Drive Fast and Furiously!!! (Burnout Revenge (PS2))

Member Name: MrTink12

Product:	Burnout Revenge (PS2)
Date:	28/01/07 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So much to do, great sound and graphic effects, marvellous controls, addictive

Disadvantages: Poor soundtrack, too easy for some, cars handle too similarly

Burnout: Revenge (BR) is the fourth game in the popular arcade racing series. It was released in Europe September 2005, and developed by Criterion and published by Electronic Arts. The game has been made available for three different formats, namely Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Today we will be commentating on the PlayStation2 version.


--------Gameplay--------
Ultimately, the core of BR is driving at exceptionally fast speeds during a variety of fun races and events. You may recall that the previous game introduced ‘Takedowns’, and these return in BR. Essentially one has to drive aggressively enough, forcing adversaries off the road. However, during a race, rivals can be just as keen to accomplish ‘Takedowns’. When they successfully manage it, a red icon appears above their car. By returning the favour, and causing them to crash, you achieve a ‘Revenge Takedown’. This explains why the game is entitled ‘Revenge’. After feeling aggrieved that an opponent has temporarily knocked you out of a race, ‘Revenge Takedowns’ do provide incredible personal satisfaction.

Controls are very responsive, and it is fabulous how the game is extraordinarily easy to pick up and play. In essence the main controls are: X button to accelerate, circle to brake/reverse, R1 to speed boost, and left analog stick to steer. Due to simplicity of the controls, within minutes you will be taking down the opposition, and avoiding oncoming traffic. The many tracks in BR have been specifically designed with battling opponents in mind. For instance, tracks tend to contain short cuts and alternate routes to help you stay ahead of the competition. Shortcuts are shown by flashing blue lights, although finding them all and using them effectively requires one to play each track a number of times, increasing the replayability of BR.

The main single player experience comes in the form of the World Tour. This career mode is divided into 11 driver rankings. To rise up the ranks, and unlock more races, one needs to attain a specific number of stars. You get rated from ‘OK’ to ‘Awesome’ after each race. Lets say I was rated ‘Awesome’ (4 stars), it is possible to gain an extra star by achieving a gold medal (for a total of 5 stars), or get deducted one star for claiming a bronze (3 stars in total). Computer A.I. in BR is very impressive, especially during the latter stages of World Tour. The game can become a real tussle because of the aggressiveness from these intelligent opponents, making victory all the more rewarding.

This is an incredibly addictive game, where despite saying to yourself ‘I will stop after the next race’, you continue on regardless wishing to progress further. I found that it was not too difficult to complete events with at least a bronze medal, but accomplishing gold medals was really challenging. One mode during the World Tour is ‘Burning Lap’, in which players have to race a single lap of a track, and beat the medal lap times. Sometimes this mode is named ‘Preview Lap’, and you drive an unlocked ultra fast car. Another event is ‘Road Rage, where a target number of ‘Takedowns’ must be achieved within a time limit to collect medals. Furthermore, there is an Eliminator mode, which can is best described as a race with a difference; every 30 seconds the car in last place is eliminated until one survivor drives off into the sunset.

As with previous instalments of the series, incoming traffic must be avoided if you wish to prevent crashing. Nevertheless, in a departure for the franchise, players can now hit same-way traffic, although colliding with a bus or large truck will still cause a crash. This new gameplay feature is showcased in Traffic Attack mode, where you have to slam into as many same-way vehicles as you can, causing immense financial damage, before the time clock reaches zero. The more cars you check, the more seconds one is given on the clock. Higher scores can be achieved if you manage to check cars into the other lane. Fans of the series will be familiar with Crash Mode, and I am pleased to say that this features prominently in BR. For those unaware, the objective in Crash Mode is to drive into busy traffic causing as much chaos and destruction as possible. The more damage instigated, the higher the score. This may sound easy, but can take frequent attempts to execute successfully. Be that as it may, playing this mode for a while is no bad thing because it is such great entertainment. Wind physics play a part in some ‘Crash’ levels, and cause your car to react according to which way the wind blows. Basically the lighter vehicles are the most affected by the wind direction, meaning it can be best to use heavier car for easier control in the air. Later in the game there is the opportunity to blow your car up upon crashing (called ‘Crashbreaker’) by pressing R2, and take out the opposition. .

