Review written by Playstation4.net staff member Jeff Cameron
The Burnout series has been around for a long time, and has earned itself a place in many racing fans’ collections, mostly due to its insane crashes and lightning fast speed.
I’m happy to announce that these qualities are still intact in this version, and the layout of the game has undergone a massive overhaul to ensure that Burnout Paradise will be played for years to come.
The main difference that gamers will notice right away is that the entire menu interface has been stripped away. Instead of selecting the type of race, and then choosing your car, you now begin the game driving around the large, seamless metropolis that is Paradise City.
Prepare to get to know Paradise City well, as you boost around the 250 miles within its’ borders, winning races, and crashing through objectives.
Every intersection within the city is the start of an event. The race events are straightforward, get from point A to point B on the map before the other racers. There is no “set path” for you to race here, you can literally take any path you choose to get there. This has its’ good and bad points, though. On the good side it allows for a ton of replayability as you can always find a shortcut, or a quicker route to finish first. On the negative side, if you try to follow the mini map included onscreen, you’ll most likely crash many times while trying to navigate. To be fair the game includes the name of the street that you’re currently on, as well as the upcoming intersections on the top of the screen. While you race the names of the intersections will begin to flash like turn signals to help you decide when to make a turn.
If you do crash a lot and throw the race (and you will at first) the race will continue until you cross the finish line. The strange thing is there’s no option to return to the starting intersection of that race. You literally have to drive all the way back to re-try it again. While this may upset some gamers, there are always other events such as Road Rage, and Stunt Challenges, that can be started within a few feet of where your last race ended.
Road Rage is basically the same as in previous Burnout titles, with the goal being to take out a set number of racers during the race, this is a fun mode, and adds even more intensity to the races.
The biggest change to the single player is that the Crash mode from the previous iterations is gone. Instead Paradise introduces Showtime mode. Showtime mode basically throws your car into a spinning, head over heels crash, where the goal is to rack up as many pints as you can by crashing into other vehicles. Each vehicle has a monetary value assigned to it, and some vehicles (such as buses) include multipliers. The best thing about this mode is your ability to launch into Showtime at any time you want, even in the middle of a race. This mode is obviously a lot of fun, and can turn a last place finish into a million point or more streak of carnage.
At any point in the game you can also turn on “road rules” which aside from tracking your best Showtime scores on each particular street, will also start a timer to track your fastest time down each street. This helps to provide a break from race events, and adds some competitiveness to see which of your friends can “own” each area of Paradise City.
There are upwards of 70 vehicles to unlock, ranging from cars that specialize in stunts, or aggressiveness. There’s also a new way of unlocking vehicles. When you’ve reached certain goals, a new vehicle will begin driving around the city, and it’s your job to find it and take it down. After you’ve destroyed it, it then shows up in the junkyard, which is the games version of your garage. Overall it’s a nice touch, that at the very least changes the old formula up a bit.
The multiplayer is now completely seamless as well. At any time you can click the directional pad and launch into “Freeburn”, or an online race. The cool thing is that nothing changes, you’ll still be driving down the same street, but suddenly there are up to 8 other players driving around the city as well.
The game packs in a ton of multiplayer challenges such as finding ways of jumping over each others’ cars. Completing all these challenges would take an insane amount of time, and is something few will accomplish.
Online races are set up the same as offline, this time the party leader picks the start and finish lines, and they also have the option of picking everyones car if they want. The races are still fast and frantic, and players will no doubt feel their stomachs bottom out when they take a wrong turn and blow the race.
The graphics in Burnout Paradise are superb, and you’ll never get sick of the sight of watching your car reduced to a twisted pile of metal after slamming into a wall. The vehicles all have a distinct look, and the developers did a great job of making the different areas of the city stand out. The downtown area really looks like what you’d expect with tall office buildings, and restaurants, and areas like the waterfront, or the naval yard really help bring the city to life.
The sound in the game really can be hit or miss. The crashing, boosting and engine sounds are are realistic, and done well, but the radio DJ- DJ Atomica gets old real fast. Throughout the game he’s tasked with giving you info on the city, and how to play, but his annoying catch-phrases, and superior sounding attitude will wear on you with time.
The music is rather standard for an EA game, with tunes ranging from Avril Lavigne, to the Chemical Brothers. At the very least you can always switch tracks quickly with one click of a directional button.
Burnout Paradise really brought on a lot of changes for the franchise, and they’re all worth it. The open world concept really does “open” things up, and gives you the freedom to enjoy the game however you like. When you get tired of crashing through billboards, or trying races, you just click a button, and you’re suddenly able to zoom around the city with friends or rivals. For fans of the series, or anyone wanting to try a fast paced open world racer, this is a game that was done right, and will never get old.
