Reviewed: October 2, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Developer
Criterion Games
Released: September 13, 2005
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Everyone
9
10
9
10
9.8
Supported Features
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
I’ve been a hardcore Burnout fan ever since Acclaim launched the series back in 2002. Burnout Revenge is the forth installment and second game since EA took over the franchise last year. Oddly enough, even though Criterion has been the developer on all four games, the series only got the recognition it so richly deserves after EA picked it up.
Burnout is one of those games that has been steadily improving since it’s inception. Everything about it, including our scores steadily increase each year, so you are probably asking yourself, “just how much better could the game get since last year’s Takedown?” A lot!
Burnout is a game that is all about speed…high speed…blinding high speed, and with high speed inevitably comes crashes…high speed crashes…devastating crashes…slow motions crashes…crashes that you can control and make even bigger and more devastating.
Last year's game added “Takedowns” to the gameplay recipe, whereby you took out your opponents, albeit temporarily, to increase your boost meter and your overall score and ranking in the “Burnout World Tour”. This year, as the name might suggest, the game adds a “Revenge” factor by which anyone who takes you out now becomes the object of your “revenge”, but that is only one very small factor to this latest installment in the racing series.
Actually, there is a whole lot of new content and gameplay in Burnout Revenge, so let’s start at the beginning, the main menu, where you can choose from the all-new World Tour or simply dive into a quick race or go online for any of several crash and race events.
World Tour is the place to start if you want to start unlocking cars, tracks, and new chapters in the main game. World Tour is comprised of 10 World Tour Ranks, each with numerous races of various flavors including standard Races, Traffic Attack, Burning Lap, Road Rage, Eliminator, Preview, and multi-race Grand Prix events. Of course those famous Crash Events are scattered throughout the World Tour and are just as fun as ever.
Most of the races I mentioned are already familiar to Takedown fans, but Revenge adds a few new ones and some new twists to existing modes. The Preview mode allows you to test drive the car you will “eventually” unlock when you complete the current chapter. Traffic Attack is a new mode that has you racing through rush-hour traffic using the new “checking” feature.
Checking traffic is something you are either going to love or hate. For me, it makes the game almost too easy and it can be especially irritating if you are playing Revenge and any of the older Burnout games, or even Burnout Legends on the PSP. You see, checking traffic allows you to hit other cars provided they are going the same direction as you and are not substantially larger than you (i.e. bus or truck).
Hitting any car in any of the older games resulted in an immediate and time consuming crash, so there is a bit of instinctual learning curve to fight your natural tendency to avoid traffic. Checked traffic can be used to boost your rank, take out opponents, and the designers have even created some Crash Events that encourage you to check traffic into intersections to help boost your overall damage score.
Crash Events have also been revamped for Revenge. Instead of intersections full of coins and bonus multipliers the game has become more rooted in the basics, relying on you to create all of the chaos and actually earn those million dollar scores without the 2x and 4x multipliers, and believe me, it can be challenging.
As you may remember, Takedown featured a Crashbreaker system where you could detonate your wreck for bonus damage after so many cars became involved in the collision. There was also usually a Crashbreak icon and a Boost icon in the old game. In Revenge things are a bit different. To get started you actually have a timed acceleration meter, much like a golf game, where you tap the A button once to start the meter, a second time to set the power, and a third to launch the car. Depending on your timing and these taps will result in anything from a blown engine (complete with audience laughter) to intense speed off the line.
Once in the midst of all the carnage and destruction your Crashbreak meter will slowly start to rise based on the intensity of the collision. Once it hits 100% you immediately have to start rhythmically tapping the B button to maintain the explosion level for the duration of the short timer. Based on how high this meter is combined with the size of your vehicle will determine the power of the blast. Larger vehicles require faster presses of the B button but reward you with blasts that are just short of nuclear.
Also new to the Crash Event is that you can now execute multiple Crashbreaker explosions (my record is four in one crash so far), each cause more damage and each allowing you to steer your wreck into fresh undamaged vehicles. As your wreck arcs over the pile-up below there is a fiery blast and shockwave that now travels with you creating even more mayhem than before.
Crash Events start with a preview of the level and in an interesting twist, when you restart (as you will do often) the video rewinds in a hazy sepia tone visual style. It’s pretty sweet and does a good job of hiding the reload time for the level.
Each chapter in the World Tour has numerous challenges including those famous Signature Takedowns that require you to crash an opponent in a certain location on each track. You could try to do these intentionally, but chances are you can accomplish 60% of these goals through the normal course of the World Tour.
