Burnout Paradise takes the series in a whole new direction, creating a arcade racing utopia in Paradise City.
Open world racing rules. It's unpredictable, and fresh.
Burnout Paradise ditches the conventional "lap racing, on pre-determined tracks," in favor of letting you choose your own track. Races end at eight separate points in the city in the eight major directions. Races can start at any intersection in the city, and are marked by icons. You always have an idea of where you are going, it's just up to you to get there.
The result is races that never feel the same, and intense competition. The game suggest routes on the HUD, but they aren't necessarily the best ones, they are just the easiest route. Sometimes it pays to go a little bit out of the way, so you can avoid sharp turns in favor of long straightaways. Maybe you know of a jump that will launch you over an intersection you would likely crash in? Or perhaps your just using dumb luck, and making fast decisions, hoping for the best. Paradise City offers so many routes to one finish line, that your sure to feel like you never take the same route twice.
What makes the open world formula work is the shear size of the game. Paradise City is a massive metropolis, featuring busy intersections, mountain pathways, country roads, tunnels and abandoned train tracks. The best part, the whole world is open at the beginning of the game, so no unlocking new areas. The size is intimidating, but realistically, you can boost your way around town with ease, so you are never too far from an area you want to be in. Say you want to go to the mountains and do barrel rolls off the dam, but your in the downtown. Hop on the interstate and your there in no time. There is always something new to find in Paradise City, and you'll soon stake out your favorite spots to race and do tricks. Your not confined to roads, exploration will lead you to a dirt stock car racing track, airport, even a quarry with jumps to die for. It pays to leave the road in Burnout Paradise.
The bulk of the game is simple. You have a learner's permit, and your goal is to get the elite license. To do so, you have to win events. This includes mainstays in the Burnout franchise such as racing, road rage, marked man, and burning route. New to the franchise is stunt mode, which you have a set amount of time to pull off combo's of barrel rolls, super jumps, and flat spins. Replacing crash mode is Show time mode, where you bounce your car along a road, hitting anything in sight, causing pile ups and other carnage. Much like stunt mode, you earn multipliers and bonus' for hitting certain objects like buses.
As you level up and upgrade your license, you gain new cars, and with those new cars, you can do burning routes to gain souped up versions of that car. There plenty of paint options, and the cars are still in their classic Burnout categories. Stunt cars can boost at will and Speed cars can enter the super fast burnout mode. Aggressive cars can boost, but for what they lack in speed, the make up in punch. Take downs are more brutal than ever thanks to the next gen graphics, and will likely produce "oh snap!," moments. By the end of the game, your going to have an impressive garage, and you will find a use for most of the vehicles.
Perhaps what makes Burnout's open world shine more than anything is the online component of the game. By simply pressing right on your d-pad, you are given a list of online options. Instead of waiting for lobbies, you drive around as you would in single player until you join one. So there's no unnecessary waiting. While in a game, you can "free burn," which is roaming the city with no real goal, showing off your rides, and finding new places to explore. New to the online component is the "challenges." These showcase the open world by having you participate in various stunts as a team. You might have to drift x amount of yards, or collide in mid air, it's all fun, and makes for great online moments. The challenges vary depending on the size of the game, but with 350 challenges available, you'll find plenty of replay value online.
Of course how can you not talk about the racing online? Well the open world format really shines here too. It won't matter if you have the best car, but it will help. What you really need is to have the best route, and that doesn't always earn a victory. Online races are fast, fun, and unpredictable. The front runner may end up taking a wrong turn, making others in the game follow. Or perhaps you take a route that goes a completely opposite way. You may be avoiding take downs from other players, but in actuality you might be making up time by not getting involved in the on road fighting. It's almost always the best driver wins, not the best car.
Burnout Paradise is not without flaws. The game does get slightly repetitive. In order to upgrade your license, you have to win an obscene amount of events. At first it goes fast, but by the A rank, you need to win 40 events, and don't even ask how many you need for Elite. (100+!) The plus side though is a pretty lengthy experience.
The open world is fun, but when you lose a race, you can't simply restart the event. You have to drive back to that intersection and start all over. So it can be frustrating if you fail an event, and ended up on the other side of Paradise City.
Traffic Checking is non existent. The slightest touch can send your car flipping into the air, causing a wreck. There are "drive aways," where you survive a crash, but it's almost random, and sometimes you wonder how you actually are driving away. Removing crash mode is a blow, and while show time mode is great fun, it doesn't replace the beloved crash mode.
Sometimes a bad mistake on a route will instantly lose an event, especially online. You get tempted to not explore if you are in a tight race and want to win, rather than get the showy finish. While there is glory in the short cut, and "coming out of nowhere" to win, it can also be your death knell. You'll find yourself being more conservative when the race is on the line, instead of going big like the game hopes you will.
The soundtrack is dreadful and the in-game radio, DJ Atomica, is more annoying than helpful. What's worse is you can't turn him off, but if your on an Xbox 360, you can at least use custom music. If your on PS3, just get a ipod on some speakers and turn down the music volume. Let's not forget the in-game advertising that at first is novel, but after awhile, you just wonder why the game wasn't cheaper if they sold that much ad space.
All in all, Burnout Paradise is an exciting new direction for the series. For older fans of the series, it may be a change, but I implore you to give it a chance. If you love arcade racing, then consider Paradise City utopia.
Look for Burnout Paradise to be poking it's head around at the end of 08 for racing GOTY nods.