by: Chris Vavra

August 28, 2009

The first Burnout games had been more dependent on an arcade, quick fix feel. With Burnout Paradise, EA set out to create a game that would remain true to the basic formula while at the same time create a world that could act as a constant continuum. That world is Paradise City. At first, this might seem strange that a game so dependent on chaos and destruction would be given boundaries that depend on order. That’s a valid point, but it isn’t a problem for EA and Criterion, the developer. They managed to beat the odds and create an immersive, satisfying experience. With one major exception, much of what you do to move forward in Burnout to being the ultimate driver will be familiar to veterans, but easy for newbies to pick up as well.

The concept of the game is simple: At just about every major street corner (120 in all) there will be a challenge waiting for you. Your job is to win challenges and upgrade your license until you reach Burnout status. There are several different kinds of challenges and they will test your skills and the cars you drive in a variety of different ways. You can also unlock certain cars by knocking them out on the road. You’ll know ahead of time and they’re pretty easy to spot. Just look for a car that drives like a deranged maniac.

The main challenges include Road Rage, which requires you to knock out a set amount of cars within a time limit; Marked Man is the reverse. You have to reach the destination with your car more or less intact. Stunt Run is what it sounds like. Find jumps, gates, barriers, and do crazy turns and boosts with your cars to get enough points within the time limit. Race, again, is what it sounds like. You will race against 1 to 7 cars to one of eight spots—all of which are in different compass spots—and get there first. Each car has a specific challenge that will allow you to upgrade to a better version of the car you currently have, provided you reach the destination in enough time. I was disappointed to see, however, that Crash Mode is more of a sideshow attraction. There aren’t any events for that. You can just create chaos and mayhem whenever you want. That’s nice, but I always appreciated the precision and timing of a good crash and I think there are some good locations throughout the city that would have been perfect for that mode.

As expected, the first few classes aren’t too difficult. Your opponents are often passive and easy to outmaneuver on the course. As you get closer and closer to your Burnout license, your opponents will be driving faster and heavier cars, depending on the circumstance, and Stunt Run will require you to know the layout of the city and use that to your advantage. The design is superb because it is easy to navigate on paper, but there are a lot of hidden pathways to find. There are 400 gates and 120 billboards to smash. Unlocking these will also help you open up the city in new ways and this can be helpful for races and Marked Man. In addition to navigating the city looking for challenges, there are repair shops, garages, paint shops, and refueling stations littered all over to give you an edge—or just look better—during an event.

Picking the right car will also play a factor, though not as significant as I would have liked. Out of the more than 60 cars you’ll be driving, they break down into one of three categories: Stunt, Speed, and Aggression, and your boost is amplified depending on how you drive pertaining to that car’s specialty. It’s a good system in theory, but the designers made Stunt the most favorable by far. Even in race mode, you can get by with a stunt car because they aren’t that much slower and making a hard turn will award you boost. Speed is the most challenging because you have to drive at breakneck speeds and try not to crash. Aggression can be advantageous, depending on the mode. An aggression car is useless in Stunt but valuable in everything else. Speed cars are good for races and even in Marked Man, depending on the situation, but average to lousy in the other two. Stunt has no particular weaknesses except for maybe Marked Man because those cars typically don’t have great bodies.

Online mode is another invaluable asset as it allows you to set up matches with friends or strangers and the transition is seamless. The interface could have been a little smoother, but once you figure it out it doesn’t take long for you to get out there and race against seven people or get into a contest over who can make the longest jump over a ramp.

The soundtrack has a wide variety of everything from current rock to classical music. Guns n’ Roses, of course, have the theme song with “Paradise City.” That gets old in a hurry and I’d rather listen to something else. Luckily, you can customize the playlist and you can play whatever you like. I, myself, like the classical music even if it’s just excerpts of great works by Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and so on. Among the modern runs quite a gamut through rock and all its variations. Soundgarden, Jimmy Eat World, Twisted Sister, Depeche Mode, and Avril Lavigne are among the notables. You will also receive help from DJ Atomika at various intervals. He gets really annoying really fast because a lot of his advice is irrelevant and his attempts to talk trash when you lose an event are laughable. Unlike the soundtrack, however, you can’t turn him off.

Burnout Paradise has already reached the Greatest Hits mark and for a price tag of under thirty bucks you’re getting a really deep, engaging title that manages to avoid repetition because the game has so much energy and so much to unlock. Won’t be long before you’ve logged 12 hours and you’ve only unlocked maybe 40-45% of everything. Some die-hard Burnout fans may be rankled by some of the changes and omissions, but a few hours in they’ll be knee-deep into the game on the edge of their seat as they make a last-ditch effort to beat an opponent with a quarter-mile to go. Paradise has that strange allure.

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For under thirty bucks (probably twenty at some places) you can't go wrong with Paradise, which has more than enough depth and excitement to please vets and newbies alike.

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