Paradise is Criterion Games’ latest installment in their Burnout franchise. 1diggNow of course my expectations were ridiculously high, but mainly because the theme song is by Guns ‘N’ Roses… oh, and also because I’m a huge fan of the Burnout franchise. Apparently the game also has loads of new features, such as sandbox gameplay and new ways to play online. So did it live up to the hype surrounding it?
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As I said in my Ridge Racer 7 review, I’m not a fan of Arcade Racers so it’s easy to imagine that I wouldn’t enjoy this Burnout Paradise either. Well, prepare to be shocked… I like this game a lot. Yes, you can power slide at full speed, and yes, you can accelerate quicker than a Grand Piano falling off a cliff. But the vehicles themselves handle similar to how they would handle in real life, and you’ll notice differences in each car. We’re not talking Gran Turismo-like realism here, but it was more than enough to impress me. An almost perfect blend of arcade craziness and real world physics, make this game accessible to many more people than a Racing Simulation would.
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To put it simply, there’s lots of variety in Burnout Paradise. There are 75 different cars to choose from, and each car drives differently to all of the others. Every car is either a Stunt car, a Speed car or an Aggressive car which adds a level of strategy to what car you pick for each event. Speaking of events, there’s quite a few choices. There’s Races which are like… races, Stunt Run which involves you performing cool tricks such as Barrel Rolls (LOLZ!) and Flat Spins to get points, and Marked Man which has several other opponents trying to stop you from reaching your destination by ramming you off the road. There’s also my favourite event, Road Rage, where you basically have to ram other opponents off the road to score Take Downs. All of the events offer a wide spectrum of ways to play, and enjoy the game.
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As most of you may know, Burnout Paradise is the first Burnout game to have an open world environment to drive around in. This gives you the opportunity to just drive around at your own leisure without having the pressure of actually being good at it. This also means you have the chance to find your own route to use when in Race events, which at first seems really hard because if you keep looking at the mini-map to check where you’re going, it usually results in crashing head-on into an unsuspecting motorist. But the more you play, the more you learn which way you are going. Your progress in the game will be determined by how well you know your way around the city. This may put you off because you don’t want to invest the time, so I suppose it would have been nice if the developers had included some sort of GPS system to help you, but you shouldn’t let that put you off.
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Where this game really shines is in its online gameplay. Say you’re just cruising along in your car and you wish to go online, well all you have to do is tap right on the D-Pad which takes you into the Easy Drive menu then you just select Free Burn Online. This automatically connects you with several other drivers, where you can just cruise along together, or smash into each other. In addition to that, the host can set up online events and Free Burn challenges where you have to work together to complete a task. Overall, Burnout handles online really well which has helped it build up a large community of players so it’s easy to find a game.
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The ‘Delorian’ from the Back to the Future movies is available for paid download in Burnout Paradise… it’s sure to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. Wait, 1.21 gigawatts? 1.21 GIGAWATTS? GREAT SCOTT!
Even though the game is over a year old, there are still updates and add-ons being released to improve the game often. These range from the inclusion of bikes, new cars, trophy support, new areas to explore and new game modes. This helps to give the game lots of replay value and always keeps you waiting to see what the developers are going to do next. Criterion have done a great job of keeping this game alive.
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The bottom line is that Burnout Paradise is almost without fault, and is definitely a worthy entry into the Burnout franchise. It’s probably the best in the series since Burnout 3: Takedown. I find it hard to know how Criterion Games could possibly make a sequel to this masterpiece. There’s almost nothing to improve on…
I give Burnout Paradise… 5 Crashes out of 5!
by Orlando Perry at Jamaica Tube Tv and Jamaica Tube
