Burnout 2: Point of Impact

"This intense, exhilarating racing game will keep you on the tip of your toes."

Imagine this. THREE, TWO, ONE, GO! The cars blast off the starting line, but you are left in the dust! You slam the accelerator and try to catch up. You narrowly avoid a truck while sliding across a corner, and you go off a bump and get big air! Yes! Your boost meter is full! You hold the boost button down as long as you can. Ha! You pass that first place car, go around the corner, and CRASH!!! You slam into a taxi cab and your car is completely totaled. Luckily, the computer crashed into it too and you both restart at the same area while a second computer car dashes ahead of you. You drive recklessly on the wrong side of the road, avoiding a truck there and a car there, and once again, your boost meter is full! You hold down the button again and dash past the first place car as you pass the finish line.

THIS is Burnout 2: Point of Impact.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay in this game is excellent and will make you regret putting down that controller and shutting the power off. This game has some of the most realistic crashes in any racing game I’ve played. I don’t think there was ever a time I wasn’t excited during a race!

First of all, let’s get the basics down. There’s a boost meter near the bottom of your screen, and your job is to fill it up all the way. There are four possible ways to do that: driving on the wrong side of the road, narrowly avoiding cars, drifting (or sliding) across corners, and getting air. Don’t worry if you think you can’t do that all, because there is something called “Offensive Driving 101” where the game will guide you through how to drive as recklessly as you possibly can. Once you learn how to master all of this, you’re ready to race against competitors and burn some rubber. I really don’t know how to describe the thrill of racing. The thrill of narrowly avoiding that truck to fill up your boost meter, the joy of crashing into a car on the opposite side of the road and making two of the computers crash with you, and then the excitement of crossing the finish line. There is a championship mode where you can test your skills, and winning a Grand Prix (a set of races ranging from 3-6 races) will unlock cars and rewards.

One of the things you eventually unlock are pursuits, where you have to chase down an opposing car and repeatedly hit it to bring down its damage. This mode is very challenging and a lot of fun. I know for a fact that I love taking my car and ramming it into the opposing car and watch the damage meter go down. ^_^

There is another mode called “Crash,” which I think was a very fun and addicting mode that this game offers. This game has some great crashes, and sometimes, you just love seeing them! But when you’re in a race, even though it’s very exhilarating witnessing a crash, crashing will obviously mess you up and you might even lose the race. So, in crash mode, there are 30 zones where you can crash all you want without worrying about losing a race. You get once chance to cause up as much damage as you can, and get bronze, silver, and gold medals according to how much money you piled up. This is one mode that will keep you enjoying this game for a very long time.

There are many different modes and each one has something that will keep you playing this game, so obviously, the replaybility in this game is excellent. Everything in this game is fun and exciting, especially with some secret modes you can unlock!

Unfortunately, there are only around 16 different tracks. Don’t be fooled by what the back of the box says, because they double 16 by having a reversed version of the track. The reversed versions are very challenging and fun, but I still would have preferred at least 20 different tracks. Also, each area (such as Palm Bay or Big Surf) has two tracks, and the two are sometimes similar, but at other times, they are completely different.

But don’t let this little downside convince you to not buy this game, because everything else is great!

There are only two camera views, and at first, I thought that this was a bad thing. One is where you can see the car but it is a little difficult to see very far ahead of you, and the other one is first person view. Like I said, I thought this was a bad thing, but actually, it’s not. If you could see far ahead of you, the game wouldn’t be as exciting! I know for sure that some of my best moments in races are narrowly avoiding cars while boosting or narrowly avoiding a car then crashing into one right in front of it! If they had a view where you could see far ahead of you, it would ruin the “on the tip of your toes” type of game this is. I just wanted to include this part in if anyone was wondering about the camera views.

There’s also another thing I noticed while driving on some of the dark courses, and that was the headlights. The headlights don’t work very well and sometimes, it’s very hard to see. After playing some of the dark courses again, I realized it’s not necessarily the darkness, it’s just the amount of times you’ve played the course. Also, like I said with the camera views, some of the courses being a little bit darker makes it more exciting!

Graphics: 10/10
The graphics in this game is one of the best I’ve seen in a racing game. Honestly. When you start to play the game, you might be thinking to yourself, big deal! It looks normal to me! Well, as soon as you experience the thrill of your first crash, you’ll see the jaw dropping and very realistic image of your car getting completely totaled. At first, I thought the game makers were over exaggerating with the crashes, but once, before I crashed into a car, I looked at the speedometer, and I was going over 100 MPH. Then, I realized how realistic the crash was, because if I ever saw a car going 100 MPH down the street and ram head first into another car, I would have probably seen something similar to what this game shows you.

Now, moving on to something else other than the crashes, even though that is a very important part of the game! The scenery in the races aren’t jaw dropping or anything, but they’re not horrible either. Obviously, since this is a racing game, the game makers did not want to spend that much time on the scenery, especially considering the fact that you would be zooming by it half the time, but they still did a good job. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the freeway, an intersection, or countryside, everything looks like the way it should. Even when you’re boosting, everything looks very well detailed.

Sound/Music: 9/10
The music is this game is nothing to brag about, but you can’t expect much from a racing game. But you can expect good sound from a racing game, and this game has it. From the roaring of your engine to the sound of you brakes squealing to avoid a crash, everything is perfect in this category.

Control: 10/10
There are two different controller configurations: One using the A button to accelerate and the B button to brake, and the other using the R button to accelerate and the L button to brake. It just depends if you like to accelerate with a trigger or with a button. Either one you choose, the controls are very easy to learn and “Offensive Driving 101” helps you out when you are first starting out.

Conclusion:
Burnout 2 is a very fun racing game. There may be a couple downsides, such as the lack of tracks or camera views, but those insignificant cons are the only things remotely bad about this game. If you want a long-lasting game with insane crashes, great variety, wonderful graphics, and easy to learn gameplay, then buy Burnout 2: Point of Impact!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/03, Updated 01/30/04