Interstate '82


Interstate '82 is a vehicular combat video game developed and published by Activision exclusively for Microsoft Windows in November 1999.

Setting

The game is set in the southwest United States in an alternate version of the year 1982, during the Reagan Administration. The game is less complex than its predecessor, Interstate '76, lacking the detailed armor and weapon management of the original. Its play-style is closer to console-based vehicular combat games like Twisted Metal, with a single health bar displaying both armor and chassis strength, as opposed to '76s armor/chassis strength system. The vehicle models have been updated to reflect the change in era, and overall, the game has a new wave feel, with several hitherto-unreleased Devo songs being on the soundtrack, as opposed to the first game's funk-inspired style.
Interstate '82 features a story-mode like its predecessor, with one new option: the player can exit his vehicle and enter another, adding some strategy to the game's storyline. Another new addition is the ability to skin the new vehicle models.

Reception

Eric Bratcher reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Some of the '80s nods may be missed by those who weren't paying attention back then, but the game is still fun."
The game received a bit more mixed reviews than the original according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.