Level design, or should I say track design, is a lot more inventive in Revenge, with each location featuring numerous shortcuts, often highlighted with blue lights, that offer their own risk versus reward. The game is also more vertical with ramps and jumps that will have you achieving some mad-air, often resulting in the new Vertical Takedown. Shortcuts are great timesavers and will allow you to finish the courses in record time but they also take you away from the traffic, which is often necessary to earn high ranks.
Ranking up during a race is very important as it is the only way to achieve a PERFECT score for each event, and we all want to be perfect. There is an Event Rating meter that slowly rises as you drive dangerously or use turbo or perform takedowns or check traffic. It cycles through several stages starting with OK all the way to Awesome. Each meter takes longer to fill than the last and it will take an Awesome Event Rating plus a Gold medal to earn a PERFECT score and add to your Revenge Rank.
Bottom line; there is a lot more of the same gameplay that we’ve come to expect from the Burnout name and plenty of new and improved gameplay additions and enhancements. Even if you don’t like what Criterion has added there is still a ton of new cars and tracks and awesome new visuals that make this a must-own game.
The Burnout series has always been on the cutting edge of graphic technology – Criterion did develop RenderWare for heaven’s sake – but the graphics for Burnout Revenge are by far some of the best ever seen in the series and quite possibly the Xbox itself. I dare say, the graphics reminded me very much of the upcoming NFS: Most Wanted game coming to the Xbox 360 – yes, Burnout Revenge very nearly approaches first-gen Xbox 360 graphics quality.
The game flows at a crisp 60fps with nary a quiver, even with dozens of onscreen vehicles, flying Traffic Check wreckage, awesome particle effects and jaw dropping vistas – all onscreen at the same time – it’s all quite impressive indeed.
The cars may be unlicensed fantasy rides – but they sure look sweet – all crisp and jaggy-free, with real-time environmental reflections and shadowing. You can even see the chrome engine gleaming through the transparent cover on some of the more exotic rides.
And then there are the crashes. Do I really need to say anything about the crashes? Let’s just say that you have only seen stuff like this in the movies – and even then it hasn’t looked this good. The particle effects, the debris, the sparks, the fire, the rolling shockwaves – you just have to see it to believe it and even then you might not trust your eyes.
I also wanted to commend the designers on one of the best opening movies in race gaming history. Not only is the presentation flawless, it actually becomes your tutorial in what is perhaps the coolest gameplay meets manual experience I have ever seen. The awards animations are also highly inventive and ultra-cool with all sorts of animated morphing, metallic, trophies that are created from actual crashes.
While I enjoyed the sound package of the last Burnout game DJ Stryker was the first think I turned off, so you can imagine my glee when I found he had been dropped in favor of a sexier female narrator who only talks during the opening movie then leaves you alone to experience the sound and music for yourself.
The soundtrack features the traditional rock, techno, and electronica mixes that fit with the general racing theme. There is a good selection that will hold-up for about half the game, possibly more if you really enjoy the selection, but the custom soundtrack feature was something I started using after about 20 hours in.
Sound effects are outstanding starting with the turbo that pops and roars like the afterburner on an F-15. Combined with the streaking visuals around the borders of the screen and you really feel like you are doing 185mph. Collisions are powerful with metal tearing and screeching as it pulls apart and thunderous explosions and the cracking and tinkle of glass as windshields disintegrate. The 5.1 surround mix will rock your world on any Dolby Digital equipped gaming system.
Much like the last game, World Tour is where you will spend the first 40+ hours of your Burnout experience, at least until you have unlocked enough cars and tracks to be somewhat competitive with the online community. For the most part the solo game dictates which cars you can drive so all of those new cars you unlock are reserved for the quick games and going online for the Party Crash.
It took me a solid 75 hours to get a perfect on Burnout 3: Takedown and I’m quickly approaching that figure on Burnout Revenge and I am only on chapter 8. With two more chapters to go and numerous Signature Takedowns and other challenges to finish up for a perfect game I’d have to guess there is more than 100 hours of gameplay here.
It’s not often I can wholeheartedly recommend a game for mandatory purchase, especially at it’s full $49 launch price, but Burnout Revenge is one of those games that you don’t want to sit back and wait for a price drop.
Whether you are a fan of the previous games or just want to experience the absolute best in arcade racing, Burnout Revenge is a game that you won’t be able to stop playing once you start, so grab a copy today and clear your calendar for the rest of the year.