Burnout Revenge Review (Xbox 360) By gashead

9 / 10
24 May 2006 at 18:53

Review by: gashead

It's been almost 3 years since the last time I played a Burnout game, and my god I've missed it! Since I didn't own an Xbox (or a PS2 for that matter), I missed out on Burnout 3: Takedown. So imagine my glee when, late last year, EA confirmed that Burnout Revenge would be coming to Xbox 360. Burnout and Burnout 2 were both great and well worth my hard earned cash, so how has Burnout moved on since then and is it as good as I remember?

So how does the game play? Well, as with any racer, the idea is to beat your opponents by using all your driving skills to the max. But Burnout has one key difference over the Gran Turismo's, Project Gotham's and TOCA Race Driver's in the world. While those games reward you for driving well, Burnout rewards you for driving recklessly. You're actively encouraged to drive on the wrong side of the road, slam into your opponents and take every short cut available.

There are 7 different events in Burnout Revenge. Race (a typical race to the finish), Traffic Attack (rack up the cash as you smash your way through the traffic), Burning Lap (put your skills to the ultimate test to beat the clock), Road Rage (take out your rivals to bring home gold), Eliminator (don't be last when the clock hits zero), Preview (test drive the best cars in the game), Grand Prix Race (a number of races to find out who's the best). Each event if fun to play, except the Burning Lap and the Preview events which are more frustration than enjoyment. They turn into "try, try and try again" affairs as you attempt to get that extra boost and find every shortcut.

But, there's one event I haven't mentioned, and for a very good reason. Please show your appreciation for the Crash Event. As you might of guessed, the idea of the Crash Event is to...crash. Pick your car, send it hurtling toward the traffic then sit back and enjoy the destruction. Cause enough destruction and you get to blow up your own car causing, you guessed it, yet more destruction! Seriously, the crashes always have been the best part of Burnout and Revenge is no different.

The destruction isn't just available in the Crash Events either, as you race you can takedown your opponents in a huge number of ways. Slam them into a wall, shove them into oncoming traffic, push them off a bridge or just land on top of them, each and every one of them gives a great sense of achievement.

OK, Let's talk graphics. The Burnout series always were up with the best when it came to graphics. In this era of next-generation graphics, we're beginning to have high expectations of every game. Fortunately, Burnout doesn't disappoint. Everything looks fantastic. Start driving at 200mph+ and you'll get a real sense of speed as the the screen blurs.

But the best graphic example are, of course, the crashes. Anyone who's played Burnout will know how great it is when you smash into a car head on for the first. All the cars get mangled up, glass smashes, cars explode, it all looks amazing. One complaint I do have about the graphics is that some tracks seem a little dark. On some tracks its unbelievably difficult to see where you're going and the above mentioned crashes become inevitable. Whether this is improved on a HD set, I wouldn't know.

And what about the audio? Well, you'll be pleased to hear that Criterion have done a great job on this as well. All the cars have their own distinct sound. The sound of the crashes is scarily good as well. But hearing your car crunch into a HGV makes you smile rather than cringe!

Multiplayer is something that EA and Criterion take very seriously. It's pretty much as you'd expect from an online racer. You join a server, you race, you leave a server. But there's one amazing feature that only improves Burnout Revenge. For the Xbox 360 version, Criterion have introduced Live Revenge. Think of it this way, if you take someone down on Xbox Live, it'll be remembered. So, if you meet up with that person again, you'll be highlighted before and during the race to give them the chance to enact revenge. Even if the score has been settled, you rivals will still be highlighted as old adversary so you can start up your rivalry once again. It's a great feature, which Criterion, thankfully, got spot on. Look out for the copy-cats to appear soon.

So that's the game itself, but the features don't end there, not by a long shot. Another new idea from the geniuses at Criterion is Save and Share. After each offline event, you'll see a full replay of it. The great part of Burnout Revenge is that you can save 30 second clips of the event and then share them with your friends. So whether you wanna boast about getting a Vertical Takedown or Total Payback or maybe you just want to show a great overtaking manoeuvre, simply save it and share it. If you're friends like it, they'll share it with their friends and their friends will share it with their friends and so on.

Burnout Revenge is fantastic. A few bugs here and there don't distract from what is a fabulous game. If you own it on Xbox or PS2 there probably isn't much point in splashing out another £40 for this copy, but for anyone who missed it first time around, this is essential. Burnout Revenge has quickly become my favourite game on Xbox 360, and yes that does include Project Gotham Racing 3 and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.

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