Last October saw the release of one of very few raceing titles on the Xbox 360 in 2007: Flatout Ultimate Carnage. While it was at the top of the pile for the arcade racers that year it was not available as a Playstation 3 title and failed to define itself as either an arcade or simulator style racer. This January has seen the release of Burnout Paradise, the latest in Criterion’s landmark franchise and the now-gen successor to the biggest arcade racer series of the last generation. Making its official now-gen arrival Paradise changes up many of the rules of play that Burnout fans have come to relish.
But do these changes redefine the Burnout experience or does it ultimately ruin it? Read on and find out…
Burnout Paradise is a large departure from its predecessors in many aspects of the game. Luckily Criterion has taken the time to make sure that it is a positive one. Previously a track-based level design, Paradise has become almost the exact opposite in design: a free-roaming environment that is completely open to the player from the very beginning. All a player really has to do is explore and find different events around the map with a diverse number of drivethrus, hidden arenas, jumps, and smash gates to find. Once an event is found the player simply presses both triggers on the controller to activate it making it a simple and easy approach. The only issue that can be spoken of is argueably the lack of a restart option, as the game has you drive back to the event’s starting point in order to retry it.
There is no shortage of events out there, as there are 120 available with only the traditional Burning Route challenges limiting you on their accessability to the car selection you have on hand. Another strong yet very interesting departure for the series is how one unlocks cars. Previously only earned by winning events in all the other iterations of the franchise, Paradise makes you work for them instead. Once a car is awarded to you, rather than immediately giving it to you the game has you track down the car and have you preform a Takedown on it which is very entertaining.
The multiplayer segment of the game is fantastic and is very refreshing this time around. Rather than going through a series of menus the game has instead opted to minimize this aspect. With a simple press of the d-pad you can instantly join up with friends online and set-up any event type you wish or even simply drive around the city exploring. Its incredibly intuitive and yet is complimented by its simplicity.
- Rating: 4.5 out of 5
The Burnout series has long held the mantle of being one of the best looking racers out there and Paradise is no exception. Watching cars crumple from an impact before your eyes is breathtaking and never gets old; you might find yourself going around and crashing into objects just to see how your car deforms. The game features a nice diverse set of environments to explore, though upon examination they aren’t as detailed as you’d expect. That is forgivable however given the sheer amount of land you can traverse. For a first shot at creating a sandbox environment Criterion certainly has done a very good job.
The audio portion is just as good as all the previous iterations of the series. That being said however that doesn’t mean that its as good as it could be. The voiceover character, “DJ Atomica,” serves only to annoy just like all the other games. The track listing for the series has improved but not by much as is relevant with the game’s use of unheardof bands and their even more forgetable songs. While there is a nice collection of remixes of various songs from the Burnout series the only enjoyable song to listen to comes in the form of the game’s mainstay: Paradise City by Guns and Roses. All I can say is thank goodness for custom soundtracks.
- Rating: 4 out of 5
Criterion has done it again, bringing us a solid experience that is not to be missed by racing game fans. With a ton of cars to unlock, miles of open (and hidden) road to explore, challenging achievements to unlock and a rigerously addictive multiplayer experience it’ll be hard to take this one off your shelf anytime soon. Now if they can just get to work on Black 2…
- Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Single and Multiplayer: 4.5
Technical Specs: 4
Overall and Replay Value: 4.5
Developer: Criterion
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-8
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February 29th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Burnout Paradise is the shit! :]