Burnout Revenge

"Tearing up the racing competition."

Before anything else can be said about Burnout Revenge, let's get one thing straight: If you want to quickly boost your gamerscore, this is not the game to play. Certain achievements are simple to unlock, like recommending a video clip or taking down another racer online, but in order to attain anything beyond the ten point freebies, you have to work. Hard.

But if you're willing to invest a few hours of your life to perfect race times or if you decide to disregard achievements for the moment, you'll be rewarded with a satisfying, over-the-top racer that improves upon previous installments of the series. The first thing players will notice is the overhaul done to the graphics; if you own an HDTV you can enjoy the sparks flying during the slow-mo takedowns that occur throughout each race. EA's artists have designed a variety of locations for you to drive laps around - Japan (Eastern Bay), Detroit (Motor City), Rome (Eternal City) - and each location requires a different driving approach to master it. White Mountain, for example, requires you to drift through hairpin turns and Central Route's car-packed lanes force drivers to weave around oncoming traffic to reach the finish line.

The cars look nice, albeit a bit on the shiny side, but thankfully that issue rarely distract the gamer. The polish helps distinguish racing competitors from the background traffic and the sunlight never blinds you with its reflection off the vehicles' roofs. There's no weather variations like in the Need for Speed series, so you'll never find yourself blinded by going around the bend, but Burnout Revenge does come packaged with its share of graphical glitches and problems. Although the individual levels are fairly large, chock full of side streets and underground garages to help you gain the edge in a race, the individual objects are difficult to distinguish from the shadows they cast on the road. You can sometimes just look for the blue lights which signify the end of a shortcut snippet to guide you through the area, but other times it's only the experience of multiple trial runs that allows you to know that a corner is jutting out of a shady spot. This problem arises especially in the back alleys of Angel Valley, where the shadow cast on the ground is markedly similar in tone to the backlit walls of the alleyways.

Additionally, there are problems with the bumpers “popping” sometimes when they are taken down, though this is just a small glitch that detracts from the slow-motion splendor of seeing your car flying through the air. Just as impressive is the graphical toll taken on your auto; since Burnout Revenge does not have licensed vehicles like in Gran Turismo or Project Gotham Racing, you can see the damage done to your car following each crash (a scratched exterior, unhinged car doors, smoke billowing from your hood), and the control of your vehicle reflects the garbage-heap condition it is in. Without the turbo boost (which itself is docked after each crash you sustain), your car is considerably slower, and maneuvering is slightly more challenging. Each car takes a few hits to reach this critical condition, and it takes a few hits more to render the vehicle undrivable, so in certain types of races (notably Road Rage) it is okay to drive in an aggressive manner, just as long as suicide isn't on your mind.

Aftertouch controls are tight, so it's fairly easy to bring another car down once your own is totaled. Pressing the A button allows the camera to swing behind you so that you can see oncoming traffic. Tapping this button, however, sometimes lends to a poor view of a tunnel pillar, and any subsequent shifting of the camera you do with the analog stick may take precious time away from triggering a Crashbreaker. Watching takedowns of other cars can be toggled on and off, which is a good thing, because as remarkable as the crashes are to watch, they can detract from the flow of an event when you stack three on top of each other in a thirty-second timeframe. Don't worry about having your own car crash because of the distraction takedown cutscenes may cause; EA has installed a moment's grace period to get your head back in the game. In other words, if you were about watch your car collide with a truck, then cutaway to witness your revenge rival get what he deserves, your own vehicle will bounce off the front of that 18-wheeler when the camera focuses back on you.

There are a few different types of events you can choose from, and with approximately twenty events per racing rank and ten ranks to rise through, you can expect to put in quite a few hours to reach the coveted status of Elite Racer. There are two basic types of events - Crash and Race - with each type catering to a different automobile build. Vehicles in the medium to super heavy weight class will be available only in the crash events; these cars are slower, have a greater resistance to wind, and are more difficult to maneuver through tight turns and aftertouch crashes. More importantly, their increased weight causes more severe car build-ups, with the ability to spin semis and send light cars flying across multiple lanes of traffic. Crash events are fairly straightforward: Instead of eyeing the timing meter that was featured in previous installments, Burnout Revenge gives you a speed boost to send your car flying towards a particular intersection. These intersections are highlighted on an overview camera clip called the Crash Cam that plays before every race, illustrating the preferable trajectory your vehicle should take (pausing on certain ramps or side roads), though you can easily medal if you choose a different path. As long as you take out the target car, itself a new feature to the Burnout series, you can be safe in assuming a bronze will be in your possession.

