Burnout Paradise

"Criterion Rewrites The Burnout Formula, But Did They Do It Well?"

So, Criterion Games, father to the burnout series, finally decided to try something new. Burnout 1, 2, 3, and Revenge were good, but Criterion felt a need to freshen things up. They do this by rebuilding everything from the ground up and throwing out the old linear progression system and adding open world game play.

The open world game play truly adds to the experience. The large map includes several different areas collectively called Paradise City. These areas represent venues seen previously in the other installments. There is the mountainside to the west, with many curvy roads and some intense drops, the lake area, which is home to many several bridges which have large ramps as well as a dam. Then, there is about half of the map, downtown. This area is filled with many large buildings and tight turns. All of these areas are very fun to be in, and everyone will have their favorite.

One might be inclined to believe that the open world game play would feel extremely different from the other Burnout games. This person is inclined to be completely right. However, different doesn't mean bad. While the average driving still feels like Burnout, the player will now be required to brake or drift (hold both triggers) in order to turn effectively due to the lack of the previously used “arrow walls” which the player would be able to bounce off of. This new non-linear game play forces the player to actually slow down to make turns, instead of careening around corners making the mastery of the game that much more difficult. The numerous and ever present shortcuts will add to this mastery. However, playing this game for the first time only requires a short five to ten minute learning curve.

This learning curve is much aided by the ever present DJ Atomica, who speaks every couple of minutes reminding the player of things which they may not know and giving all around helpful tips. This acts as an extended tutorial to the game, as there is no actual “tutorial”. However, Atomica, while helpful, begins to repeat himself and get quite annoying, saying the same lines over and over again. He is not overly intrusive, but it will be noticed within the first ten hours of play. Atomica aside, the sound is very well done. The engine noises and wrecks are very realistic and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Now that the you've learned the basics and got the hang of the open world, you can participate in challenges. Criterion decided to make it so that every single intersection in the game is a challenge. You can choose between several different ones. Firstly, you have the race, a grid of you and seven other racers start at the intersection and race to one of the several designated finish lines. Next, there is Marked Man, which is basically the same as a race, except there are no positions and the other drivers are trying to kill you before you get there. Then, you have stunt run, you have a time limit and must get a certain number of points before it expires. Returning favorite Road Rage, where you take out as many cars as possible is back. Also, each car has a Burning Route which you can complete to unlock an upgraded version of that specific car. Both Road Rage and Marked Man limit the amount of times you can wreck by ending the challenge after a few crashes. This variety of challenges keeps the game interesting for quite some time.

One thing that can be very disappointing for some people is the lack of a fast travel or even a basic retry after a challenge. This is quite annoying early on, but you will get used to it, seeing as it doesn't take long to get from point A to point B in this game by any means.

There are other free form challenges, Showtime and Road Rules. The former is a poor recreation of crash mode which is activated at any time by pressing both bumpers. Road Rules track the time you take to get to the end of a whole street, and if it is under the set time you “rule” that road. However, these mini-game challenges do not count toward career mode.

Career mode in Paradise is very simple, complete a certain number of challenges to upgrade your license. Upgrade your license and new cars become available. In order to obtain new cars, you must take them down in free play and they will get added to your junkyard, which acts as your garage. Throughout the course of the career, AI difficulty scales up as you get the hang of things. The main problem with the career, is that it gets repetitive and long. The final license takes way to long to obtain, forcing you to go through all of the races you have already done again. This is very disheartening and will dissuade many people from actually finishing the game. There are multiple junkyards throughout the map for convenience purposes. To change your car, all you must do is simply enter a garage “drive-thru” which brings up a menu of cars to choose from. You also have the option choose one of a couple preset paint schemes for your car and choose the primary color.

The cars come in many different styles, ranging from a General Lee-type car to a Formula One car. The cars come in three types, Stunt, Speed, and Aggression. Stunt is the Burnout 3, allowing you to use boost whenever you want. Speed is the Burnout 1 and 2 style where you have to fill up the whole bar in order to use boost. Aggression adds extra boost as well as a new section to your boost bar when you take down and enemy car.

As mentioned earlier, the junkyard is a drive-thru. However, there are more different drive-thrus than just this one. There is the gas station, which instantly refills your boost, the repair station, which repairs your car, and the paint shop, which puts a shiny coat of random paint on your car. The former two are incredibly useful in challenges. The repair station resets your crash count during Marked Man and Road Rage events so that you can continue the challenge. These stations can be used at any time and quickly become invaluable.

While playing Paradise, you may notice billboards, lighted street cones, and yellow gates. These are collection challenges, smash through all of the 120 billboards and get a new car. Same goes for the lighted street cone jumps, and smashing through all of the yellow “smash” gates. The billboard and gate collection will be ignored by many players, but to well reward players who take the time to complete them.

Another important aspect of this game is multiplayer. So important, in fact, that Criterion included an in game multiplayer menu that is activated by pressing right on the d-pad. The idea is that you enter a lobby without loosing any play time. The lobby is just the map, and this is called Freeburn. Drive around with friends and take them down. Start a point to point race with them. Do some incredible stunts together. Or, even compete to see who is the best by using the top right of the screen to see who holds a certain record in eight different areas. Eight players can join a Freeburn at any time, even during a race or challenge. The bulk of your time in Freeburn will be spent completing different Freeburn Challenges, which can be competitive or co-operative. An example of one of the challenges might be, “All players get a double barrel roll on the beach front”. This creates an excellent sense of fun with only friendly competition. Sometimes, though, someone in your room will not want to do the challenge and do their own thing. If this happens, none of the challenges can be completed unless that player co-operates. This is a very major and unfortunate oversight, as it happens a lot, and there should at least be an option to do a challenge without that particular person.

Criterion has supported their game well since launch with a plethora of Auto Updates and, more notably, extra content that is free of cost. These large downloads can be found on the Xbox Live Marketplace and can be downloaded by silver members. Cagney, one of the updates, adds new Timed Freeburn Challenges, which force you to be quick. The biggest current update, Davis, adds motorcycles for the first time in Burnout history and a whole new bike career, which clocks in at under 6 hours. The bikes add a whole new feel to the Burnout series and are extremely well done. However, in multiplayer, bikes and cars don't mix, and it is either an all car room, or an all bike room. Another oversight is that bikes can't be used in online races (although there is still the new Freeburn Challenges). Also added in Davis is a 24 hour day-night cycle. The night feels too dark and for some reason, the light on your car/bike is the only one that projects onto the street. This means that street lights do not light the street and the AI cars don't have lights. This over darkness can be fixed by just ever so slightly raising the brightness and contrast on your TV set. Also added in Davis is an “almost” dynamic weather system, featuring varying levels of fog and cloudiness. All of these updates are welcome additions despite their flaws. Later in 2008, Criterion will release their Eastwood update, adding a whole new land mass in Paradise City and more for free. This review will be updated after it is released.

The Verdict:
Overall, Burnout Paradise is a very solid game with a few flaws. The open world game play is welcome with open arms, but the too-long career, and collection mini-game will stop many from completing this game. Criterion continues to update the game well after release and all of the updates are very solid and become an important selling point for this already amazing game. This game is certainly one that should be purchased rather than rented, due to its length and very fun and long lasting multiplayer. This game is easily one of the few must-have racing games on the Xbox 360 and for its selling price of $30 USD, it is a steal for its amazing bang to buck ratio.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/08, Updated 10/02/08

Game Release: Burnout Paradise (US, 01/22/08)