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Review

Burnout Paradise

9.0

24-Jan-2008 A glimpse into the future or back to the drawing board?

1 Comments

Some people, it seems, have it out for EA - those who grumbled when Criterion were assimilated into the company are still bitter to this day; they swore the move would turn Burnout into an overly focus-grouped, by the numbers racer, rammed with EA Trax and faux style.

Burnout 3 was a great big raspberry right in the faces of the doubters. It was the best Burnout ever, and it's a series that's only gotten better since. Revenge showed that EA and Criterion were paying attention - DJ Stryker got the boot and the EA Trax got a little better; come the PS2/PSP exclusive Burnout Dominator, and the EA/Criterion combo perfected the formula by again paying attention to every moan from every reviewer and internet forumite - Burnout 4's traffic was booted out and Burnout 2-style combo meters were back in. It was the best iteration of Burnout ever and one of the best racing games we've ever played, marred only by those bloody EA Trax. But a full year on, and in the hubristic-sounding world of Burnout Paradise, everything is spot-on... and even some of the Trax are good.

Guns 'n' Roses, Faith No More, Soundgarden and yep, Adam and the blimmin' Ants compliment some thirty or so instrumental tracks from across the series, and a further forty piles of old jobs from Avril Lavigne and company. You're never be stuck for something to listen to in Paradise City, and coincidentally you'll never be stuck for things to do, either.

Burnout's new trick is its total absence of menus, loading screens and any of the other usual trappings of racing games. Whatever path you take across the open city, you're never out of the action and never forced to search for the next event to take on.

TAKE ME DOWN
The takedown-heavy Road Rage mode returns along with the Burning Route time trials and regular races, and they're joined by the new Marked Man challenge - a reverse Road Rage where three black cars hunt you as you race to your destination. Every intersection has its own event and every event allows you to forge your own path across the city; with no set routes, races turn out to be exercises in navigation every bit as much as driving skill.

Chucking you into the middle of an open world was a predictable choice for the new direction of the series, and while it makes the game far bigger, smarter and harder than past games, it also strips Paradise of the fundamental simplicity of Dominator or Takedown. Navigation is a burden we could do without, and the on-screen compass is woefully inadequate for guiding you along the preferred path; Paradise needed a whopping great Crazy Taxi arrow at the top of the screen saying 'GO THIS WAY, IDIOT!' rather than a wee compass and diddy map.

The sense of speed is unbelievable.

Deep in the city, it's easy to find your way back to a more suitable path after losing your way, but take a wrong turn up in the mountains and your race is over. Like past Burnout offerings, a mere half-second's lapse in concentration will result in a dramatic and immediate death, but unlike those you're forced to glance at the map at every intersection just to make sure you're headed the right way. Your car's indicators will provide the most conspicuous guidance, but often too late to make any difference in the tight right-angled streets of Paradise City.

Oh So Nice
But make no mistake, even in the wide-open city, the game is Burnout, and any fears we had about the handling model not working in an open world can be immediately dispelled. Clever track design, slight handling tweaks and the best handbrake ever, make it flexible enough that you'll never struggle to get around, without it ever feeling like anything less than the high-speed Burnout racing we all expect.

Those navigation issues are a real problem even after thrashing away for hours at the colossal solo game, but while Paradise City seems like a daunting location at first, it's far smaller than it appears and it's by no means a bad thing that it can be crossed so quickly. You might not be able to get around at first, but you'll soon learn the best routes across town after you've spent endless hours playing with friends.

Inviting a friend into your game is a job for a small d-pad activated menu, and joining a friend's game is so instant that you'll barely notice you left your own game. Paradise City is a space to be shared, and slipping into a public game is a miracle of design that's so clever and understated that it probably won't impress anyone nearly as much as it should - no pause, no loading, no waiting and no relocating are required; one minute you'll be racing alone, the next you'll be on the same stretch of road in a friend's game.

How on Earth does this manage a constant 60fps?

Online, you'll find all the racing you'll ever need, with extra bonus challenges for groups to attempt. The challenges give a sense of focus to roaming around the world, and you'll find yourself setting up preposterous stunts in Free Ride not because it'll earn you points but because the challenges are so much fun. Stats are tracked in Free Ride, so you're competing even when wandering around the city - your longest time in the oncoming lane, biggest jump, longest drift and others are ranked against your opponents, and offline the game keeps track of who on Live raced the city's streets the fastest. Burnout wants you to compete and race even when you're not racing, and it wants you going at top speed even when you're just pootling along exploring.

SICK BURN
Paradise cherry-picks the best features from the past games - cars which have both the one-bar Burnout 3 boost bar, cars which have multiplying Burnout 2 boost bars, cars which can traffic check and cars which can't, the best of the events and the best ramps and shortcuts. It's not quite so gleefully mindless as the previous games, but with loading times stripped out and the best online modes we've yet seen in any racer on any system, it feels like a truly next generation Burnout game.

The quirk most likely to draw complaint is the absence of any way to quickly warp across the city to re-attempt a failed challenge. Criterion are adamant that it would break the sense of immersion, and they're probably right - but it would have been awfully convenient to be able to teleport to any unlocked road. Criterion are justifiably proud of their load-free engine and though it missteps a little here and there it's not because of any bad design but because it so desperately wants to be the most immediate racing game ever. Paradise knows exactly what it wants to be and some problematic pathfinding doesn't hurt the sheer joy.

Burn rubber like never before�

It's just so damned pleased with itself, so fast and so beautiful that Burnout Paradise will make you forgive every sin and smile with every play... and how many other games can say the same?

Michael Gapper