Burnout Revenge Review

Platform: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Developer:
Publisher: EA
Center:
GamePlay Rating: 8
Graphics Rating: 8
Replayability Rating: 6
Comments:
It starts off innocently enough. You’re driving your semi-street-legal racer through the city and some neon-lighting effects jerk cuts you off. Now you have road rage and a vendetta against the other driver. What do you do? Why, pick up the Burnout: Revenge of course, and release your inner demons. With many different modes and lots of rivals to get in your way, you’ll find the newest installment of Burnout to your destruction liking.

The presentation of Burnout: Revenge is slick and catches your eyes and ears. When new tracks and modes of play are introduced, you get a rundown of what the tracks look like and how to play the different modes. Scene are shown in slow motion, double-speed and stop motion. The female announcer sounds pretty hot and is sarcastic about what happens if you fail, crash...or even die.

In most games, I find myself hitting the start button right away just to get to the game. In Burnout: Revenge, however, I watched each track scene and each instructional video with awe. They obviously put a lot of effort into this part of the game.

The tracks are much improved from Burnout 3. There are more shortcuts and more ramping possibilities due to the fact you can do Vertical Takedowns. The design also forces you to make better decisions when boosting and which side of the road to take. If you take an alternate route, you may need to save your boosts since there are few opportunities to gain boost. A trick curve may slide you into oncoming traffic, so it might be critical to take a longer or alternative route.

Also the basic design is environmentally pleasing. The Motor City track is gritty and industrial and the Lakeside track is sunny and cheery. Each background fit in well with the theme of the track.

Your goal is to win different types of races to unlock more cars and increase your driver Rating. You’ll get "experience points" for winning different types of medals (bronze, silver, gold) and additional points for getting an Awesome, Perfect, Great, or a Good race. An Ok race just doesn’t cut it.

You can also win special trophies per track. The most common one is the Vertical Takedown trophy. When you land on an opponent from the air and take them out, you just executed a vertical take down. Luckily, each track as various ramps you can use, but the coolest vertical takedown you can do is without a ramp. I got knocked into the air by a rival, hit a building, and sailed through the air onto another opponent. Of course, it was planned.

So don’t just think you’re racing around lap after lap only to enjoy the scenery. Chances are, in most of the challenges, you’ll be more concerned about your opponents and the whizzing obstacles than the sunset or the neon signs. Most of your opponents will be after you so one weapon against them is the non-racing traffic. When you hit a car or medium-sized truck--that is with the flow of other traffic—called Traffic Checking--you increase your boost meter. Also, this car/truck will wander around the road. Time it right and you can slam the car into another rival and take them out.

NOTE: Hitting oncoming traffic makes you crash.

There are some pretty exciting modes of play. Besides your standard "place first" races, you can play "Eliminator", which eliminates the last place racer every 30 seconds. "Road Rage" gives you an unlimited amount of opponents on the track so you can perform as many Takedowns as you can. Medals are given based on the number of Takedowns and time bonuses are achieved every few takedowns. "Burning Laps" is basically you against the clock. You have 3 levels of times to beat in order to win a Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Along with the races, you can participate in "Crash". You are given a stretch of track and a number of non-racing traffic and must figure out a way to destroy them all by speeding into a car to set off a chain reaction. As your chain starts, other cars may hit the block of exploding cars, thereby setting off more explosions. You get money for each car, truck, semi, and payload destroyed.

But wait! There’s more! As more and more cars explode, your Crashbreak meter increases. When it’s full, you have a chance to blow up your car and create a ripple explosion outward from your car, giving you a chance to destroy those cars missed by the traffic jam and are waiting to pass. Each challenge is fun to play and is never the same thing twice.

Sometimes there’s another area for you to jump into along with the straightaway traffic you can destroy, so it is vital to pay attention to the introduction scene right before the event that shows you what’s going on.

The graphics of Burnout: Revenge are top-notch. If you can, I’d recommend playing on a Hi-Def television because other traffic and obstacles were easier to see than on a standard analog TV. But regardless, Burnout: Revenge conveyed the feeling of speed very well, with blurring, shaking, and the loss of control when taking a sharp corner at 200 MPH.

Controlling your car in Burnout: Revenge seems pretty standard and well done. Actual car physics lends well to this game. You can even control your car a little bit while in the air! Accelerate, brake, boost, and Crashbreaker. Crashbreaker you ask? You have an chance to explode your car if you crash or get taken down. What this does is allow you to take out other rivals in the process. While in most modes, this is useless and hard to do, it is a crucial element in the Crash event which can give you the difference between a Silver and a Gold if done right. Each car has a Crashbreak level of destruction. The higher the number, the more chances for destruction.

This game is exhilarating, simple as that. High speeds, thrilling crashes and Vertical Takedowns, and many chances to ram traffic make this racing game a must-own. I got sucked into the game quickly by its glossy and very hip presentation and before I knew it I had half the game completed (and half the night gone).

But I still have Road Rage, so I’m taking it to the streets. The Burnout: Revenge streets.

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