Burnout Revenge (Xbox)

By Phenomenon

The Burnout games have been renowned for two things: Crashing and Speed.. You can slam into guardrails and grind along them. You will hit jumps and go flying through the air. And the latest edition to the Burnout Family doesn’t hold back.

So why the title of ‘REVENGE’ you might be asking? In this latest instalment any car that takes you down instantly becomes your ‘Revenge Rival and  by god it’s just so damn satisfying that you almost ignore the other races just to take out the one who stonewalled you before.

The main game element is the World Championship mode, where you fly around to locations on three different continents,the more dangerous and stylish driving you do, the higher the ratings in each level

Other gameplay styles are Burnout Laps, Road Rage, GP Races, Eliminator, Crash Junctions  and Traffic Attack.

In Crash Junctions mode your job is to crash into mass groups of traffic in the hope of creating as much initial destruction as possible. There is a certain art to this mode, where you have to think about where you crash in one particular spot because you know it will cause a pileup in oncoming traffic. Once you have created a certain amount of destruction, you get access to a ‘crashbreaker’, basically meaning if you tap the ‘B’ button as much as you can, your car will explode, blowing away any traffic near you, and giving you the ability to direct your car into either more oncoming traffic, or to other areas of the Crash Junction that were previously inaccessible to you.

Traffic Attack.is one of the new and more hyped about features in Burnout Revenge: It gives you the ability to check traffic. That’s right, crashing into the back of a car now sends that car flying forward, and rewards you with points. You can only do this with small cars that are travelling in the same direction as you, as oncoming traffic, sideways traffic, and large trucks and busses will still result in a horrible accident. Traffic Attack is not just about, driving through a level getting points and time for checking traffic, but the ability to slam cars to go flying in front of you lends itself to the other modes as well. In the Crash Junction you can check traffic into other traffic before your car explodes. In road rage you can hit traffic into your rivals in another unique way of taking them down. It’s almost like having handy projectiles at your disposal. And it’s a lot of fun.

Car Classes

There are three car classes (race, muscle and crash), and they all have different weight, speed and crash breaker levels. Heavier cars have slower speed, but usually higher crash breaker levels, meaning large explosions in both crash junctions and in later racing levels. Smaller race cars go faster, but have smaller crash breaker explosions. Not to mention the fact that any air time you experience now is affected by wind. This needs to be taken into consideration when using a lighter car for example, as you will have less control of it while you are in the air.

And there is A LOT more air time in Burnout Revenge. One of the early crash junction events requires you to jump a HUGE ravine to get to the other side where the traffic is. You literally spend about 10 seconds just flying through the air, hoping the wind doesn’t push you too far off course. Even the racing levels themselves have a lot more death defying ramps and jumps in them.

Speaking about the levels, I can’t help but mention how much more impressed I am with them this time round. To be fair, usually the last thing you are thinking about as you race through any given level is how detailed the windows are on a particular building, but it’s the amount of variety which is truly appreciated. Massive outdoor snowy mountain climbs, night time inner city freeway racing, sunset races through old run down towns and industrial districts … I felt like they were levels from Project Gotham Racing 2, but faster, and more streamlined for speed. Another one of the cool features are the multiple paths through any given level. They aren’t just small, obscure, occasional short cuts either, but constant options that are presented to you throughout EVERY level.

Muliplayer and Online

Multiplayer wise, this is the same game as Burnout 3, but much more polished. EA have finally given Burnout the Xbox live experience it deserved, and although you can still only race against 5 other players, it’s still some of the best fun to be had online. You can race up to 4 players split screen as well, and can even have two players compete at the same time in a Crash Junction mode to see who can create the most destruction.

Pros

Fantastic graphics and sense of speed; big, detailed, varied levels with multiple routes; new elements such as traffic checking, vertical takedowns and revenge rivals fit in nicely; multiplayer is rock solid; a great deal of polish.

Cons

Maybe a bit TOO fast for some, gets repetitive after you play for 10 hours straight (but you’ll be back playing it again the next day), if you’re a Britany Spears fan prepare to be disappointed by the music selection (actually, that’s probably a pro).

Final Verdict

More of the same plus a whole bunch more, if you are a Burnout fan, then there are more than enough new elements to entertain you again, and if you are new to the series, then your in for a wild, fast, but no doubt highly enjoyable ride.

8/10