Burnout Revenge

"Awesome buy, for only $19.99"

The series of Burnout games have a certain thing to them that gets you: We all want to see cras smahed, crashed and blown up. It's just the way some people are. With this game, your every wish will come true. This game Blows up cars, sets them on fire, has them going in with head on collisions and many other things that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Gameplay:
You have a rank: They are numbers, from one to ten. You start on one, and have to work your way up to ten. To gain ranks, you complete challenges(I'll explain tyhe challenges later) and depending on how well you complete the challenge, you get points to gain your way to the next level. This gives the game a pinch of RPG gameplay. You choose which event you join, then choose your car. If you are doing any even other than Crash(Again, I'll explain later) you have one list of cars. If you are doing Crash mode, you get a different set. Then you have to try to complete your event. The events are as follows: Race(Obviously, you have to try and beat your opponents, 5 of them, around the track), Road Rage(You have to try and take out enemy racers by smashing them into stuff, called Takedowns), Traffic Attack(Kill as many civilian cars as possible, each car you ram gives you money and a boost of one to two seconds to your time limit), and one rare event called Burning Lap(Basically a time trial race, but you have to use the car specified by the game). After you get to a certain rank, you get Crashbreaker events. You can now use Crashbreaker when you crash in-game. This is explained in the Crash piece, which you will read right after this sentence ends. Now, for the last event: Crash. This is probably one of the best parts of the game. Your objective is to cause as much damage as possible to the cars in your surroundings. It requires an element of strategy, the most obvious route is not always the best one, and it requires timing, you can control your wrecked car while it's moving, and an element of destruction, if you cause enough damage, something called Crashbreaker becomes available, and you have to rapidly press the R2 button. If you succeed, your car detonates with a satisfying BOOM! and causes an extra amount of damage to your surroundings. You have to reach a damage quota to win the challenge.

But here's the tricky part: For each and every challenge you beat, you get a star ranking. This star ranking adds to your total amount, which if you get enough, upgrades your rank. Think of it as EXP, and you need a certain amount to "level up". This means you might complete every challenge, but you might not level up. You then have to go back and improve on your old challenges to improve your score. This makes the game almost like an RPG... A racing game + RPG=??? This adds a element to the game that makes it much more exciting.

I have never run into a bug, glitch, or crash with this game. Ever.

9/10


Controls:
Nothing Special here. X is gas, Square is brake, and you use Left Analog stick to steer. R1 is turbo, R2 is Crashbreaker. (Note: In racing events, R2 only has to be tapped, while in Crash, you have to rapidly press the button.) It's nothing new, but new isn't always necessarily better, right?

8/10


Graphics:
Pretty good for a PS2 racing game. It doesn't really make a difference how good or bad they are because most of the time you will be having too much fun playing the game to notice. But if you are a graphics "person" then I will say that they are decent.

8/10


Sound:
Nothing to complain about, it's pretty good. Most of the car sounds in the game are excellent, and the sound of cars smashing into concrete walls and other hard objects is well done. The only problem I have is that the F1 car in the game does not have the correct shifting sound.

9/10

Story:
None. Since there is none, I will not count this into my consideration for the review score.
Besides, This game is better played without a story. You'll see why I say this once you play the game.

NA/10

Overall
But it. Go out right now. For $19.99, you have almost nothing to lose! If you are really skeptical, then try a rental. But trust me, you will not make a mistake from buying this one. It's one of the more fun racing games you will play, so why not just drop a twenty and give it a shot?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/07

Game Release: Burnout Revenge (Greatest Hits) (US, 2006)