Burnout: Paradise
Summary: A fun game with a new method of getting into the chaos and mayhem. Incredible graphics. First console that I can remember that legitimately has a ‘live team’. Frustration at later stages lowers the overall fun level a bit.
If you aren’t familiar with the Burnout franchise, here’s the scoop. There are fictitious cars that somewhat resemble real cars. You race them, crash them, and create general mayhem for fun and profit. Repeat until your eyes are crossed.
It’s an arcade racer, arguably one of the better out there. One huge difference between this version of Burnout and prior iterations in the series is the method by which you start the mayhem. Rather than selecting specific scenarios from a map, you drive around the city. You can free roam as much as you like, and not even do any events. When you are ready to do an event, you pull up to an intersection - almost every intersection has an associated event - and you spin your tires to start. It’s the Grand Theft Auto effect on gaming, an attempt to give you a sandbox rather than a list of places to play.
At first, I was a little taken aback by this method. It takes some getting used to in this format. The first thing you have to remove from your mind is… you aren’t going to be able to repeat failed races easily. You’ll lose a race or a takedown, and … you’ll be halfway across the city. Your best bet is to head to the nearest intersection and start a different event. For those of us used to racing a map until muscle memory takes over, this means it takes a lot longer for muscle memory to take over. But because the events all occur in the city, eventually you’ll find yourself knowing where to go and what to do just because you know the city better.
There are plenty of things to do. There are race events, of course, but I’ve always been partial to road rage events in Burnout. It’s kind of like a race except you get points for making your opponents crash their cars. It cannot be understated how truly awesome some of the crashes are in high definition. Cars deform and shatter in slow motion. Even when you crash… or perhaps especially… it is something to behold.
There are also stunt events, marked man events where you try to reach the finish line with everyone else gunning for you, and specific burning routes for specific cars - get from here to there in the specified amount of time to win.
Additionally, this game has one of the most active online communities I’ve seen. It is helped by the fact that they have a legitimate ‘live team’, making updates, improvements and event content patches after release. Recently, they patched in motorcycles. The developer clearly didn’t ship and forget about this game.
But let’s go back to the burning routes as I get into the ‘bad things’. Here’s where the frustration starts to set in. If you win the burning route, you get an upgrade version of the car you are racing with. But remember, it’s not possible to restart the event you just tried without… driving back. At first, this is okay, because as you drive through the city you discover other things and the collector in your brain is perfectly happy. Toward the end, when you’ve seen the city and you just want your upgraded car please and thanks, this gets very annoying.
And as you play, you’ll notice other things that are bothersome. Those nice little cutaways for a high definition crash are great the first 100 times, but after a while, when it cuts away to show you a crash and then it pops back to your perspective and you are going down the wrong road in a race because control of your car was taken away from you, it’s difficult not to hurl the controller. Additionally, sometimes the same exact impact either is a crash or isn’t, and who knows why. I’ve hit things dead on and had no crash. Just bounced off to the side and continued on my way. Go figure.
These are, of course, nits, and I pick at them because that’s who I am. Burnout: Paradise is a fantastic arcade game, well worth at least a rental. Just put it away before you go into an ACTUAL road rage when the frustration sets in.
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