Since the name Carmageddon is already taken, this game from the Russian developers of Hard Truck Apocalypse is called Clutch. Which is short, simple, and inaccurate. You'll never have to use a clutch in this slick little arcade game that combines Night of the Living Dead with Death Race 2000. In the driving department, it's not nearly as serious as Carmageddon, the 1997 gore racer with an amazing physics model. But in the gore department, it's as over the top as you could hope for.

For instance, Clutch (available from Steam here) is a very "green" game, because you can equip your cars with spinning blades that suck screaming zombies into the grill and convert them into booster power. Actually, is that considered "green", or just "red"? However you characterize it, it's pretty awesome. Like Clutch itself.

After the jump, find out what happens when fast cars meet slow zombies. And what it does to your paint job.

Let me first tell you what Clutch isn't. It's not serious. It's not deep. It's not long. It's not a living world. It's not multiplayer. And it's not Carmageddon.

But it is gloriously giddy Grand Guignol. You race around a ruined city, which consists of three levels you can probably get through in a night or two and a whole mess of challenges that'll pad that playing time by another night or two. The city is inhabited by desultory zombies and other drivers. The challenges are all races, or zombie harvests, or checkpoint battles (there are two really annoying missions at the end of the game that break the formula, but not for the better). You can unlock paint jobs or earn achievements, some of which unlock new vehicles. But you're mainly doing missions and challenges to earn money, which you'll spend on upgrades for your small collection of cars.

But all this is just an excuse to drive fast and plow through zombies. With 3000 kills and counting, Clutch still hasn't gotten old for me. When I intend to stop playing, I end up just driving around smacking into a few more zombies. Just for a little while. Then I realize I might as well just do a challenge. So I do. And then I've played for another twenty minutes. Clutch is idiotically simple and even more idiotically effective. Zombie. Car. Splat. Giggle. Repeat.

What makes Clutch so good are the little touches. For instance, here's the optional interior view:

Here's the interior view after hitting a few zombies and even getting one caught on my right fender. See the hood?

Here's the interior view after hitting more zombies.

And that's not all. When you switch on the headlights at this point, the light is colored red. How wonderfully gross!

Another thing I really like about Clutch is the developer's attempt to tell a story with some truly Max Payne-worthy clots of text. You can skip these if you want, but you'll miss tidbits like the following:

• I forefeel the end is near.


• It's like the F1, but together with the blackjack and whores.


• This trip is the bloody suicide...some get to jump from the roof, some cram themselves with aspirin and alcohol. As for me, I went to a city inhabited with zombies.

Clutch gets it. In its own Russian developer way, it understands blood and cheese. And how can you pass up a game that offers you the following upgrade to your car's offensive abilities?