War of the Monsters is designed around the B movie monster flicks of old. There is no Godzilla or King Kong, but there are creatures obviously based on them. The premise is simple; Aliens have attacked Earth, Earth fought back and won, sorta… The UFOs destroyed by Earth’s forces have contaminated the planet, and huge mutations of many creatures began appearing all over. Some were created by humans on purpose, while others mutated by chance. Regardless, they have begun wrecking cities, and as one of the creatures, it is up to you to fight them off.

War of the Monsters plays like a cross between a WWE game, and a Mech game. Creatures to choose from, include a Godzilla look-alike, a King Kong clone, a Dragon, a giant Preying Mantis, a few kinds of Robots, a giant electric Cyclops, a lava Rock creature and others. All monsters have a number of moves, combos and special techniques. They can grapple, perform strong and weak attacks, pick up and swing/throw/catch objects littered about, shoot projectiles, guard, counterattack, throw, and do nearly anything else a radioactive mutant monster should be able to do. All of the PS2’s buttons are put to good use. In order to lock on to a specific enemy creature (up to 4 of which may be attacking simultaneously), R1 and L1 have to be held, and that becomes a bit of a pain, literally, after long, intense battles. The button layout can be adjusted somewhat, but trying to navigate the structures while keeping an eye on the enemy monsters without keeping a lock on, is not an easy task. The game plays really well, but the camera is a little freaky while cornered and/or surrounded by multiple enemies. WotM also skews somewhat to the difficult side, with the CPU creatures quickly making mincemeat of you at first, on the Normal setting. It is definitely worth playing on Easy (the default setting) until the basic maneuvers are learned.

War of the Monsters’ might have the most interactive battlefields ever created. The levels are mostly based on real life locations, such as New York, Tokyo, Area 51, and Las Vegas, and they can all be destroyed, piece of piece, bit by bit. Nearly any action or attack will yield an impressive environmental reaction. Buildings crumble into pieces, which can then be picked up and used as weapons. The same can be said for cars, trucks, tanks, and helicopters along with almost anything else imaginable. The amount of detail is staggering. Radioactive icons and powerups can usually be found hidden throughout, and they are used for healing and increasing stamina, as well as providing invisibility and special attacks.

Incog Inc. knows the PS2 pretty well at this point, and War of the Monsters is certainly a nice looking game. Besides the interactivity and level of detail, the visuals are very solid, with no ugly 1st gen PlayStation 2 issues to be found anywhere. Nice texturing and models, no flicker or resolution problems, and some impressive animation and physics. It's definitely more colorful and less dark than than Twisted Metal: Black, though some of the art style is similar. The game runs along at a smooth 60fps at all times, even with multiple monsters all causing havoc simultaneously.

The soundtrack is perfectly orchestrated B movie stuff, and fits the game to an absolute T. The roaring and screeching of the creatures and the frantic screams of the people are also right on, and the bassy explosions and stomping will rock your subwoofer like you can’t believe.

Besides some straightforward single player Story, Free-For-All, and Endurance modes, War of the Monsters has mini-games along with a 2 player mode. No online play is present unfortunately. There is a decent amount of replay value thanks to the 2 player mode, along with the single player Monster Tokens, which are earned by playing game’s single player modes. The Tokens are used to unlock mini-games, costumes, creatures and levels. It’s a pretty standard type of setup.

War of the Monsters is a stylish, fun little first party PlayStation 2 game. It is probably just a little in-between pet project for Incog Inc. before their next Twisted Metal game, and you can almost see what parts of this game will make it into their next TM title. The single player game doesn’t last all that long unfortunately, and some camera issues can definitely become an annoyance, but the game is still fun for a while. Definitely worth a rental, if only to witness the awesome amount of interactivity and destruction.