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September 18, 2004 | 4:12 PM PST
by: Sascha Lichtenstein
While there will be plenty of excuses for hyperbolic melodrama later on, lets cut straight to the heart of this review - Burnout 3: Takedown is unequivocally the best arcade racer of all time, and a piece of software that no gamer, fan of the genre or not, should go without playing. That may be a bold statement, but it is one that I am willing to stand by; measured against every objective technical criteria pertaining to concept and execution, Burnout 3 is simply untouched in terms of overall quality. Tearing the racing formula down to its adrenaline-drenched foundations, the developers at Criterion Games have rebuilt the racing experience as a wonderfully-balanced ballet of ludicrous speed, unbridled aggression, and destructive force – each element beautifully playing off the other in one of the most elegantly straightforward, yet deceptively intricate design paradigms ever envisioned. After years of witnessing the racing genre slowly degenerate into a parody of itself, a contest between developers to see who could license the most inane crap to stick in their particular game, Burnout 3 comes not as a breath of fresh air, but a high pressure blast to the face.
Gameplay and Controls
Burnout 3: Takedown introduces an array of new features and gameplay into the Burnout franchise, but the essential gameplay mechanic that ties all of the intricacies of the system together is still the boost meter, returning from the previous two iterations of the series and operating in primarily the same fashion. Players begin each race with an empty boost bar that slowly fills as players partake in reckless driving. The amount of boost players are rewarded with increases when the player combines many facets of dangerous driving into one all-encompassing automotive maneuver, or executes a string of individual acts. Such maneuvers include driving on the wrong side of the road, cutting close to other drivers, power sliding, etc. Consistent use of dangerous driving techniques can allow the player to keep the boost meter from hitting empty - thus enabling them to take the entire track at an insane level of speed. While this seems easy enough at the onset, as the player unlocks faster classes of cars, the speed at which the player navigates the game’s incredibly populated tracks increases, demanding faster reaction time and constant analysis of the nature of the immediate environment.
Thankfully, surviving the onslaught of civilian traffic and vindictive competitors is facilitated by flawlessly responsive controls. Each car comes with a convincing sense of weight and create that intangible ‘feel’ which allows players to accurately predict what their vehicle will do in response to a specific controller input – a connection to the game that becomes ridiculously important under situations where things are occurring on screen far too fast for conscious thought. Utilizing an intuitive control scheme that necessitates the use of very few buttons at once, it takes little more than 10 minutes of play before the controller seems to evaporate, leaving nothing but a direct link between the player’s mind and the vehicle onscreen. In simplest terms, any of the damage incurred on the player’s vehicle(s) over the course of playing Burnout 3: Takedown is a result of the player’s own mishandling, not faulty controls.
Takedowns
Burnout 3: Takedown takes the series’ trademark concept of encouraging irresponsible driving to the next level through the introduction of the Takedown system. Aggressive actions such as slamming the side of the player car into one of the opponents, grinding the opposition against walls, and generally using your car as a battering ram fill the boost bar. Successfully causing one of the opponents to crash, or ‘Takedowns’ fills the player’s entire boost bar, and increases its size, up to four times the original size with each subsequent takedown. Those who find themselves on the receiving end of a takedown, or merely loose control of the car and crash themselves, loose one of the 3 added extensions they may have gained. As a result, the gameplay becomes even more hectic, as players are not only trying to narrowly avoid civilian traffic (sorry, no takedowns on innocents) in efforts to move as fast as possible, but trying to attack their competitors at the same time.
