Burnout Revenge
There's no other way to say it, Revenge is sweet.
Published: October 17, 2005
For as much as Burnout 3 delivered visuals that looked too good to be real-time, Revenge ups them in spades. It's more of a subtle tweaking of the art style and overall lighting rather than something as amazing as the blown-out sunlight on the streets and copious motion blur that the last game wowed with, but there are certainly ample amounts of both here too.
No, the real visual treat is how the developers gave each major locale its own feel, from the dirty, grungy back alley courses of Detroit-like Motor City to the smoggy, sun-baked look of LA-inspired Angel Valley to the neon glitz and extensive freeways of Tokyo-cloned Eastern Bay, every distinct section of the World Tour mode has its own feel, traffic systems and unique vibe. It's damned impressive.
There are still ridiculous amounts of particles; sparks, shattered glass, bits of rubble, and the reflections are damned impressive, but it's the presentation that has matured the most this time around. The videos that accompany getting awarded a prize for checking traffic or wrecking a ton of cars in crash mode or a vertical takedown are nothing short of amazing, and they really never get old.
Hell I can't even recall off the top of my head a time when the game dropped any frames. It's silky smooth throughout, and even with the addition of more motion blur (and a nice bit of jitter and blowing air during big jumps) and extra deformation on the cars, the game still runs remarkably smooth. It really does approach the realm of pre-rendered stuff at times, and it's running on a PS2. Who would've thought?
Aurally, the game still maintains that same level of polish that the visuals have, though there's less here to talk about. Sure, there are some nice little subtle touches, like a light squeak from your tires after landing a jump or the rush of wind on jumps, but for the most part, this is a game that relishes throwing plenty of explosions and loud crunches at you rather than relying on the more nuanced stuff like shattering glass and crumbling chassis. It's still good, but the focus has shifted towards delivering more punch during the hits rather than engine noise and such.
The soundtrack is quite literally more of what you heard in the last game; radio-friendly pop/punk, and lots of angsty screaming. There are a few speed metal, straight poppy rock and light electornica tracks here, but even BT and OK Go can't distract from the wealth of sound-alike guys screaming into the mic. If you like that kind of stuff, you'll like this, otherwise, you'll probably have to find something else to listen to - at least there's no Stryker this time around.
So the infamous taint of EA may be creeping in a bit on what was classically an almost indie-feeling game, anyone who saw EA snap up Criterion knew it would happen. Luckily, there's so much addictive gameplay here that it doesn't really matter too much. It's annoying, sure, to have a Carl's Jr. truck or a Logitech F1 racer, but that doesn't mean it ruins the overall experience.
That experience is continually being made fresh even four games down the road. I'm not entirely sure anything else can be added to the formula to tighten it up any more, but then I say that after I finish playing every Burnout game to 100% completion. For pure digital crack-level addiction, though, there are few games that deliver like Burnout Revenge and it's a damn good thing or you'd never see any updates around here.
