Burnout Revenge
There’s no other way to say it, Revenge is sweet.
Published: October 17, 2005
I love me some Criterion Software. In a single game, they took their RenderWare platform from something fellow industry punks and I made fun of and a teeeeeny little booth at E3 2000 into one of the most impressive showcases for what middleware solutions can do.
That game was Burnout. Well, technically it was Burnout 2. Don’t get me wrong, I was probably the biggest evangelist on the planet for the first Burnout, converting even fellow editors that would have just passed on it being another Acclaim-published racer, but it was Burnout 2 that really showed that Criterion had some serious programming chops.
It just looked too good to be running on the PlayStation 2, and for the first time, it gave real credence to the thought that one company could supply a solution for everything – graphics, sound, physics and a way to compile it all in one place.
Their sales pitch was simple: make a game using the platform that was compelling and showed off what the tools could do. It worked, and it worked beautifully. RenderWare was real, and by the time Burnout 3, it was obvious that games could be made by a middleware developer that could put even some 1st-party development efforts to shame.
So why the history lesson? Because it’s important to note that a game that originally was just meant to demonstrate what a middleware solution could do has blossomed into one of the finest technology showcases around, and moreover, it’s damned addictive. It’s the reason why this review is so late; I can’t stop freaking playing this game, and it’s been a problem ever since the first game so perfectly balanced the risk/reward mechanic of dangerous driving with more speed.
Revenge demonstrates yet another fundamental change to that mechanic, though. The last game introduced takedowns – slamming into your opponents in order to take them out of the race for a bit. Now, there’s traffic checking – hitting same-direction traffic into other racers, and though it sounds like a minor addition, it completely changes how you play. No longer are cars all over the road to be avoided. Now, the game rewards you for slamming into them with a little boost and so long as you don’t hit a bus or a semi, you can plow right through traffic (there’s even a mode dedicated to doing just this called Traffic Attack).
Crash mode also got a serious overhaul. Now, there’s an old-school golf triple-tap meter at the beginning of races that determines how fast your takeoff is; hit the X button in the middle of the top and bottom sweet spots and you’ll leap off the line damn near as fast as the car can go, but nail the presses at the wrong time, and you’ll either explode or creep forward and have to build speed.
Speed here is key, because Criterion redesigned the crash levels with multiple tiers and at least one or two jumps most of the time. This means you’ll have to use the speed to check traffic and start accidents on one level, and then make the jump to the next one to continue the damage. High-speed hits mean instant explosions and exploding cars equal multipliers (gone are the old 2X and 4X multipliers, since the developers realized everyone was just going for the 4X one anyway).
This makes Crash events even more of their own game, not just because of the subtle tweaks to the start, how the cars fall in the air (complete with an awesome shaky camera) and how accidents are caused, but there’s actually a level of strategy that never existed before, so careful planning must be taken into account as the game does a little flyby to show where major intersections are. It’s not unusual now to retry more difficult crash courses a couple dozen times, but it’s far from frustrating because, well, stuff blows up real good.
That game was Burnout. Well, technically it was Burnout 2. Don’t get me wrong, I was probably the biggest evangelist on the planet for the first Burnout, converting even fellow editors that would have just passed on it being another Acclaim-published racer, but it was Burnout 2 that really showed that Criterion had some serious programming chops.
It just looked too good to be running on the PlayStation 2, and for the first time, it gave real credence to the thought that one company could supply a solution for everything – graphics, sound, physics and a way to compile it all in one place.
Their sales pitch was simple: make a game using the platform that was compelling and showed off what the tools could do. It worked, and it worked beautifully. RenderWare was real, and by the time Burnout 3, it was obvious that games could be made by a middleware developer that could put even some 1st-party development efforts to shame.
So why the history lesson? Because it’s important to note that a game that originally was just meant to demonstrate what a middleware solution could do has blossomed into one of the finest technology showcases around, and moreover, it’s damned addictive. It’s the reason why this review is so late; I can’t stop freaking playing this game, and it’s been a problem ever since the first game so perfectly balanced the risk/reward mechanic of dangerous driving with more speed.
Revenge demonstrates yet another fundamental change to that mechanic, though. The last game introduced takedowns – slamming into your opponents in order to take them out of the race for a bit. Now, there’s traffic checking – hitting same-direction traffic into other racers, and though it sounds like a minor addition, it completely changes how you play. No longer are cars all over the road to be avoided. Now, the game rewards you for slamming into them with a little boost and so long as you don’t hit a bus or a semi, you can plow right through traffic (there’s even a mode dedicated to doing just this called Traffic Attack).
Crash mode also got a serious overhaul. Now, there’s an old-school golf triple-tap meter at the beginning of races that determines how fast your takeoff is; hit the X button in the middle of the top and bottom sweet spots and you’ll leap off the line damn near as fast as the car can go, but nail the presses at the wrong time, and you’ll either explode or creep forward and have to build speed.
Speed here is key, because Criterion redesigned the crash levels with multiple tiers and at least one or two jumps most of the time. This means you’ll have to use the speed to check traffic and start accidents on one level, and then make the jump to the next one to continue the damage. High-speed hits mean instant explosions and exploding cars equal multipliers (gone are the old 2X and 4X multipliers, since the developers realized everyone was just going for the 4X one anyway).
This makes Crash events even more of their own game, not just because of the subtle tweaks to the start, how the cars fall in the air (complete with an awesome shaky camera) and how accidents are caused, but there’s actually a level of strategy that never existed before, so careful planning must be taken into account as the game does a little flyby to show where major intersections are. It’s not unusual now to retry more difficult crash courses a couple dozen times, but it’s far from frustrating because, well, stuff blows up real good.
