Burnout Paradise

Burnout 3: Takedown was the defining moment for the Burnout series and will be immortalized forever as one of the fastest racers on the PS2/Xbox. Cashing in on the success of Takedown, developer Criterion released Burnout Revenge within just a year but it was packed with tons of new gameplay mechanics like Revenge Takedowns, Vertical takedowns, and my personal favorite, Traffic Checking.

Revenge was well received by gamers worldwide but there were tons of people out there who did not like the game simply because they felt Traffic Checking (which lets players ram traffic traveling in the same direction) diluted the sense of danger created by weaving in and out of traffic at breakneck speed. Besides that, the Crash mode wasn’t all that hot since players had to indulge in a crappy little mini-game at the start to perform well. Luckily, the Xbox360 version of Revenge managed to sort that issue out.

Even though Burnout Revenge for the Xbox 360 looked mind-numbingly gorgeous running in HD, it still was a port at the end of the day. Luckily, Criterion was already working on a brand new next-gen version of this series, and this time they were planning on going the Midnight Club way – which meant dropping players in a free roaming city allowing them to do whatever their heart desired. Add in the ludicrous sense of speed synonymous with Burnout games and you have one awesome game… on paper! Unfortunately in practice, it’s not all that perfect. Welcome to Paradise City!

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Don’t get me wrong though; Burnout Paradise isn’t a bad game. Sure it isn’t the authentic Burnout experience all of us had hoped for – and to be brutally honest, I kinda hated it for the first hour or so. But once you get used to the new mechanics, you won’t complain – it’s smooth sailing all the way.

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As Criterion’s Alex Ward once said, Paradise is the reinvention of the Burnout series. Keeping that in mind, players now have an expansive city to roam around in. But an open world comes with its own issues, the first being navigation. Now I’m down with the whole free-roaming concept but in a game like Burnout where speed is king, constantly having to pay attention to an annoying navigation system while you’re bent on obliterating your foes can get a bit annoying.

Yes, there is a mini map at the bottom right of the screen and yes, there’s a compass on top as well that tells you when to turn. But while tearing down the streets at over 500,000,00 MPH, you do tend to overshoot certain turns, and in Paradise a single wrong turn could spell doom. Since this is an open world format we’re dealing with, there isn’t any form of a retry option, so as and when you do fail a race (which you will… a lot), you’ll have to go all the way back to the street from where you started.

Please, why should I go back to a particular street, you ask? Well, simply because in Burnout Paradise events are scattered at every intersection and can be triggered (pun intended) by simply pulling up to a signal and pressing both the Left and the Right triggers (LT + RT).

Speaking of events, you’ll have tons to choose from in Paradise, some of which are old while some are brand new. As far as recurring events are concerned, you have your Races, Burning Routes (timed races that require specific cars) and Road Rage events. The entire city is open for Road Rage events as well, so you can just about go anywhere in the city taking an endlessly spawning barrage of opponents down.

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Most of you will be saddened to hear that there are no more Crash junctions in Paradise; instead you have something called Showtime, a mode that can be triggered off at any given time during the game. Simply press down on both bumpers (LB + RB) to activate this mode in which your car can be bounced across an entire road to cause some serious damage.

The more crashes you cause, the more boost your wreck earns allowing you to make it jump even further. If handled skillfully, you can go through entire streets in Showtime racking up an impressive score. Unfortunately none of this gets attributed to your single player progress, so at the end of the day there’s really no need to indulge in this mode except for sh*ts and giggles.

Another new mode introduced in Paradise is Marked Man where (as the name suggests) you’ll be chased from point A to point B by re-spawning black cars (sedans?) and your goal is to simply make it to point B without totaling your car. Trust me, it’s not as easy as it sounds. When you find yourself on the brink of death, look for the nearest Repair Shop and by simply driving through them, you’ll be able to repair your car entirely. Similarly, home in on a Gas Station and drive through to refill your supply of boost momentarily. Don’t like the way your car’s painted? Simply drive though the Paint Shop for a snazzy new exterior.

Finally, you have Stunt Runs where you’re supposed to rack up a certain score in a stipulated time by pulling off various stunts like jumps, barrel rolls, and smashing through billboards. Besides all this, you can simply drive around the city smashing billboards, super jumping all over the pace and, of course, indulging in some Showtime.

The more you play, the better cars you’ll have access to. At the same time, you’ll have tons of new cars roaming around Paradise City which if taken down get delivered to your junkyard. It’s an awesome concept that actually makes you feel as if you’ve earned the vehicle rather than just inherited it for leveling up.

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When you get bored of racing around Paradise City by yourself you can take your ride online in what I can only describe as the most seamless system ever devised. While connected to Xbox Live simply press right on the D-pad to enter someone’s game without booting out of your current game. From then on, you can take part in races, challenges or just take other random people down.

If you (or any of the players you’re playing against) have an Xbox Live Vision cam, the game will actually take a screenshot of your opponent once you take him down, and hand it over to you as a trophy of sorts. Not many of us do have these cams but if you ask me it’s still fun to watch someone’s bewildered face as and when you take him/her out.

On the visual front, Paradise delivers… and how! Its new deformation engine is perhaps the best representation of car carnage seen in any game till date and there’s no way you aren’t going to cringe watching your ride get mangled and mutilated in hi-def. The city is gorgeously detailed and, as always, the game runs at a smooth 60 FPS no matter what’s happening on screen. As expected, it shines on the audio front too. If you’re one of the fortunate few who can afford a killer sound system, this game will bring you to your knees.

The OST, however, is a bit of a letdown with songs from previous Burnout games forming the bulk of the soundtrack, in addition to some crummy punk rock tunes. It’s not easy to take this lying down; I feel Criterion just got mega lazy in that department. Luckily, Xbox360 owners can upload some of their own custom tracks into the game, while PS3 owners can’t.

Remember the suicide inducing DJ from Burnout: Takedown? Well, he’s been replaced by another annoying little bitch who goes by the name of DJ Atomica who – whether you like it or not – will share his pearls of wisdom with you regularly. Oh, and fortunately you can turn him off by simply choosing to keep the Tips off (from the main menu).

Burnout Paradise evokes mixed emotions. On the one hand the game isn’t as simple as Revenge, which means you can’t just pick up and play; you’ll have to spend some time understanding the new navigation system and learning the layout of the city. I’m also pretty disappointed with the anal navigation system, and the omission of Traffic Checking, Crash, Aftertouch, and Crashbreakers.

On the other hand, it’s a free-roaming Burnout game with plenty of stuff to do, so if you can cope with its moderate learning curve, you will learn to love it for what it is. Add to that drop-dead gorgeous visuals, insane car deformation, and seamless online integration, and you have something that may well keep you busy for months on end!