GST: Burnout Paradise Review

It’s time for GST’s very first racing game review.  Burnout Paradise came out early last year, and has been growing through DLC ever since.  You can pick it up for around $15-$20.  Is it worth it?  Let’s See!

The Burnout series has always been known for its unlicensed vehicles and over the top crashes.  As exciting as that may be  I can safely say that this is my first Burnout game and the first arcade style  racer outside of Mario Kart I have dumped dozens of hours into since Crusin’ USA on the N64.  So, for all intents and purposes, let’s call me a n00b.  I was able to pick up BP at Toys R’ Us for $10.  The price, the high review scores, and the promise of being able to drive a Delorean, were the real contributing factors in my purchase, but we will get to the special cars in a minute.

Burnout takes a unique stance on the open world concept.  Rather than having set “tracks” to race on, Paradise gives you an open city that has designated races at nearly every intersection.  These races carry different themes, like “Marked Man” (all drivers are trying to take you out), “Road Rage” (all drivers try to take out each other and try a reach take down goals), “Stunt Run” (players build point totals up via stunts to meet a target goal), and “Race” (traditional point A to point B races), but the trick is that it is up to the driver to decide what the fastest route through the city will be.

The more you race the more routes you use and get used to.  The race structure is a welcomed departure from the set tracks found in other games.  Also, with every intersection having a race, there are literally hundreds of things to do.

There’s a crash mode called “Showtime” and in it you work to make as much damage as possible.  This is done by intentionally initiating a barrel roll and it allows the player to control the barrel roll.  Showtime mode adds a little more chaos to the game but the real draw for Burnout Paradise is its online play.

The online functions of Burnout are firmly attached to every gameplay feature in addition to hundreds of online specific group challenges.  Voice chat is a must on most of the events, but the quality and volume of the challenges has hundereds of players online racing with others 24 hours a day, even on PSN.  No matter what the gameplay type, I was always able to find or create a game that was doing exactly what I wanted to do, and the curse of online idiots is not as bad on Burnout as I have found on other games.

The game looks great and the sense of speed is insane.  I found myself speeding so fast through areas of Paradise City, that when I hit something I would physically jump as if I was watching a horror movie.  The soundtrack is half good and half classical.  I don’t understand the inclusion of classical, but the game does support custom soundtracks, making this a non-issue.  Most importantly Burnout Paradise makes driving fun.  Every aspect of the game is fun and the online play creates a nearly infinite amount of replay value.

The good thing about arcade style racers are that anyone can pick one up and drive.  You don’t have the sensitivity of a realistic racer like Forza or Gran Turismo, instead you have an accessible racer that bends the laws of physics and reality like any other type of video game.

In addition to the benefits of the on disc content, Criterion has been adding content to Burnout Paradise for almost two years.  The first few download packs were free and they were pretty substantial.  Everything from physics improvements, to adding a night option, to adding a restart option (due to fan demand) Criterion showed that they are commited to supporting the fans of their games.

The biggest free add on was the bikes pack.  The bikes pack is an all new set of on and off line challenges centered around previously unavailable motorcycles.  This mode is huge, but I can’t halp but feel underwhelmed by the inability to race both cars and bikes together.

Other downloadable packs include toy cars, cops and robbers, party, boost special cars and legendary cars.  The toy cars are just that, toys.  They don’t really add anything game changing, but the novelty is worth the two bucks per car. Cops and Robbers is an online mode that is almost like capture the flag, except you have gold bars instead of flags.

Party is the only pack that seems like a cheap add-on that should have been included in the initial retail package.  As it stands BP has no local multiplayer, but the Party pack gives you a turn based local multiplayer mode.  In my opinion this mode should have been free and some sort of split screen should have been available.  Boost special cars are cars with special boosts (there’s not much more to say about them).

The legendary cars pack is my personal favorite, since it allows the player to race with 4 “legendary cars”.  None of them bare the names of the cars they are based on, but its obvious what they are.  The Delorean, the General Lee, Kitt, and Ecto 1 are all in the pack and the Doloreon not only hovers but also leaves fire trails when boost is used.

The only download I haven’t mentioned is Big Surf Island.  Its an all new portion of the map to race on and it was built around the idea that everything should be bigger, faster, and much more insane than the standard Paradise city map.  It succeeds.  This island adds several ramps that are bigger than anything found on the default island and added even more on and off line challenges.

Overall I have dumped 50+ hours into Burnout and I don’t think I will be stopping anytime soon.  You can pick up Burnout Paradise for about $15 and I suggest you do so immediately.

[5/5 Stars]