There are several offline multiplayer options to enjoy. Using a split screen, BR provides the opportunity to have a Race against a friend, take part in Road Rage, or partake in a Traffic Attack battle. Additionally there are three slightly different Crash modes: (i) Battle – a head to head clash to see who can cause the larger crash damage; (ii) Party – turn-based (2 to 6 players) event to determine who can inflict the most destruction on a single junction; and (iii) Tour – you have a crash $ target, and must reach it in the fewest possible turns in this turn-based mode for between 2 and 6 players. Also noteworthy is that online modes hugely increase the potential longevity of the game. Up to six players can participate online, and you are given a ranking for (a) race events and (b) crash events.


--------Graphics, Sound and Music--------
Tracks are extremely detailed and wide-ranging. For instance one track features bright colours and a fierce sun beaming down, whereas another is a night highway. The graphics for the most part are maintained even at the highest speeds, in excess of 200 miles per hour. I do like the neat graphical touches the developers included, such as seeing realistic looking exhaust fumes, sparks flying when vehicles collide with one another, cars on fire in Crash Mode, and a blurring effect during speed boosting. What's more the cars of BR look nice and shiny, and well designed.

At the beginning of your BR experience there is a female voice that guides you through some training videos. The voice work was unproblematic so I listened to a little of what was said, but soon skipped the videos and wanted to get to the action. The sound effects during gameplay are excellent, and include convincing engine noises as well as loud explosions. There is a licensed soundtrack (EA Trax), which features some tracks from well-known artists, such as The Chemical Brothers, Yellowcard and The Doors.


--------Critical comments--------
Unfortunately, there is some slowdown when masses of cars are involved in a crash. I would not say that this adversely affects the gameplay much, but it is noticeable and subsequently an annoyance. As the game progresses it may appear that there is great depth in the choice of cars at your disposal since so many vehicles can be unlocked. However in reality the choice must be regarded as superficial because of a lack of noticeable handling differences between vehicles. All that seems to differentiate many of the cars is simply the colour scheme. Likewise, if you love racing games, which contain all manner of real life cars (Gran Turismo, Project Gotham Racer and the like), then BR may not be the game for you.

The long load times in BR can be an irritation, especially if you are taking part in an event that requires multiple tries. Another quibble is that the fall through the racetrack into oblivion bug from past Burnout games returns. By now you would have thought that the developers could have dealt with this, but it did make the occasional appearance whilst I played BR. Some Burnout franchise veterans could be a little disappointed about the inclusion of traffic checking. In the past games you had to be skilful to avoid all vehicles whichever side of the road, but now it can be reasonably easy to stick to your side of the road and avoid danger. There was less tension than past games as I felt comfortable on most tracks that would fail to crash.

I am positive that some gamers will enjoy the soundtrack offered, but it is in my opinion rather bland and one-dimensional. The music featured is in the rock/punk genre, and the developers obviously felt that this would fit BR’s fast paced action well, but I disagree. Many people will definitely feel the need to put the television on mute, and listen to a CD like I did. Finally I would suggest that BR is hardly innovative. The developers have achieved all that they can on the PlayStation2, and the real evolution of the series will come on the next generation consoles.


--------Overall--------
Put simply, BR will provide many hours of gaming pleasure, whether that is during the World Tour or whilst online. It is a highly recommended purchase for anyone who is new to the series. Even if you own the previous Burnout titles you should not be disappointed adding BR to your gaming collection. After all it can be purchased very cheaply nowadays. For instance, (at the time of writing) woolworths.co.uk are selling the game for just £8.97.


>My scores:
- Gameplay: 9/10 – There are plenty of distinct events to get your teeth into. If you like to have fun and get the adrenaline pumping whilst playing a computer game, look no further than BR.

- Graphics: 8/10 – Overall visuals are very accomplished, although due to the hardware restrictions of the PlayStation2, not much better than the previous Burnout game.

- Sound: 7/10 – Some of the effects should without doubt be complimented. Unfortunately the soundtrack lacks diversity and fails to impress.

- Longevity: 9.5/10 – The single player mode will keep you going for at least 20 hours, whilst the amount of time one could put into online play is endless. You can mark down this score a tad if you are without PlayStation2 Internet access.

Final score: 8.9 out of ten


Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed

Summary: Amazing arcade racer!