Developed without imagination.
* Colourful graphics
Minus:
* Lack of originality
* Silly controls
I'm not going to spend too long waffling on about this game.
"Cel Damage Overdrive" is a vehicular combat and kart-racing game. Unfortunately if you look past the pretty graphics it's not a very good one.
I will try very hard to sound enthusiastic about it.
It possesses three game modes: "Smack Attack" which is a style of deathmatch where instead of going for kills, you're going for hits. "Gate Relay" which is a standard checkpoint race, with or without weapons. "Flag Rally" which is Capture-the-Flag.
All these modes work just fine, but they're not what one could call imaginative. The same can be said of the weapons which appear to have been lifted straight out of a Micro Machines game. Yes it has attractive cel-shaded graphics, but all the environments you visit you can also see in any number of platformer's or karting games.
Everything works, there are no particular issues other than some weird controls (which, if you're used to playing racing/karting games, don't make any sense), but there is nothing NEW here, and for me the game bombs as a result.
Choice is a wonderful thing in games, but generally the reason you have more than one of a type is that they each do something special that others don't. "CDO" does nothing that you won't find elsewhere, nor does it do anything better than the alternatives.
If you're after vehicular combat or kart-style racing then PS2 is well represented in both genres. If you want a game that does both then; "Crash Tag Team Racing".
I failed at sounding enthusiastic.
There is simply no reason for "Cel Damage Overdrive"'s existence, nor justification to own it.