Burnout Revenge Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 7th January 2008

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Street racing and carnage from EA

Burnout Revenge Details:

	Racing
	Xbox 360
	EA Games
	EA Games

Out Now

N/A

The Burnout series was rather mediocre until EA took up the franchise for the third instalment. Now the series makes its next generation debut with the fourth instalment, Burnout Revenge.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Burnout series, in the games you must battle your way through a number of different race types in order to win a bronze, silver or gold medal. During races you are awarded Revenge rank points, for being aggressive against rivals and normal traffic on the streets. Causing damage during a race earns you boost, making your rivals crash out or scoring a “Takedown” fills your boost bar to full giving you a dramatic increase in speed. Boost can also be earned by drifting around corners, catching air and for the first time in the Burnout series by colliding with cars travelling in the same direction as you, this little addition allows you to keep your boost bar easily full, taking some of the challenge away from the racing aspect of the game.

There are a number of normal race types in Burnout Revenge, as well as some more unorthodox ones. In Eliminator you must compete against rivals, while every 30 seconds the car in last place is disqualified. Then there’s Road Rage where you score as many Takedowns as possible before totalling your car. Finally there’s the Crash events, in these you must drive a short distance before purposely crashing and causing as much damage as possible. As an added bonus the Xbox360 version features 10 more Crash events then the original Xbox game.

Burnout Revenge features the same game modes and race types as Burnout 3. With the addition of Traffic Attack, in this race you must drive through rush hour traffic, causing as much damage as you can within a set time period. Time is lost if you crash, you gain time bonuses for causing mayhem with the traffic. It’s pretty easy to earn the gold medal in these races and as its set on a circuit style track you can keep going for some time, as long as you keep earning more time bonuses.

Apart from the aforementioned new race type, the only new addition to the single player mode is some of the race environments which feature multi-level action! For instance, you can choose to take an alternative route up a ramp that sees you speeding above the normal track. These routes usually come to an abrupt end, and see you thrust into the air and hopefully onto your rivals below, scoring a vertical takedown.

The online mode in the Xbox360 version has been improved, although there are still only three modes to play, Race, Road Rage and Crash, the game now remembers rivalries. Players that have performed a takedown on you are tracked, so every time you meet that player online, the game remembers that there’s still a score to settle.

Burnout Revenge visually impresses, car models are excellent despite the fact the game contains no licensed vehicles, maybe car manufacturers didn’t want to see their latest models end up as smouldering wrecks. The games damage system works brilliantly, with scratches and damage progressively getting worse over the course of a race. Environments contain a nice amount of detail, such as cracks in the road surface and graffiti on walls. There’s quite a lot of variation in the race settings, although some are used over with slight changes.

Burnout Revenge includes an impressive soundtrack, with songs from artists such as The Bravery, Bloc Party, Billy Talent, The Chemical Brothers and Fall Out Boy, to name but a few. Sound effects in the game are excellent! Crashes and the smashing of glass are all highly impressive. As are engine sounds, I was especially impressed with the sound of the cars exhaust echoing when travelling through tunnels.

While this instalment in the Burnout series doesn’t really do much to take the series forward, it does put in another solid performance, with lots of races and events to get through! With much improved online play this version is good for those who have and haven’t played the original Xbox version.