Isolated in its violence, Carmageddon returns to the sarcastic anarchy which populated the late ’90s post-Doom. While there remain too few vehicular combat games (after flourishing some 20 years ago), Carmageddon’s specific onus is “violence your way” on each track. Complete the course, smash civilians, or bash other cars into submission. Choice, but in a barbaric way.

Yet it’s purposeless violence for the sake of violence. Citizens stand around and wait to be slaughtered. Were they caught in their own cycle of social media narcissism, say snapping selfies over a corpse, Carmageddon may have found something to chew on. Instead, this is a melee of discharged guts with a mean streak. The surrealist touch long since passed Carmageddon.

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