Burnout Dominator

"Something old, something new, some things missing..."

Ah, Burnout. This racer as seen its share of reiterations and improvements over the years. When the third installment (Burnout 3: Takedown) came out, it was highly praised and considered one of the greatest arcade racers of our time...or perhaps even of ALL time. Since then, Criterion has been tweaking the system to enable more destruction in Burnout Revenge, using some practices questioned by some such as "traffic checking" which made things easier for players by allowing them to plow though small same-way traffic. Right now Criterion's working on the next game of the series, currently called "Burnout 5." For the last-gen people, though, we get this spin-off-ish game...Burnout Dominator.

Dominator follows the basic concepts of the other Burnout entries; you're racing against a number of rival cars through busy traffic-populated streets, and you make use of dangerous driving techniques (i.e. driving in the oncoming lane, near-missing traffic, drifting in curves) to earn boost, which you can use to go even faster and leave the competition in the dust. You just need to make sure not to hit any walls or traffic, or you'll end up behind. It retains the ability to take out opposition that was introduced in Burnout 3, and shares some of the same modes as well; along with standard races, there's Road Rage (how many times can you takedown rivals before you're totalled), Eliminator (don't be caught last when the timer runs out), and Burning Lap (go for the fastest time in one lap).

The main spotlight in Dominator is the series' namesake: the "Burnout." Last seen in Burnout 2, the Burnout occurs when your boost is completely full and you use it all up in a nonstop dash. In Dominator, a full boost bar changes to a blue color, calling it "Supercharged." If you use up all the boost in one go, the bar will refill. If you continue to drive dangerously while boosting, it's possible to continue chaining Burnouts (this is indicated by a yellow bar behind the blue boost bar; if it is full and flashing, you will Burnout and have another full blue boost bar). The chaining of Burnouts is important in the new mode "Maniac." Here you are on your own, racing against a clock to earn points through dangerous driving. When you chain Burnouts, the points you earn multiply, and bigger chains mean bigger multipliers! This is actually a fun mode to play, and the challenge of "How many Burnouts can I chain?" itself is quite addicting.

The locales are much like the last few installments. There are courses in the United States, Europe and the Far East; you always remember, of course, that the lanes in the Far East are reversed. Interestingly, none of the courses appear to be race-able in the night time, and it's never in poor weather. Drawback or not, some people may notice this. The tracks have a number of alternate routes, but some require a taken-out rival to open up. These are Signature Shortcuts, new to the series and based on the Signature Takedowns of Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge. The overall build of the tracks seem more focused on straight-out racing; they aren't riddled with dicey track portions as Burnout Revenge to take out rivals (or crash yourself).

As for cars, there is a big selection that you will unlock through the World Tour. They are classified under different "series" such as Classic, Hotrod, and Dominator (to name a few). Some of these vehicles will appear very familiar to some who have played the Burnout games before. What I find unfortunate this time around, however, is that they don't list stats showing how well they perform. I can only hope the Hotrods are faster than the Classics, or maybe have stronger Crashbreakers. Ah yes... the Crashbreakers from Burnout Revenge have returned in Dominator as well, giving you as unfair an advantage over your rivals as before (those not in the know, the Crashbreaker is a button you press to make your car explode after a crash, possibly taking out a nearby rival). At least the methods of unlocking these cars are a little different. While some are just as simple as meeting the gold medal requirements of an event, some may need you to do a unique objective in the event, such as drifting a total distance or taking out a specific rival car a certain number of cars. It can be tough sometimes, but it's at least more of a challenge this way.

One more feature to mention is a mode called Record Breaker. This single-player mode lets you choose the type of event, the track and direction, and the car series you'll use (and compete against). You then attempt to do your best performance in the hopes of entering the ranks. This sort of mode was curiously missing in Burnout Revenge, so I'm personally happy this is offered in this installment.

Now for a little technical look. The graphics don't seen too different from Burnout Revenge. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they're almost the same, despite a different menu design. This is a little unfortunate, since split-screen action is still slow as molasses in comparison to single-player. The sound effects are about the same as well, though I'm not entirely sure what could be done to improve them. The soundtrack is similar to that of Burnout Revenge also, although in my opinion it doesn't have any really stand-out tracks. It's pretty sad that the catchiest tune in the game is performed by Avril Lavigne... and they decide to make it in FOUR languages for the game too (English, Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin?!). What bothers me a great deal are the load times. It's always been a little frustrating to choose to restart an event and wait just as long as if the track and cars haven't recently been loaded. Saving and loading on memory card seems achingly long too...perhaps longer than before.

So I've introduced what's old and what's new. Now let me tell you what's missing (and what's wrong). First of all, the ever-popular Crash Mode from recent Burnout games is missing. Even though Criterion is focusing on reinventing the whole game in their upcoming burnout 5, they could've at least humored people with one of the Crash Mode styles from a previous game. But that's not the only thing that will upset people. There is no online mode to play against other racers through the broadband connection. You're forced to one system if you want to play against people, and as I mentioned before, split-screen is a bit iffy. A less-missed missing feature is the ability to check traffic (from Burnout Revenge), which while some found fun to do, others felt it made the game a little too easy. One more thing I feel I need to mention is about the standard Boost. Unlike Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge, where you could earn Boost while you were still boosting, you can't earn boost with your regular boosting. I'm still a little confused about this, since you're forced to drive relatively slow just to get the supercharged boost. Definitely not worth it sometimes...

So is it worth buying? It's really hard to decide without at least trying it for a while. It's a good game, but for one reason or another it may disappoint some die-hard fans with the missing Crash mode and online functionality. One can only hope Criterion is indeed making a revolutionary Burnout game...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/07