Burnout Paradise • Review
by: ~Samuel w.
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It should be no surprise to anyone now that whenever a developer talks about how their next game will feature “open-world gameplay”, the gaming public raises an eyebrow in unison. It is easily the most popular and trendy marketing term thrown around by developers these days and at this point, it’s no longer a legitimate selling point as it lacks originality. So when Criterion announced the next installment in the Burnout franchise would be featured in an open world for you to lay ruin to, it’s understandable how anyone would be more than a bit skeptical. Burnout up until now has been by and large a tightly structured racer, with enclosed circuits and a natural but largely sequential progression through the different ranks, so it’s easy to wonder how a formula that has worked well for the past four games could work in an open world, where the only limit is the car you’re driving. I’m here to tell you that within half an hour of starting your first car, that it is evident Criterion knew what they were doing and that Paradise has a lot more to offer than just high speed racing.
Easily the biggest new feature to come with Paradise is the city itself, which yes, includes the classic Guns’n’Roses song, as ‘Burnout: Jungle’ or ‘Burnout: November Rain’ just didn’t have as nice a ring to them. At first, Paradise City seems average enough, obscure landmarks to race to, jumps and shortcuts and of course, lots of traffic. But it isn’t until you begin to really explore and absorb Paradise’s City that you really get it; there is a lot of content in this city, ranging from the way the city plays to it’s aesthetics to it’s sense of scale. You feel like Criterion put a lot of effort into making Paradise not only play well, but feels good when playing in it, something that is oft not found in open world games. Something Criterion definitely put a lot of effort into was the aesthetic look of the city’s very distinct districts, all of which harken back to previous Burnout games, with ‘Downtown Paradise’ having the same grungy atmosphere of Burnout Revenge while ‘Silver Lake’s’ resort, alpine setting was clearly take from Burnout 3. And while lots of Paradise is derived from it’s predecessors, lots of Paradise City feels new and fresh while still retaining that Burnout look, like the tropical ‘Palm Bay Heights’ or the nautical, industrial feel of ‘Harbor Town’.
But Paradise City isn’t just a pretty setting to drive around in, there’s lots to do in it, and please let me emphasize the word “lots”, Paradise is packed to the brim with content, ranging from your basic racing game staples like ‘Race’ and ‘Time Trial’, to the more obscure race types that make good use of the open endedness of the world like ‘Stunt Run’ and‘Showtime’. Speaking of the obscure, Burnout’s staple ‘Crash’ mode is nowhere to be found in Paradise, instead is a mode that can only be described as car crash pinball, called ‘Showtime’. At any time in the game, you can press both the Right and Left Bumpers (R1 + R2 on PS3) to execute Showtime, this immediately takes you out of whatever event you were just in, if any, and puts you into a mode where your car is essentially made of rubber and where the traffic becomes your target. You’re asked to create as much damage as possible by crashing into cars with your own, propelling your vehicle by pressing the A (X on PS3) button to bounce; which essentially uses your boost meter and is only refilled by crashing into more cars. The ultimate end goal is to rack up as much money in damages as possible, with larger vehicles being worth more and buses giving you multipliers. You can literally go on forever with this and bankrupt the city of Paradise 5x’s over, if the right amount of traffic is available that is,and that is where ‘Showtime’ really shines, in the crazy amount of damage that you can unleash. And while ‘Crash’ mode really has no true substitute, it wouldn’t have worked in the open ended world of Paradise and thus ‘Showtime’ is if anything, a welcome and extremely fun mode that makes good use of the world it takes place in.
‘Showtime’ ultimately ties into one of the new and completely underutilized, understated features of Paradise, which are the Road Rules. Every road in the city has two things tied to it, a time and a dollar amount, both of which can be beaten. The time signifies a time trial for that specific road, which can be challenged and beaten by driving your car to the beginning of that road and driving from one end to the other. The dollar amount is in regards to the above mentioned ‘Showtime’, where you are tasked with creating enough damage to top that specific road’s dollar amount, which actually means you only need to start on the road, as you can finish anywhere you please, making the ‘Showtime’ Road Rules much easier. Once one is beaten the road sign which is displayed at the top of your screen, will turn silver, and once both are beaten, it turns gold. This becomes very important later in the game, as the only way to unlock 3 of the achievements (In the 360 version only, naturally) is to Gold every road in the game. It’s sad this mode didn’t have the attention or emphasis it deserved though, as it is very addictive to try and beat every Road Rule, if for nothing else, to see the entire map filled with gold signs.
Something Criterion was putting great emphasis on however, was the lack of in-game menus, which in turn trickled down to how you take on events. Instead of pulling up a menu to then access an event from, Criterion has you pulling up to intersections and then pressing both the Right and Left triggers which will then activate that given race, which is distinctly marked on your mini-map with it’s own color and icon for whatever event type it may be, so all you completionists out there can easily hunt down every ‘Race’ or ‘Road Rage’ to finish them all. While you’d assume this would be more of a hassle than anything else and ultimately impedes progress, it works surprisingly well and while restarts are not available, you soon take an add approach to the game, taking the nearest race if failing the last one, instead of going back to try again, eventually getting to it again later. The lack of restarts only becomes a nuisance at the very beginning and at the very end of the game where you are working towards your final license by having to complete every last challenge; this can be a problem if you fail a specific race, especially when you have 10 or so to go. But for the most part, it works well and it feels very natural.
