Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2) Reveiw
Burnout 3: Takedown for the PS2 is one of the most visually stunning and destructively satisfying racing games ever to grace the PS2 that I’ve ever seen. Produced by Criterion and published by EA games, the intended audience for this game is definitely racers and fans of action/ demolition, but you really don’t need to be a fan at all to absolutely love this game! Everything from the gorgeous car models and environments, to the terrific full bodied sounds, to the brilliant special effects and sense of speed are superbly fined tuned to the point of near perfection with very little to complain about. Let’s just face the facts. Burnout 3 is definitely the cream of the crop when it comes to outstandingly entertaining racers! When starting the game, the player is given a very limited range of cars to select from which are categorized into groups ranging from the lowly and sluggish compact series to the top-grade majorly ass-hauling and sleekly designed super series. Many cars are unlocked throughout the game by simply completing races or crash events in 3rd place or greater, but the best ones are earned by getting gold medals (1st place) or completing specific objectives that greatly test a player’s skill. Gameplay is truly one of the greatest attractions of the game. The objective of the game is not only to win the race, but to also takedown anything and everything that stands in your way! The great part is the huge variety of ways to crush the competition via smashing them into walls or oncoming traffic. Freak accidents such as clipping an opponent into an alcove in the wall and watching that wreck crash into the face of a giant Buddha statue several stories in the air is especially awe inspiring. When the player is taken out, the player even retains a little control over which direction his/her wrecked car continues moving in an effort to takedown passing opponents to gain some extra kills before being respawned! Now that’s just freak’n cool!!! The game itself is paced rather well in the way that events must be completed in order to progress to more challenging events and so on and so forth. Controls are pretty native to the standard racer on the PS2 platform with the exception of the boost button and are pretty solid. Physics is especially a high point since the feel of the way a car drives really captures its mass well and gives each car a unique character of their own. The level of difficulty in the game starts quite easy in the beginning but becomes kind of frustratingly hard near the end. All objectives and goals are clearly marked at the beginning of each event and are even listed for the player on a spreadsheet.
There are three main modes of play in the single player “world tour” mode which includes race, road rage, and crash events. Race mode is pretty straightforward. The player competes on a track against computer opponents and tries to reach the finish line before all the other rivals. Road rage is definitely one of the spotlight modes of play in the game. The objective is to takedown as many of the opposing cars as possible and meet a certain quota of kills before receiving too much damage and ultimately blowing up or dying out. Crash event mode is completely different from race and road rage mode. In crash events, the player is given the extremely entertaining, but sometimes frustrating task of jumping into a huge fleet of civilian cars on traffic jammed highways or roads in order to cause as much damage, disruption, and mayhem as possible. The goal is to hit a specific quota of damage which is measured in a cash amount value. All modes of play are painfully destructive fun to go through and are really easy to get into, making the game very easy to just pick up and play. In my own opinion, Burnout 3 has to be the most fun racer I’ve played in years. It’s also the only racing game that I actually had the urge to complete 100%! Receiving all gold medals and completing the game’s objectives are really rewarded well in the game with high class cars and special class cars along with other little special features which definitely gives the player a sense of extreme accomplishment since many of the things you have to do to get 100% will frustrate you to the point of bashing yourself in the head with the controller and yelling at the closest inanimate objects you can find….. Probably the controller you just hit yourself in the face with. Audiences will become completely entranced by this game the minute they get their hands on the game and stick it in their consoles. Just to recap, features that were especially good included the eye-popping graphics and special effects (like the sparks from a wreck grinding across the road), the phenomenally entertaining, simple, and intense gameplay, the great physics engine, and the good soundtrack and great sound effects that complemented the action very well. The only miniscule problems with the game that barely restrain the title from reaching the perfect 10 include minor glitches such as the occasional opposing car riding the opposite direction as the player and crashing headfirst into the player’s car. Another down side to the title is the ridiculously difficult races further into the game which I wouldn’t suggest for people prone to violence and convulsive seizures to even attempt. Objectives such as getting two tram-takedowns in a single race which tasks the player with making two excruciatingly difficult takedowns into trolleys that can barely even be found at the correct time for the kill in a single attempt at an event.
The unique feature of this game that sets itself above all other racers is the impressive crash engine which gives the player a huge variety of destroying and enemy. All sections of the car are sensitive to damage and thusly change shape relative to the force of impact when a car crashes into something. For example, if a player’s car travels at 200 miles per hour and crashes head-first into a semi, the car’s front end will crunch down towards its backend immensely. The same goes for a case in which the player T-bones an opponent (which means to ram the opponent’s car from a side angle), the ends of the car will bend toward the point of impact! Who say’s physics can’t be fun, eh?!
Overall, the game is outstanding with very little that sets it back. Audiences of all kinds will be in awe at the very sight of this game when they first boot it up in their consoles with the graphics as gorgeous as the gameplay is fun. I recommend this game to anyone and everyone that even remotely likes racers and games with stuff that break and blow up. With gameplay as intense as Burnout 3’s, it’ll be difficult to put the title out of the console disc tray………….that is, until players start reaching those races that I told you about with all the violence and the yelling at inanimate objects (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you didn’t read the whole damn review……… so too freak’n bad you illiterate loser ^_^)
FINAL SCORE: 9.5 out of 10