The intrinsic genius of the boost and takedown systems working in harmony cannot be fully understood until one has witnessed the gameplay unfold in front of them. The realization that the frantic pace and near-perfect balance of the game is an entirely logical by-product of the implementation of one seemingly simple gameplay concept is one of those moments where you just shake your head wondering why no one had thought of the idea long beforehand. Simply put, in order to win, competitors need to use the boost function and in order to do so, they must drive dangerously/aggressively to maintain some level of boost in their meter. Obviously, the more recklessly a player drives, the higher the chance is that they will screw up and crash – especially when they’re going at the obscene speeds that are standard for this game. Those crashes open up a huge window for other competitors to take a position ahead of the downed competitor, who has also just lost a piece of his or her boost meter. The constant give and take makes every race a white-knuckle affair, as the player will likely never be in a position where they can consider themselves safe. The simple trade-off between speed and security ensures that every race remains a tight affair between the entire field of competitors, without the use of rubber-banding, or otherwise unfair AI.
Gameplay and Controls
Burnout 3: Takedown introduces an array of new features and gameplay into the Burnout franchise, but the essential gameplay mechanic that ties all of the intricacies of the system together is still the boost meter, returning from the previous two iterations of the series and operating in primarily the same fashion. Players begin each race with an empty boost bar that slowly fills as players partake in reckless driving. The amount of boost players are rewarded with increases when the player combines many facets of dangerous driving into one all-encompassing automotive maneuver, or executes a string of individual acts. Such maneuvers include driving on the wrong side of the road, cutting close to other drivers, power sliding, etc. Consistent use of dangerous driving techniques can allow the player to keep the boost meter from hitting empty - thus enabling them to take the entire track at an insane level of speed. While this seems easy enough at the onset, as the player unlocks faster classes of cars, the speed at which the player navigates the game’s incredibly populated tracks increases, demanding faster reaction time and constant analysis of the nature of the immediate environment.
Thankfully, surviving the onslaught of civilian traffic and vindictive competitors is facilitated by flawlessly responsive controls. Each car comes with a convincing sense of weight and create that intangible ‘feel’ which allows players to accurately predict what their vehicle will do in response to a specific controller input – a connection to the game that becomes ridiculously important under situations where things are occurring on screen far too fast for conscious thought. Utilizing an intuitive control scheme that necessitates the use of very few buttons at once, it takes little more than 10 minutes of play before the controller seems to evaporate, leaving nothing but a direct link between the player’s mind and the vehicle onscreen. In simplest terms, any of the damage incurred on the player’s vehicle(s) over the course of playing Burnout 3: Takedown is a result of the player’s own mishandling, not faulty controls.
Takedowns
Burnout 3: Takedown takes the series’ trademark concept of encouraging irresponsible driving to the next level through the introduction of the Takedown system. Aggressive actions such as slamming the side of the player car into one of the opponents, grinding the opposition against walls, and generally using your car as a battering ram fill the boost bar. Successfully causing one of the opponents to crash, or ‘Takedowns’ fills the player’s entire boost bar, and increases its size, up to four times the original size with each subsequent takedown. Those who find themselves on the receiving end of a takedown, or merely loose control of the car and crash themselves, loose one of the 3 added extensions they may have gained. As a result, the gameplay becomes even more hectic, as players are not only trying to narrowly avoid civilian traffic (sorry, no takedowns on innocents) in efforts to move as fast as possible, but trying to attack their competitors at the same time.
The intrinsic genius of the boost and takedown systems working in harmony cannot be fully understood until one has witnessed the gameplay unfold in front of them. The realization that the frantic pace and near-perfect balance of the game is an entirely logical by-product of the implementation of one seemingly simple gameplay concept is one of those moments where you just shake your head wondering why no one had thought of the idea long beforehand. Simply put, in order to win, competitors need to use the boost function and in order to do so, they must drive dangerously/aggressively to maintain some level of boost in their meter. Obviously, the more recklessly a player drives, the higher the chance is that they will screw up and crash – especially when they’re going at the obscene speeds that are standard for this game. Those crashes open up a huge window for other competitors to take a position ahead of the downed competitor, who has also just lost a piece of his or her boost meter. The constant give and take makes every race a white-knuckle affair, as the player will likely never be in a position where they can consider themselves safe. The simple trade-off between speed and security ensures that every race remains a tight affair between the entire field of competitors, without the use of rubber-banding, or otherwise unfair AI.
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