Burnout 2: Point of Impact

"This Could Very Well Be One Of The Best Racing Games Ever"

Burnout 2: Point Of Impact is an arcade racing game. It is the sequel to the original Burnout and a much better game overall than the original.

The gameplay is great and the controls are very good. You basically just race and you have to finish first. You race against 3 other cars in the series races. The series races usually have 3, 4, 5, 6, or even 7 races in them. The tracks are good. They range from an airport terminal to a dangerous race on a desert highway. All of the tracks have a reversed side where you can choose to race the track backwards. You start out in the game with about 8 cars and after you race, you can end up with as many as 20. The cars range from a 50's hot rod to a street racing import car. The car models are one of the main draws to the game. There are several things to help you win a race like nitrous that you gain for doing things such as driving in oncoming traffic, doing jumps, getting as close to your car as possible, and more.

There are several modes in the game. One of the funnest and most time consuming is the Crash mode. Crashes in the Burnout games have set new standards in racing games and in Crash mode, you are actually supposed to crash. The point of it is to get as much insurance money as you can and your money multiplies by the amount of cars in the pile-up. This mode also has multiplayer where up to 4 people can compete to see who can make the most wreckage. There are 15 tracks you can race Crash mode on. This is the funnest mode overall in my opinion because it is fun watching the wreck replays.

The championship series is where you race to get more cars and more tracks unlocked. You will need a gold in every race in a series to get the reward for beating it. If you don't get a gold medal in every race but you still get first out of the series, you will just get a new series unlocked. The Face Off races and Pursuit races are also in the championship series option. The Face Off mode is where you race one car and if you beat it, you unlock it. The Pursuit mode is where you are a cop and must hit the criminal's car until it cannot go on any farther and this can be achieved by hitting it 10 times.

You start the game in the Driver's Ed mode where it teaches everything you will need to know to progress well in the game. This mode is fairly easy for both players that played the previous game and for people that have never played Burnout before. If you have played the original Burnout, you can easily beat this mode. The tasks are fairly easy like getting Boost as fast as you can and stuff like that.

The graphics in the game are great although they can be an annoyance. Sometimes, the lighting effects can be annoying because you can have the sun in your eyes. Sometimes the graphics do cause you to not be able to see a car from far away and it seems as if they pop right up on you. This is the only real flaw to the game. The sound is great, but the music is kind of corny.

The replayability is good only if you like racing games. It will take you a while to unlock everything such as all of the cheats, cars, and tracks. The multiplayer also adds to the replay.

Overall, I would say this is a definite buy for all racing game fans.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/03, Updated 01/01/03