it. We wanted the classic arcade story mode, a dozen+ playable characters, and a challenge mode with lots of customization options. Instead we got an episodic experimental story mode, a limited challenge mode, and 3 playable characters.
 
The good is the quality of the cinematic cut scenes, and the story moment where Sweet Tooth goes on a rampage at a hospital, and uh, ....the Hammerhead/Slayer boss fight... and uh, let me think of something else nice to say about TM PS3... hmmmm... nothing comes to mind.
I guess of the 2 soundtracks in the game there are a few songs I like, but a lot of the originals seem uninspired with the exception of the main Menu theme by the talented Larry LaLonde (guitarist of Primus), and the licensed popular music has some okay hits from the past (Judas Priest - Riding on the Wind, Sammy Hagar - Heavy Metal).

I never played local multiplayer but that's probably the best offline feature of the game. If you have a friend you can play Co-Op or Deathmatch and get some enjoyment from the game.

I haven't touched the game since the server went offline though. It's been shelved for good.

Not having the AI to be capable of functioning well in Hunted or Nuke does suck, but its to be expected. You can still play them in LAN, its just a shame that bots aren't available in LAN play. I have a couple buddies that I still boot the game up to play with, but there's only so much you can do with 3-4 people, especially since I'm much better than them.

Having bots in LAN and having Hunted as a Challenge Mode offering would have been super duper sweet, but the Challenge Mode we have is fine. Definitely the best in the series, even if it could've been more substantial. What I will say for sure is that not having an Arcade Mode option that just lets you pick a car and run through each map in a classic TM style was a very odd omission and it would have taken little to no effort. They could have either reused one of the existing boss fights as the final boss or made a cool 4th boss exclusive to that mode.

I hard disagree with the statement that balance doesn't carry over. If anything the game is /better/ balanced for play against bots. The abundance of homing weapons and the lack of skillshot types really did get annoying at times for online. I do feel like the weapon offering is enjoyable and I love what's on offer, but things like Satellite, Zoomy and Reticle were sorely missed (even if Reticle and Zoomy have spiritual successors). Against bots though, its just pure fun and its you havin the time of your life blastin away.

I ABSOLUTELY disagree that the music is bad. Original soundtrack was stellar and fit the game brilliantly. I also just think the licensed tunes make up one of the absolute best licensed soundtracks of all time, rivaled only by games like Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Hell the presentation in general is gorgeous. Game can stand up to even PS4/Xbox One releases at times all while running at a blistering 60fps (EDIT: I am a fool and its only 30fps) and having absolutely insane speed. From the looks to the sound, everything was perfect imo.

I also just never minded the missing roster. I miss having a more diverse and filled out cast, but it never bugged me too much because the cars were still great. As fun as the Alternate Special mechanic was though, I do think it would have benefitted the game if each car had one special. Would have helped certain types of specials such as flamethrowers or missile salvos from feeling overused while giving each car unique flare. I personally think the alt special system was a great way to give cars more strategy and character, but since a common complaint I see is people complaining about samey supers, I suppose it was a bad idea overall. Keep in mind I disagree with the notion that supers were too samey, but yeah

I also loved the campaign though. I think all 3 boss fights end up feeling like some of the most quality and memorable boss fights in any game ever (final Talon section of the ST fight be damned) and I loved the amount of variety they managed to pump into the game's missions. I wish the mission variety made its way into Challenge Mode though... Really not much reason to not have things like Mean Juggernaut and Race in Challenge Mode.

One thing I also loved was how they managed to make some of the biggest and coolest levels in all of TM, yet chop them all up in so many inspired ways to make for a surprisingly deep and robust map pool. Some variants change the flow of a match more than others, and its a damn shame that Calypso's Stadium only has 1 minor variant, but the map variety on offer is impressive.

All in all you can really tell that TM2012 started as a budget downloadable title, and midway into development Sony forced ESP to turn it into a $60 retail experience as best as they could. What we got - in my opinion - is the best overall TM experience. Its a shame so many core fans hated it, and its a shame that the utterly unplayable online for months after launch coupled with an insanely busy year for Sony exclusives caused TM2012 to fly under the radar and become a permanent dust collectors on shelves for people who did know about it.

One complaint I remember hearing a lot but never quite understanding was when people kept saying it felt like a cheap, budget title... Oh well...

-Kilrahi- wrote on 02/29/20 at 23:27:05:


No shit? Maybe its the motion blur, but it seriously looks and feels like a 60fps game to me. That's wild, dunno how I can't easily see it visually with how obvious 30 vs 60 always is.

Thanks for pointin that out haha