 |
|
Burnout Revenge(XBOX) (E) (Racing) |
|||
Great car bashing fun.
There are very few racing games that have done anything major in the gaming spectrum. This is primarily because racing games are, much like sports games, generally generic- there is very little you can do when games like Gran Turismo redefine high quality realistic racing and games like Mario Kart dominate the arcade racer. What does that leave? Not much.
But seemingly out of nowhere in 2001, a game came out named Burnout- a game essentially devoted to crashing and destroying cars and creating the most mayhem as possible. This is a really good idea- giving players what they've done for years in a game mode is basically a cash crop, and developer Criterion Games has essentially tapped into this to the maximum and made Burnout a big franchise. Unfortunately, much like many franchises that come out, Burnout had the distinct possibility of failing, especially ever since publisher EA picked up the license- but surprisingly enough, the latest rendition, Burnout Revenge, could be considered one of the best yet.  Burnout Revenge is the fourth Burnout installment, featuring one of the biggest upgrades in the series- a revenge rival system. As the system is built around mayhem, it now turns standardized racing on it's ear by featuring a very battle-oriented system, whereas cars turn into battering rams as they launch traffic, obstacles, and even themselves at other racers in order to gain even seconds of an advantage. So basically, Burnout Revenge is a racing game with a twist- rather, a destruction game featuring cars going 150+ miles per hour. The game is a lot more than that, naturally- with such an engine, the play modes are diverse and open, ranging from options from the simplistic race mode to an elimination mode, a race centered around bashing traffic constantly, and even a mode dedicated to destroying as many cars in a specific area as possible. Needless to say, Burnout Revenge is packed. That being said, there are a lot of places to start. Burnout Revenge may be, at least in my opinion, one of the most innovative racing games ever. Even though I am an avowed Gran Turismo fanatic, I must admit that the way in which Burnout turns normal racing into a battle game makes even Mario Kart look tame. Originally, as this game is published by EA, I was expecting a kind of Need for Speed Underground esque attitude, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Burnout is basically a really good racing game with a beatup engine to boot. Let me start off by saying that Burnout in no way tries to assume the position of a story based game, and launches you into a mission based system right off the bat. Unfortunately, this is not exactly mission based- rather, each area has various available missions (based on your danger level at the time) that are rated from one two five stars, promising the availability of new missions and areas as your stars increase. Where this fails to be mission based is that the game usually forces you into a very basic pattern of racing in virtually every map in the game- and seems to forgo a lot of the bashing capabilities of the engine itself- but is redeemed by the enjoyability of the game engine itself. Graphically, Burnout Revenge is impressive, but sometimes lacking. As the game was released virtually unilaterally (On the Gamecube, XBOX, PS2, and XBOX 360), the graphics on the “old” systems were generally cut down for speed's sake, and really only shine in the XBOX 360 version. No matter the version, Burnout delivers a defined graphical punch, detail showing up in every corridor, nook, cranny, and fender. This does not help the game from being somewhat mediocre looking (All of the cars and tracks generally look the same after a while, the cars especially), it really shows that Criterion Games put a lot of effort into Burnout Revenge. The simultaneous failure and redeeming factor of Burnout Revenge is the EA TRAX feature- much like I ranted on in my Need for Speed Underground review. EA TRAX is essentially EA's way of licensing out generic punk/pop/rap/funk bands, sticking them all in a big file, and forcing them to play over the game while the music title, band, and album flashes at the bottom of the screen. Obviously, this is really something of an offshoot of in-game advertisement- and most of the music is really lacking- but I would feel bad punishing EA for at least providing something other than the horrible music that it put in Need for Speed Underground. Long story short, the music in Burnout is bearable (And sometimes actually decent), but EA is never going to win an award for originality any time soon.  Another sad rant about Burnout Revenge is the lack of a tutorial. While the game is VERY simplistic, I felt that the lack of a defined guide on how to play (along with the lack of a story, intro, or much else) really kinda killed the learning curve for me. While there are videos explaining such tactics, I feel that especially in a racing game of this caliber, Criterion could have made an effort just to provide a run-through to explain things like tactics and whatnot- but it's really a moot point. Naturally, I have to touch on the upgrades before I close. Burnout Revenge, as I mentioned, has been definitely upgraded from it's predecessors, but still remains all of the fun of the original games. The game is a lot faster and graphically better, features a lot more available tracks and features, and definitely is a new experience- which makes it a worthy heir of the throne. As I said above, it's interesting to see a sequel of this caliber actually deliver more than the predecessors. All things considered, Burnout Revenge is a really cool, fun game. The game is insanely fast, enjoyable, addictive, and everything a racing game should have. While small issues sometimes pop up from time to time, I really could never argue enough to justify anything other than the rating it receives. If you're in the market for a good game to spend time on, Burnout Revenge would be an excellent purchase all across the board- especially if you're sitting with a new-yet-dust-collecting XBOX 360.
|
|||