The lack of separate menu screens also translates into Paradise’s online, which is by far one of the smoothest systems I’ve come across in a game to date. To get online, all you have to do is press Right on the D-Pad which will bring up a small menu on the bottom left of your screen, giving you the option to join already in-progress games, make your own and or invite your friend’s. When getting online, which is as easy as pressing Right on the D-Pad, you are presented with about a second of hesitation on the screen which is then immediately followed by a message telling you that you are online. There are no load screens whatsoever and everything is done within the matter of seconds, all in the current game you are in, even taking into account your car, as you will continue to go forward if you were prior to getting online. This feature, simply put, is revolutionary and extremely smooth, making past online enabled Burnout games feel old and archaic. Expect this feature to be a staple in future Burnout games, as it has completely changed the formula for online play.
Something that is also sure to be a staple in future Burnout games as well as Paradise’s upcoming DLC, is the inclusion of Online Challenges. These group-focused games have a party of 2, all the way up to 8, participating in many different tasks, whether it’s having a single member do a barrel roll over everyone else or racking up a specific amount of hang-time as a group. The variety of the challenges is both a strength and a weakness, as some challenges feel more thought out than others. Good examples of this are the far too many meet-up challenges, asking the entire party to meet up at one of the 8 different landmarks scattered throughout the city. These serve little purpose, as the only thing you can do after completing them is start a new challenge. Whenever you and your party are not partaking in challenges, there is a constantly updated ticker at the top of your screen, displaying the party’s stats, boost chains, drifts, etc, giving you the incentive to beat out your friend’s longest on-coming time. This really adds to the competitive nature of online and often can be the entire focus of a night in Paradise, with the party just going back and forth, trying to beat out the previously best scores. Other than small quirks, the online system is a lot of fun and very addictive and while the only real mode you can partake in other than the challenges is a ‘Race’, the upcoming ‘Cagney’ update will add ‘Stunt-Run, Marked Man and Road Rage’ to the online roster, filling it out and making the game’s online experience all the more better.
But Paradise doesn’t just play great or feel great, it looks and sounds top-notch. Obviously, being a game about racing, wrecks are inevitable, so it’s probably a good thing they look so damn good. Head-on collisions with concrete walls cause your car to behave the way you’d expect a car to behave at 200MPH, with almost the entire front half of the car being engulfed by the back half, while metal and glass shoot out from all sides. It’s hard to describe crashes in any more detail, as they can only be truly appreciated when seen, but put simply, if Criterion could talk about it’s shooter B.L.A.C.K.’s guns as “gun porn”, Paradise is by all means “car porn”, as every bone jarring crash, flip and smash is sexier than the last, even in the behemoth 4×4 truck that you later unlock. And while the wrecks are the real showstopper, the world itself looks very good, with every environment feeling crisp and very atmospheric. Every district feels connected but distinct, letting the player know exactly where they are at that given time. What about the cars you ask? They look absolutely beautiful, especially under the right lighting conditions, as they reflect real-time lighting conditions as well as surroundings. In fact, one of the first cars you start out with is so photo-realistic when you first unlock it, I was really unsure what Criterion had done and if this was a game at all. The cars probably look so photo-realistic because of the great lighting in the game, which is appropriately over the top and contrasting, with lots of bloom effects washing out the game just enough. By and large, Paradise is one of the best looking racing games out there and in some cases, looks more like a movie or TV show than a racing game.
Not forgetting sound, Paradise sounds just as great as it looks. On my 5.1, the entire game was extremely intense, with every passing car causing the rear channels to whoosh as my car topped 200MPH, in large part because of the boost, which sounds more like a jet engine is taking off in your living room than the small stream of fire coming from the back of your car. Wrecks were ear-piercingly realistic, with the sounds of scraping metal and shattering glass controlling the air when you landed a barrel roll wrong. Unfortunately though, the music in Paradise doesn’t hold up quite as well as the sound effects. Most of the music is alright, with certain songs feeling somewhat out of place but slightly appropriate. There are a lot of good classic Burnout themes in here, most of which have been remixed, but for the most part, the licensed music is pretty mediocre. And then there’s ‘Girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne. Now apparently, she signed a deal with EA, as her horrendous contribution to humanity has now been published in two different Burnout games and apparently other EA titles. You can of course turn off any song in the menu, but that really is beyond the point, ‘Girlfriend’ is in a Burnout game, no, two Burnout games! I think that sums up the problem nicely enough. Maybe I’m just bitter, maybe I have too much hatred in the cold, dark vessel that is my heart, but EA is not doing itself any favors by putting that… thing, into its games.
All bitterness towards Avril Lavigne aside, Burnout Paradise is an excellent, excellent, excellent racer, it perfects the subgenre it forged for itself on the PS2 and somehow finds the time and means to polish it even more with upcoming updates that will include new entire districts, online modes and challenges, new vehicle types like the SUV and motorcycle, a night-cycle now and definitely more as Criterion has said they will be continuously updating this game for over a year. While it has a few problems here and there, it easily overcomes them with its sheer amount of content and no matter how you look at it, Paradise is a must-own for any racing fan. And if you’ve never played a racing game, or more specifically a Burnout game, you couldn’t pick a better time to jump in than now.
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