Burnout: Revenge

Written by Adam Woolcott  on September 23, 2005

Reviews: Finally, your chance to take revenge on the 5 PM rush hour.

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Perhaps ironically, it's the standard Race mode, once Burnout's bread and butter, that's become the least interesting in light of all of Revenge's changes Ц though it's still something special. While the takedown concept was great, it almost seems like Criterion is taking it farther away from actual racing and instead more like demolition derby this time around. The fear of ramming traffic is minimized, since you can slam half of it around, and the opponent AI is almost more concerned with taking you out rather than winning, since it's too easy to win almost every race. You could be in 6th place with just a bit of the race to go and win because they're too busy knocking each other around rather than racing, letting you breeze by. That's not to say racing is not fun Ц it is, but it doesn't bring the same thrills as Burnout 3 did. The Crashbreaker-enabled races are much better, simply because it's fun to take out as many opponents as possible. On the other hand, the sense of speed is amazing Ц and with all the traffic on the screen this time around, it's even more stunning that it almost feels twice as fast as Takedown did. Unlike the 3rd game, there's no classes to worry about, instead, as you progress you unlock faster rides to bring to the party against equally-powered opponents. The difficulty curve is very solid, even though it falls mostly on the easy side. Like always, Burnout's control is spot on, letting you do powerslides and evasions with ease, though the takedown physics are a bit different this time around, as it's not as easy to just slam them into walls, you must do more frequently.

The World Tour mode brings in a ranking system for the first time, which factors in to your actual completion percentage. Each individual race carries a rating, from 'okay' to 'awesome' based upon how aggressive you drive. Spend lots of time ramming cars, getting takedowns, riding on the wrong side of the road, getting big air, causing maximum destruction in Crash events, etc. and your rating will skyrocket. Combined with the medals, you can get a maximum of 5 stars per event, and once you get a certain amount of stars, your overall rank increases, which doesn't mean a whole lot but it's something to shoot for. Just getting gold doesn't automatically mean a 5 star rating Ц instead, you can drive like a sissy, still get gold, and not get the full reward. The in-race rating can even go downwards if you've made it to a certain level, if you get in wrecks, drive around without boosting, and dodge traffic rather than check it. Ultimately it's useless but if you want 100% it's gotta be dealt with.

One of the most bizarre omissions is the lack of 'exhibition' races, which is a staple of basically every racing game ever made. You can't just choose an event, a car, and go out and race; the only single player events are in the World Tour. Sure you can replay events in the massive World Tour, but it would be nice to have the ability to set up a quick game of Road Rage using any car and track you desire, or any other combination. It's a huge disappointment on the part of Criterion to not include such a no-brainer feature. You'll never see Madden without exhibition games, kids. There is of course multiplayer (leaving that out would have been cause for riots), for up to 6 people both offline and online (with online carrying its own ranking system a la Project Gotham Racing 3), playing a multitude of events from pass-the-controller Crash, basic races, and Road Rage (which was king of Takedown's multiplayer, with the team concept). Last year, Burnout 3's online was atrocious, with constant errors and drops, but this year it's far more streamlined and user-friendly, and thus more playable via the PS2 network adaptor.

Regardless, Burnout Revenge is just as addicting as its forebear, and the whole 'one more event' mentality comes out a lot since everything is done in short bursts. I could do without the simplistic rubberband AI, but considering all the crashing and battling, it's almost required to keep you in a race, though at the same time there's no punishment for making too many errors aside from Road Rage since eventually you can ruin your car. With over 150 events in World Tour, there's tons to do and see, and getting perfects on every event becomes an obsession Ц if you're anything like me you'll replay events over and over until you get both a gold medal and an 'awesome' aggression rating for the maximum rewards, and think of nothing but that achievement Ц no moving on to other events until you've gotten the best rank. That's why, despite Burnout Revenge's minute missteps, it's still one of the best arcade racing games in the business Ц that crack-like addiction is hard to put down until you've done everything possible.

Visually Revenge looks much like its predecessor, only ramped up another notch. As mentioned, the sense of speed is amazing, and with the dozens upon dozens of cars floating around each track, it's equally amazing that there's no slowdown and it runs at a very high frame rate. That said it can almost be too fast, requiring Jedi-like abilities to navigate courses for the first time, since turns and alternate routes come and go so fast...and it's not a game where you can gaze at the scenery unless you want to crash into the scenery. If you do have time to notice, you can see the special effects like sparks when you're riding a wall or ramming into stuff (though watching the cars you check fly around like it was made of cardboard is kind of silly). The locales vary, be it the woods-like Lone Peak to the gritty, urban Motor City, and everywhere inbetween Ц lots of variety. The Crash events look as brutal as you'd imagine, with cars slamming into each other extremely hard for maximum chaos. Car designs are not as varied as Takedown, but they all look really good, especially the pre-destroyed Crash vehicles that look like demolition derby machines. Revenge definitely pushes the PS2 hardware to its limits, just like Takedown did a year ago.

Last year EA brought its Trax to Burnout, and was met with mixed reaction, as Takedown featured a lot of pop-punk, nu metal, and emo music that tended to fit the atmosphere but yet could have been better (it did have This Fire by Franz Ferdinand though, which counts for something). This year, EA has gone indie, as a lot of the bands included aren't very well known, the inclusions of Maximo Park and Bloc Party the high points (Helicopter is an awesome tune), though it does include some garbage like Yellowcard. Like Need for Speed Underground 2, there's even a Doors song included on here Ц though this time it's not a bad version of Riders on the Storm, but instead a remix of Break on Through (To the Other Side). In terms of sound effects, Revenge is very high quality Ц the sounds of cars being smashed, gears shifting, sliding around corners...it's all done extremely well, better than a great many racing games out there. Most importantly, EA and Criteron removed Striker, the single most annoying DJ in the history of the world Ц no more of his blabbering between songs or during the introduction videos, which now feature a sultry female and can be skipped if you're not a Burnout nub.