Burnout Paradise

So, another one of these review type doohicky things. Except they’re not really reviews, because there’s no arbitrary number/letter/star/colour plucked out of the ether and placed at the end. But you get the idea.

Burnout then, for those who have never played earlier incarnations, is a racing game, and at times, a fighting game. Oh and a pinball-alike too, and in the case of Paradise, a treasure hunt to boot. Suffice to say, blistering fast speeds, jaw dropping graphics and homicidal drivers (or should that be cars? Criterion makes no aims to disguise the fact that every car is driver free) are the orders of the day.

However, plenty has changed since the last game, Revenge. Most obvious to any onlooker would be the graphics. EA may have touted the 360 release of Revenge as being HD, but compared to Paradise it is just so…plain. This really is next-gen Burnout. From the cars and vistas to bodywork damage and crashes, every little detail is a feast for the eyes, and all this at 60Hz. The crashes, especially, are a wonder to behold. At the moment of impact, the camera slows to a halt, glass shatters, body work realistically crumples and then all hell breaks lose, be it a quadruple barrel roll or a 720° flat spin or just a 50 yard skid. When the car finally comes to a halt, it doesn’t just stop dead, but rocks gently on its suspension, giving it a real sense of weight. My only complaint about the crashes would be the inability to turn off the crash-cam (especially in Road Rage events) and the fact that damage modelling isn’t sent over Live, so no matter how beat up your car is, to your friends it’ll look like one fresh off the line. Also, takedowns can be a little over the top at times and this is especially obvious online. Nudging a stationary car at about 5mph can send them flying in the air.

The real change, however, is the nature of the game itself. Gone is the random spattering of races, road rages, crash times and all sorts trussed up to look like a world tour in the earlier games. Instead, there is just one city. And this is a city. It feels alive, vibrant and most importantly, real. Its entire expanse is your plaything; touring car tracks, airstrips, quarries, a dam, shopping districts, seafronts, train tracks and of course, the streets themselves. 64 in total and each alone represent two challenges, in the form of a Showtime record (more later) and a time trial. Every junction acts as the starting line for an event, amounting to 120 altogether. Events themselves consist of the regulars; Road Rage, Race and Burning Route. Newcomers in the form of Marked Man (make it to the finish line without being wrecked) and Stunt Run (name says it all, rack up as many points in the time allowed) make up the remainder.

The freeform nature of the city really comes into its own in the events. Each race has a start and a finish. Everything in between is entirely up to you. There is a suggested route, and the compass at the top of the screen will point you in the right direction, but if you think you know a better route, there is nothing to stop you from taking it. This, however, can be a double edged blade. Early on, getting lost in a race is a very real possibility, and the shortcuts do little to help this. The sheer number in the city (somewhere around 150) means it’s impossible to remember them all, and taking a wrong shortcut somewhere can send you horribly off course. But then, that’s the risk you run in taking that route. Special note should be made of the finish lines. There are only 8 in total, so after a while you quickly build up a mental map of the area surrounding each finish line, and this slowly expands to cover a large portion of the map, which helps to reduce (but not remove) frustration.

The open-endedness is present in the choice of event, too. Everything, each event, time trial and showtime is available right from the start. On the one hand, this gives you ultimate freedom in how to progress up the ranking, but at the same time it is incredibly overwhelming, especially early on. Much has been made of the inability to restart an event upon failing it, but I think this isn’t really an issue until much later in the game. Early on, failing an event will still leave you no more than 10 seconds drive from another. However, whilst working towards your Elite license, you’ll start to run out of options as you check off events.
Showtime, mentioned above, replaces the Crash events of earlier games. Here, simply holding LB and RB whilst driving down a road sends your car flying, and the trick is to cause as much damage before running out of boost. Crashing into cars adds boost to your bar, and you can handbrake jump to reach further cars. While some may see this as an over simplification, it makes the whole affair a lot more freeform; in the Crash event of old, there was usually a set route that’d win the round - drive off this ramp, hit this multiplier, crashbreak here to reach another multiplier and then wait. Not so, in showtime. Like every other aspect of the game, you can go wherever you please and there’ll always be some traffic around to wreak havoc with. Just keep your eye out for the shiny buses (though it’s a shame there are no other multiplier vehicles, perhaps the logging trucks and oil tankers of previous games could’ve made an appearance here).