Lighter cars are featured in all other events, including the newest addition to the Burnout family: Traffic Attack. Now your car can backend same-way traffic as long as the crash targets don't include trucks or buses - the heavier vehicles will still cause your car to crash. This event proves to be a fun addition to the series, with the only enemy in this event being time, a twenty-second timer that can only be filled by causing dollar damage to other cars. With each successful lap rewarding you double the cash, you can gleefully watch your bill skyrocket into the millions. Other tweaks to the game include having Crashbreaker Races, which effectively add a strategic element to your events: Get taken out and you may have the last laugh as you deal an Instant Revenge on the unsuspecting racers behind you. The Eliminator events make a triumphant return with every thirty-second mark bringing the last-place car to its explosive demise. This approach works more successfully than that featured in previous installments (calling for elimination after every lap) in that quicker eliminations produce faster, more nerve-racking races.

Some people dislike Burning Laps, and they are back for another round in Burnout Revenge. Like in the Crash events, Burning Laps will probably cause players to replay the same track multiple times to find the best route, taking you through numerous shortcuts to cut down on time. You can generally squeak by with a silver or bronze through one play-through, but in order to seize gold, you'll be forced to plan out the quickest route to the finish line, which may or may not come easily to players. Additionally, you'll have to race through Preview events, which are available after a certain number of achievement stars are amassed and function to highlight one of the racing locations for that level. They work the same as Burning Lap events - get your car to the finish line in the fastest time - but unlike the former, Preview events give you a particular car to race in. Place in this event, and the car is yours.

Unfortunately, most of the cars handle pretty much the same, with the only thing besides looks differentiating the racing models being their top speed and weight class (light or super light). People looking for perfecting their racing finesse need to look elsewhere; like other games in the series, Burnout Revenge focuses on the arcade-style battling aspect of driving. As the loading screens promise, the more aggressively you drive, the more boost you're rewarded. Tailgate your opponents, slam them against tunnel walls and make your great escape by dodging through oncoming traffic. Although the AI is willing to battle you through the levels of the World Tour, multiplayer and Xbox Live is where you'll square off against your toughest opponents. The system tracks your online rivalries, so be prepared to run into some familiar faces (and unlock achievements) along the way. A year and a half after its release on the 360, Burnout Revenge still has an impressive, respectful online community that allows people to battle in three basic categories: Crash, Race, and Road Rage. The only event that strays from the basic formula is Road Rage, which pits players as both a red and a blue car in a color-coded face-off. One group's job is to cross the finish line, the other is to do anything in their power to stop the first group from achieving that goal. The other two race events are fairly straightforward, and all three are performed with virtually no lag.

Burnout Revenge is extremely easy to control, with the standard fare for racing playing out at your fingertips: The right trigger controls your acceleration, the left your brake/reverse, and the A Button is held down to boost. The X causes your camera to look back. The B makes you use your crash breaker and… that's it. I've found myself getting pretty familiar with the right button, which switches the current song playing in the EA Trax lineup. Some of the songs are catchy, and others are recycled from other EA games (Fall Out Boy's “Dance, Dance“ springs to mind), but similar to the EA Sports games, the chances of you liking every song is slim. Unlike in Madden, you can't get away from the mediocre pop-punk tracks by selecting your options quickly, but as in the other game, Burnout Revenge allows you to modify your playlist. And if all of the songs sound like a cacophony of guitar riffs and techno-plugs? There's always your Xbox hard drive (and the songs burned onto there) to comfort you.

Burnout Revenge is a solid addition to the series. EA has included a series of nice features - checking traffic, Crashbreaker Races, and ten new Crash junctions exclusively for the Xbox 360 - and between the ten levels of single-player gaming and the active online community, the game possesses a high replay factor. The price has dropped significantly since its release in March of last year, so if you've been holding out for the 360 version, or thinking about upgrading your PS2/Xbox version to that new HDTV, here's your chance. Yes, there are achievements in this installment, and no, don't expect to unlock them all anytime soon, but to be perfectly honest, you'll be too busy burning up the track to notice.


Pros:
- Sharp graphics that pop on a high-definition television (especially during crashes).
- Single-player is expansive, with ten levels filled with a variety of fun events, from races to crashes to the new Traffic Attack trials that should keep gamers playing for hours.
- Tight, easy to master controls.
- Replay factor is high.
- Active online community that's (thankfully) not flooded with mean-spirited preteens.
- The Xbox system tracks online rivalries you establish.
- Dozens of cars to unlock.
- Unique eight locations to race in, each requiring a different driving approach to mastering it.

Cons:
- Sometimes it's difficult to navigate shaded areas, since the ground, walls, and traffic are all bathed in similar tones of gray.
- Small graphical glitches when crashing.
- Few differences between the cars, making their unlocking an anticlimactic occasion.
- Music will only appeal to some.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/07

Game Release: Burnout Revenge (US, 03/07/06)