Burnout 2: Point of Impact

"Nothing like causing a ten car pileup..."

With other franchises out there like Need for Speed and even the Gran Turismo series, you have to have something that the other guy doesn’t in order to compete. Enter in the next contestant into the fray, Burnout 2: Point of Impact. What this game features is something a little different from the rest of the pack, simply because it doesn’t penalize you for screwing up and crashing, but rather it rewards you for it. Burnout was the sleeper hit that no one really paid attention to, simply because there wasn’t enough there to satisfy the legions of GT fans and even the Need for Speeders turned their noses up at it. What Point of Impact brings to the table is more modes, better camera angels and even more outrageous crashes.

Like most racing games, you’ll find that Burnout 2 has plenty of things going for it that are your standard fare of racing necessities. You have a training mode which allows you to learn just what it is that you can do and what you can’t do while you’re out on the track by teaching you offensive and defensive driving. You have a time attack mode, which plays like the standard theme in which you have to take a car and beat the best time on any given track in order to get your name up in lights. There is the multiplayer mode that allows you and another friend to go head to head and race against each other, or smash into each other, whichever you happen to prefer.

The best game play option that Point of Impact has to offer is the Crash Mode. In this mode, you get to take your little car and get destructive by cause as big of an accident as you can with a chain reaction of cars. This little addition in the game is what makes it stand out from the rest of the racing pack because the damage is racked up and you are rewarded with a sweet replay feature that comes in from all angles. One of the things that I noticed though, is that Point of Impact still has the annoying feature of replaying every single accident that you have and doing so a hundred times. If you’re actually looking to race, you might do well to avoid any contact with the rest of the racing field.

While you’re racing, you’ll want to actually keep your eyes on the road and keep yourself on the straight and narrow when you’re playing through the Tournament Mode. As you progress through the field of cars, you’ll be able to charge a boost meter, which allows you to move faster than the average car and you’ll be almost out of control until the boost wears out. The collection of boost comes with successful brake slides with your car around corners and with narrow misses on the open road from oncoming cars. If you were to think of Crazy Taxi and the tip system of raising tips by close calls, then you’ll be on the right track for what you need to do for boost.

Control isn’t all that different than other racing games and experts, veterans and other gamers should be able to pick up on the control scheme right away. One thing that I noticed was that there was no custom configuration and if you’re not comfortable with the way that the control is set, then get comfortable with the training mode. Controlling your vehicle through traffic is a breeze and you’ll notice that the handling of each vehicle is different depending on what car that you’re using. Where one might be slow, it has the best handling and on the other end of the spectrum, the fastest car has the worst handing. Once you’ve been through the tutorial mode, you shouldn’t have a problem racing through the streets like a mad man and winning the gold; it really is that easy.

Visually speaking, Point of Impact is a polished game that has plenty of action going on all the time. If you can play the game in wide screen format, then I would suggest doing so to eliminate some of the discontinuity with the detail on the cars and even in some of the locations. You’ll drive through busy cities, country roads and on busy highways, so be on the look out for cars that are coming at you at all times. One of the disappointments that I had with the way the game looked was that the cars in Point of Impact have plenty of resemblance to actual vehicles, but don’t have the actual names attached to them. Another small problem is that some of the crash sequences, while huge and detailed, take forever to watch and the slow motion effects are a little hard on the eyes.

The music falls into a category that is little more than standard for a racing title. While the ambient sounds are nice and really get you into the drivers seat, the actual music itself is merely serviceable at best. There aren’t any big names attached to the music soundtrack and while that isn’t a problem, the racing gamers are probably looking for something little more than in-house music. The sound effects are pretty sweet though and there is nothing like listening to the squeal of tires before you run headlong into a pile up to really perk you up. The combination of ambient sound effects and the standard music selection makes for your average sound experience.

Point of Impact is a step above its previous outing and really does have a few fun things going for it that keeps it from being just another clone. With bigger and more violent crashes that you can actually perform yourself, several different modes and plenty of camera angles to watch the carnage, what more could you possibly want? The visuals are excellent and near perfect on a wide screen television, but the music is drab and only average. With the amount of modes and the amount of crashes at your disposal, you’ll probably get your fill out of bashing up cars in just a couple of days, so rent this one out before you buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/03, Updated 03/17/03