Revenge is Sweet

Game franchises typically don’t undergo revolutions. Once a formula has been created with an original title, any subsequent entries in the new franchise are typically updates and tweaks to the same underlying gameplay model. Criterion, on the other hand, has built the Burnout franchise up from just another arcade racer to one of the top names in the genre by flat-out ignoring this convention. They single-handedly turned crashing from an event to avoid to an experience to be cherished in Point of Impact, before reinvigorating the arcade racing genre with Takedown and its perfect blend of high-speed adrenaline and cathartic aggression.

Now charged with the task of outdoing what many consider to be the best arcade racer of all time, Criterion has delivered a more conventional sequel, an evolution of Burnout 3: Takedown in the form of Burnout Revenge that adds several new elements but fails to redefine the franchise in the same way as its immediate predecessors. Of course, when you create a conventional sequel to an unconventional franchise, the end result is still one hell of a ride, and for what Burnout Revenge sets out to do, it does an excellent job.

Gameplay:

The game earns its namesake through the introduction of the Revenge system, which permeates various facets of the experience, from elements of the actual in-race gameplay to the means of progression through the single-player campaign. Beginning with the latter, Burnout Revenge ditches the wide-open world-map and collect-a-thon setup of its predecessor in favor of a slightly more linear point-based system governed by the new Revenge Meter. Divided into 11 rankings ranging from the initial ‘harmless’ standing to ‘elite’, the player’s position on the Revenge meter determines which ‘race areas’ are available for them to enter. Each area contains a number of events, some of which will be open from the moment the player reaches the corresponding ranking, and others which can be unlocked through placing in events within the same section. It takes more than a medal in every race to move up the Revenge meter and access new race areas however, as destruction has graduated past its place as a means to an end in Burnout 3, and become an end in and of itself.

Players are judged on their driving through each event, with each aggressive maneuver earning points toward an event score out of five stars. Powersliding, extended bouts of boosting, near misses, catching air, ramming cars, takedowns and the like all go towards boosting your score from the initial 1-star ‘OK’ ranking, up to the final 4-star ‘Awesome’ standing, with your progress through the stages indicated via a meter on the bottom right side of the screen. Taking first place adds a star to your ranking, bringing an ‘Awesome’ score up to ‘Perfect’, a second place finish leaves your star tally untouched, and just getting through gets a star deducted. Obtaining a set amount of stars will fill the Revenge meter and increase the player’s Revenge ranking, opening up more venues in which to run rampant. Of course, previous venues remain open after a new Revenge ranking has been reached, so players are free to return to past events and re-play them in order to earn that last pesky star. The new system still allows player the freedom to progress through the game without acing every event, while at the same time providing a greater sense of progression and direction than the world-map model of the last game. The only real knock against the new model is that the menu system becomes a chore to wade through, as instead of one giant world-map to navigate, you have about six different screens just to get from the main menu to a race. If you’re like me and bounce around from area to area looking for your favorite type of event, the problem is only exacerbated and gets to be somewhat annoying.



There's nothing like obliterating a $250,000 car at dusk.

The most obvious in-game manifestation of the Revenge system are the rival mechanics, which designate the perpetrator of a takedown as rival to the victim and highlights the assailant vehicle (just look for the bright red arrow) in efforts to facilitate the obvious course of action - payback. A fully-powered boost bar serves as strong incentive to seek retribution, one which motivates the CPU competitors as well as it does humans. Players engaged in an active rivalry can expect to find themselves involved in a constant war of wills and grinding metal with an incredibly pissed off AI opponent that demonstrates powerful levels of hostility and resolve. Those traits are hardly exclusive to rivals of course, simply amplified for the sake of increasing the intensity of the personal inter-race battle. As a rule though, all of the CPU challengers in Burnout Revenge, rival or not, exhibit far more aggressive behavior than was ever seen in the last game.

They’re not only more dangerous, they’re also a hell of a lot more difficult to take down using the trusty shunting, slamming, and grinding methods. Despite their speed and appearance, the cars in Burnout Revenge feel heavier and harder to push around. Whereas giving an adversary a high-speed nudge toward the barrier was once sufficient for a successful, no-frills takedown, players will find that subduing this new breed via the traditional methods will generally take multiple attempts and a lot of work, making each old-fashioned takedown even more satisfying than they were in the past. Thankfully for those who had enough difficulty utilizing such techniques against the fragile opponents of Burnout 3, Burnout Revenge comes equipped with a new method for spreading paintjobs across the concrete. Traffic checking is undoubtedly the biggest addition Burnout Revenge brings to the table and any given person’s enjoyment of the game will largely depend on their feelings toward this new mechanic above all else.