"Amazing vehicular carnage (as to be expected!)"

The almost-literally-on-fire racing game is back in Burnout Dominator. Recently the Burnout series has been getting a bit repetitive, what with the same gameplay style over and over which gets mind-numbing if you play it for too long. But Dominator has broken it up a little bit with it's new extra tid-bit. Read on for the latest!

Story
If you expect a story from an arcade racer, you're mistaken in Burnout. The game needs no story, and attempting one, like in recent Need for Speed entries, seems to make playing the game a thing of “why is the story here if all I want is gameplay?” So Burnout does well to not include a story at all.

9/10

Sound and Music
I haven't noticed much sound difference in recent entries, but Revenge had grungier sounds and explosions with a lot more impact than Burnout 3 had, and Dominator is no different. Your car screeches around the bend and then you hear the rumble of dirt as you slide wide and go off road for a bit. Crashes sound really dramatic too, especially when you manage to blow the car up by driving into that blasted bus again for the fifth time in a row.

The Arcade sounds from Takedown have made a return, and it's just as well because these sorts of sounds make the game easier to play. It's much more convenient to have a short *duhn!* play when I score a Near Miss rather than having to check the bottom of the screen for the text prompt and risk a crash.

The soundtrack, as has always been in Burnout, is decent. The songs are decent at first and at least fit the game well, but gradually, depending on your tastes, will grow on you as you play. Although if it doesn't, there are many songs you'll consider worth pressing the L2 button for to skip to and listen because you don't want to hear them again. One mention/unmention is Avril Lavinge's song Girlfriend. I don't know how it wound up there, let alone in four different languages (but it can be amusing to hear it in Japanese and Spanish). However, you are still unable to change tracks in the menus, which can get a bit annoying if you're playing, get into the menu, and Girlfriend plays as your best mate walks into the room.

8/10

Graphics
The graphics in Burnout have always been top-notch for their era, and although Dominator doesn't do much, if at all to separate itself from Revenge, they are still great to look at and the cars look great with all that shine (which goes away when you blow them up). The Frame rate is also a consistent 60fps, except when blowing the car up or playing Split-Screen.

The same major gripe with graphics while driving that has been present in Burnout for a while is that when driving into the sun, road glare can get in the way of your vision and make it hard to spot out traffic. Unless your TV is dark you're still going to run into the same old problem of driving down a road with the sun in your eyes and going head-on into a car that was hidden by the road.

Level design is excellent. For the first time in my memory you get to go to actual exotic feeling places, especially the two Japanese tracks. You go to American, European and Eastern locales, and they are accurate to their regions too with building and tree design (the German highway levels have the ever amusing Ausfahrt for their off-ramp signs). The car designs, while still being fictional, all fit their class well, and you'd swear Criterion got Ford and Mitsubishi designers in for their cars.

8/10

Gameplay
Burnout has always been about gameplay, and this one is no exception. In this installment, the main new feature is about the way you boost, which is actually lifted from Burnout 2 back in it's Activision days (they went bankrupt and Burnout was bought by EA for no. 3, hence EA Trax being a feature since then). The new/classic feature is the actual Burnout Reward. Whereas in previous installments it was harder to perform one because you frequently gained boost as you were driving, in Dominator you cannot earn boost while you boost until you fill it up completely and it turns blue as a result, turning into Supercharge Boost. When you boost in blue, you don't actually fill up your boost meter as you deplete it by doing crazy driving, you actually fill up a side meter which, if you fill it up and use all your boost without letting go of R1, will make it re-fill and you can earn your boost back again. This feature is called Burnout Chaining, and it's a way of boosting theoretically infinitely for the entirety of the race, so long as you keep doing risky driving. This encourages the risk=reward factor Criterion have been striving for since the first Burnout, and it's really rewarding as you just KNOW you can do infinite boost in a race, and you strive for it, but be foiled again by a dang taxi.

Takedowns are still here, although they don't add to your boost meter anymore (this would make it harder to perform a Burnout). Instead, they earn you a free re-fill or immediately fill up your boost meter. You don't get the good old camera shot following the racer, instead you still have the shots from the other side of the road that Revenge had, which for me detracts from the reward of a Takedown (and yes, you still drive as this happens). They are harder to get too, as shunting them from behind won't immediately have them swerving to the side and into a wall, but this makes Takedowns all the more rewarding.

Remember in Burnout 3 when you only missed a racer using Aftertouch by only THIS much? Not so in Dominator, Race Crashbreakers are back and with a vengeance. These can be extremely fun to do, as you send some poor sucker into the side of a building with a face full of fire. These destructive events are centered around your boost meter; the more boost you have at the time of the crash, the bigger your explosion, as your boost is used to fuel the blast. However, you can top it up by taking a racer out with your explosion, and could likely blow your car up again if you want to. This also means that you can ease your worries about the back of the pack by blowing them up as they pass by.

Speaking of which, there is no Crash Mode in Dominator, which is a good and bad thing. Good, because it allows more room for other stuff and rids us of that golf-meter, but bad because racing, while being fun, does get repetitive after a while. Also missing is Traffic Check, possibly for the best if it wasn't going to be kept to a special mode only, and also Online with it. Wheras I don't use Online at all for my gaming, many will miss being able to do this to extend their game's lifespan unless they want to sacrifice a smooth 60fps for Split Screen. However, in Multiplayer ALL cars and tracks are unlocked from the beginning.