Changes have also been made to the way cars work and are obtained. The cars are now split into three distinct boost types, each with different mechanics:

• Speed Boost gets a single block to fill, and can only be used once it is maxed out. The trick is, however, that draining the block in one go refills a portion (a Burnout). The more dangerously you drove whilst draining the boost, the more it refills. Totally refilling the bar is possible, meaning you can chain boost indefinitely (well, until you crash, which you will).
• Aggressive Boost is the standard from prior games. Dangerous driving fills up the bar steadily, while taking someone down adds an extra block on, up to a maximum of three. Getting taken down, however, removes a block.
• Trick boost is maxed at two blocks, but is refilled quickly by spins, jumps and drifts, making it ideal for the Stunt Run events and general cruising.

Cars themselves are unlocked in a number of ways. Advancing in license level, winning a burning route and completing a pre-defined set of challenges (such as finding every shortcut) net you new cars in the standard way. However, the piece de resistance is the new Shutdown mechanic. After completing a set number of races, a new car will appear somewhere in Paradise City. Successfully taking it down will add it to your collection, but you have no idea where they are. So you’ll be happily driving along to an event, or trying to get to a billboard and you’ll see one go racing past, causing you to drop whatever you are doing and go chasing after in hot pursuit. Chances are, you’ll crash before catching it (because you’ll be driving especially recklessly), and lose it. But there’s always next time. This mechanic adds a nice bit of spice to the already lively streets.

Taking the game online couldn’t be easier. Pressing right on the d-pad brings up a simple menu that lets you invite friends, join games in progress or create your own game. Being stuck on this uni network, I’ve been unable to start my own game, so haven’t really tinkered with the options, but I’m told that it is possible to create your own races, specifying a start and end point, as well as any checkpoints in-between. Also included are a series of challenges, 350 in total (50 for 2 players, 50 for 3…all the way up to 8). These range from mundane (use your boost!), easy (drift 50 yards), silly (take a ramp from opposite ends and crash in the middle) and downright insane (barrel rolling off a ramp, through a suspended hoop and landing safely…god that was painful at 1am). Outside of custom events and challenges, merely freeburning around the city with a few friends is more than enough entertainment. The demo alone provided Steve, Dan, Rob and I with hours of online fun. Though, I’ll admit, my fun came from spoiling theirs. Lack of split screen multiplayer is disheartening, but it is understandable; the 360 and PS3 would be hard pressed to render two separate, populated parts of the city at 60Hz.

Sound wise, well. Sound has never really been my thing, so I can’t comment too much. I can, however, comment on the soundtrack and our resident DJ, Atomika. The soundtrack is the usual mix of, well, whatever EA feels like throwing in. Some fits, some really, really doesn’t (Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend, for one). They’ve also included every piece of BGM from Burnouts 1 to 3, which makes for a nice addition. Should you care. Personally, I turned the music off and just left something running on my PC. DJ Atomika, fresh from Radio Big (read SSX3) is passable. Still a little too annoying to have on all the time, but his pre-event and congratulatory comments are harmless.

So, the real question is, where do Criterion go from here. It is unlikely they’ll return to the old model of a racing game, but I honestly can’t see what improvements could be made, outside of more graphical polish. There’s only so big you can make a city, and Paradise is already overwhelming enough. Here’s hoping that EA don’t start churning out Burnout 20XX, with nothing new except a lick of paint and a different car set, and instead let Criterion lose on something else (a next-gen Black, perhaps). In closing, well. I liked it, I guess. But you wont be getting any form of grade or mark or even a thumbs up/down from me! Go on, download the demo and make up your own mind.

~ by Seniath on February 8, 2008.