Burnout 2: Point of Impact

"A stonker of an arcade racer!"

The original Burnout was a brand new idea never seen before it's release on ps2. Later it arrived on the Gamecube and Xbox. It was a highy challenging racer where you had to avoid densely packed traffic throwing itself at you whilst keeping an eye on your opposition. If you crashed the game would cut into a slow motion replay showing every bit of damage in great detail. The game was a little too short for most but it couldn't be faulted for its originality and pure arcade fun which left gamers gagging for more. So heres the much anticipated sequel with similar mechanics to the first but is it the huge improvement we were all hoping for? read on...

GAMEPLAY
Burnout 2 is jam-packed with modes - something lacking in it's predecessor. There is a training mode to kick start people who haven't experienced the previous game and it can be whittled through within five minutes. It shows you how to boost your ''Burnout'' meter which gives you a huge boost when you fill it up - half the fun of Burnout is weaving through traffic at ridiculous speeds and this can be only achieved by keeping your Burnout meter topped up. It is alot easier to fill up than it was in the first Burnout (by narrowly missing traffic, heading towards oncoming traffic, drifting round corners and the new inclusionof the sequel - gaining air by driving quickly over bumps in the road.) but this does make the game alot more funthan frustrating - something gamers didn't like about the first game and the developers have responded to this in more ways than one.
This is the main problem with Burnout 2. It's just too easy. What Burnout 2 really needs is a hard mode so that gamers can enjoy both the pick up and play style we have in Burnout 2 (which is an awful lot of fun) and the challenge that was present in Burnout 1. This of course is one of very few niggles with this game. It's meant to be fun and of an arcade style. While Burnout 1 was all about keeping within the time limit and surviving, Burnout 2 is all about record beating and thrashing your car around the various courses like a mainiac.
The main mode is championship. This encompases four different kinds of play style (only two of which were in the original) Grand Prix - a tournament with 3 racers pitted against you and points awarded for each place(1st - 4th). Face Off - a head to head race where youhave to defeat the car your racing to unlock it. Pursuit - your a cop car and you have to hit your opponent several times to destroy him. Do so and you unlock his car. Point to Point - a race with no laps - just one huge stretch of road full of traffic.
All of these modes are fantastic fun and theres around 4-5 of each in the normal championship. Theres also a ''surprise'' once you get all golds in the championship but its effectively a shorter version of the championship with better cars and the instruction booklet informs you of it. As well as these modes you get a Time Trial mode which is where you'll spend most of your time as theres nothing like beating your records again and again.
Finally there's Crash mode. This is such an in-depth and spactacular mode that it could be a game in itself. Basically you get 30 stages or mayhem where your objective is to smash into different scenarios of traffic and get as much damage money as possible. When you crash you get a gloriously meaty version of the crash replays in the main game with super slow motion. Then you get a first person view froma helicopter as it flys by and totals up your score. You get a medal based on your performance and the overall objective is to achieve all golds. This mode is so good I hope Burnout 3 has a seperate disc full of these!
Overall the gameplay is brilliant with great handling and controls. It's the most fun iv'e had with a racer since Beetle Adventure Racing on the N64 and is a huge improvement over B1's gameplay.
10/10

GRAPHICS
The visuals in this game are mighty and impresive. Each building and car is full of detail and it looks fabulous. The downside to this is that Burnout 2 suffers a lower framerate than Burnout 1 but when your in boost mode (which you are in nearly all the time) it's very surprising how the developers can have such a fast framerate with so much detail surrounding your vehicle. Visually it's a vast improvement over B1 but it does loose a little speed in the process.
9/10

SOUND
This game has some pretty cool guitar riffs and has a very rocky sound track. It isn't as good as B1 though which really brought about tension as the clock was ticking but rarely does the clock bother you in B2 and so being rock music which is to my taste and hopefully most other people this game does have good music. As for the sound effects, you can really hear the engines in the advanced cars roar with a meaty effect and the sound of oncoming traffic is well recreated.It doesn't improve over B1 though but it is a solid range of music and sound effects
8/10

LASTING APPEAL
This is where B2 succeeds massively over B1 but it does pale in comparrison to other games. If your after a long challenging career mode your not going to get it here (although you can retry the championship with the worst car and try and getall golds with it,doubling the length of the main mode). What you are going to get is a bunch of different modes which you can replay and have alot of fun with in single and multiplayer. If your not into multiplayer, the championship will last you around 8 hours. The crash mode - 15 hours and the time trial - another 15 hours. so you've got yourself 40 hours worth of alot of fun although there is no sense of progression. It is mostly for playing around and having a laugh.
8/10

OVERALL
This game is a great step forward from B1 but there is still a barrel load of improvement left for B3. A steeper learning curve is needed. There needs to be shorter time limits more than anything else - that was an important factor of B1 which seems to have lost it's way in B2. The AI is more mariokart than anything else as your opponents are always within reach of you no matter how fast you go. This needs to be improved on. As I said earlier if this game had a hard mode and perhaps a longer championship (or a career instead) it would recieve top marks. The endurance mode from B1 should have returned as wel1 because the main thing that is missing in B2 is the element of ''survival'' whichwas so apparent in all of B1's modes.
Having said all this the wealth of modes is fantastic and the game is never frustrating or overly repetitive. The developers have given us what we wanted in B1 but hasn't included what was great about the original. Hopefully B3 will merge these two fantastic games together and make the ultimate racer but for now this is a massive amount of fun and I can't recommend this more as the best racer until F-zero. I'm sure you can pick up B1 cheap as well!
8.4

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/03