Single Player is back too, although it's called Record Breaker for the sake of encouraging breaking records, and you're still allowed to do any even in any vehicle in any car. Also back is a user-friendly menu system, with all the cars back into their respective classes. The classes are all pretty cool as well, with Factory (Stock), Hotrod and Muscle cars being a few of the themes of the classes you can unlock. This adds some fun into the game because you can select your favourite theme of car from each class. Even a Tuned theme is in there for you wanting to get some customized cars in there. Speaking of which, several cars from previous games make a return, such as the ever popular Custom Coupe Ultimate from Burnout 2, 3 and Legends for PSP and the Euro Circuit Racer, which most never get a chance to race as they don't have the time, skills or patience to get all the trophies, but fortunately for them it's unlocked first. Also, stats aren't shown, which means that all cars in a class are more or less the same apart from how they turn, which you'll have to find out when you race.

Unlocking the cars is actually fun and is spread out more evenly throughout the game too. Whereas in previous games you unlocked them by getting a certain amount of Gold Medals or Burnout Points (called Dominator Points this time around), in Dominator you get them by fulfilling a requirement during an event. This could be getting the Gold requirement or drifting a certain amount to taking out the car you're going to unlock a certain amount of times. You also never unlock a car ahead or behind your class, although from the outset, at least ONE car is unlocked even if you haven't made it available in World Tour mode yet.

Race Modes are nice and varied. You have the classic Race Mode (First across the line), Road Rage (Takedown Target) and Revenge's Eliminator (person in last place gets detonated and therefore eliminated after a time limit until there's one car left), but the new modes add fun to the mix. You have Burnout Challenge, which has you needing to perform a certain amount of Burnout Chains, and Manic, which had you earning Burnout Points (now only used during an event) to rack up a total. To make it interesting, when you perform chains in this event, the Burnout Points you acquire are multiplied depending on how big your Burnout Chain is (so performing 5 Burnouts results in a 5x bonus). This mode is the most fun of them all and the chaining makes Gold totals a breeze, so this can be a easy-yet-fun event for experts of Burnout. Drift Mode is a ‘meh' event, which has you drifting a certain total distance before you hit the finish, but it's not as crazy as the other modes are

The tracks are designed pretty good and have a logical flow to them once you get to know them and they aren't as complicated and random as Revenge had them. Now it's just a main route with a few open roads to cut some corners. At first you'll be crashing all over the place when you first try a track but when you get to memorize where the corners and cars are you'll be doing great. A usual complaint with the series though is the ever-annoying traffic islands. In particular in the Autobahn tracks, you get traffic islands dotted over the middle of the road instead of one long one like in Burnout 3's Alpine track. This can get consistently annoying and make you dread going back to these areas.

The shortcuts from Revenge also make a welcome return, and they really add some spice to the game because now it's no longer a matter of screaming down one route; now you have to look out for little paths that help save you precious time. Speaking of Shortcuts, another neat thing to keep you going are Signature Shortcuts. Remember the Signature Takedowns from Burnout 3 and Revenge? Well this time around they are more clearly marked by yellow barriers. Knock a racer into it during a Takedown and you'll break open the barrier and the area behind the barrier can now be used as a shortcut. Because the shortcuts are now more clearly marked and can (theoretically) be scored more easily due to being similar to wall Takedowns. it's now more fun to tackle Signature Takedowns, although you can obviously only do it once. The only complaint with shortcuts is that, even with Signature Shortcuts, your opponents use them too. What th-? I thought I just unlocked this for myself?! It's private property!! It's a bit of an odd factor and it takes away from coolness of unlocking them.

8/10

Replayability/Unlockables
Burnout Dominator, as do the other entries, has the advantage of being so fun that even after beating the game you want to play some more, albeit in the fastest cars you've unlocked. But the lack of Online multiplayer will detract for many, and Split Screen isn't really worth it due to a poor frame rate. However, a constant stream of newly unlocked cars (provided you have the effort) means that you're never left feeling like you weren't able to get a little extra.

Also, the other rewards have been adjusted for ease. For instance, the Takedown Targets of Burnout 3 and Revenge usually involved things that had more to do with luck than skill (I still can't get Truck Torpedo and 2 Tram Takedowns). This time however, due to a new rewarding system for the cars, you get achievements for getting a certain amount of Gold Medals or Takedowns, or boosting for an entire lap or completing a race without crashing.

7/10

Final Word
Burnout Dominator is a total successor to Burnout Revenge. Depending on your view, it may even supplant the third game (no DJ), but it's definitely worth playing if you're an avid Burnout fan, and if you want a game that's fit for being banned by a car community due to excessive violence.

The Good
= Classic Burnout Speed
= New Boosting system is very rewarding
= Cars and Achievements are unlocked more easily and logically
= No Golf-swing meter
= Routes aren't as confusing as they were in Revenge
= No story is always the best for a racing game
=Graphics are very good and are quite gritty

The Bad
= No Crash Mode
= No Online
= Split-Screen mode still suffers from a frame-rate drop
= Shortcuts are used by opponents more often than you'd like
= Soundtrack still takes a while to get used to
= Avril Lavinge on the music lineup FOUR times?!

Final Score
8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/23/07