Another Burnout game that blows you away with it's fantastic gameplay and graphics
In Burnout Paradise you get a driver's license and the freedom to roam around the big city called Paradise City. As soon as you have been through the introduction video, you are set loose in the big city where you can try out the different events, smash billboards and Smashes, play Showtime mode (a differnet version fo the classic Crash mode) and last but not least, you can play online with friends and challenge each other.
Burnout Paradise offers many different cars, each with their different looks and stats. Another new thhing, yet it ain't THAT new to the franchise, is the different boost types. In the old Burnout games you had the same boost meter, but the stats were just different for each car. In Paradise, there are three boost types: Stunt Boost (gives you more boost when you perform stunt arts, such as driving off high places or into Billboards), Aggression Boost (Gives you a lot of boost when you take out other cars) and Speed Boost (Makes you do the Boost Chains if the boost is well maintained). The Speed Boost cannot be used right away unless the boost meter is full, unlike the others that can be used no matter how much boost you have. The different type of boosts can benefit you in different events, for instance, Speed is good for Race Mode, while Agression is good for Road Rage.
The more events you win, the more upgrades you get to your license and more cars for you to play with, though in Paradise you have to hunt down the new car and take it down before it will be added to your collection. (Though sometimes you will win a car as a price for i.e. upgrading your license)
Paradise offers many hours of gameplay, as there is many things you can do in Paradise City. You can hunt down for billboards and even try to find all the Super Jumps. Eventually you can recieve an achievement and when you have upgraded your license all the way to Elite license, you might get the Criterion Elite License!
A new thing that has never been in the Burnout franchise is the bikes. You are able to drive around the city in a bike in both night and day (another feature added along with the bike pack) and depending what time of the day it is in the game, then there will be several events for you to do. Some of the events are only visible when it is day and others only at night.
Since the game is open world and the events arent in closed maps like in previous games, you are now able to get your car fixed up in the middle of an event if your car has been smashed so much that only a single crash will make you lose the event. Around the city there are Repair shops and even Paint shops that instantly repaints your car with a random color. You can also go to the Junk Yard and change your car, but you cannot do this while in an event.
In the long run, Burnout Paradise is THE best game in the Burnout franchise and THE best racing game I have tried to date. I loved the old games, but as soon as I tried Paradise, I was sucked in. I have spent so many hours winning the events and getting new cars and finding the billboards and smashes. I am still far from getting my Elite License, but I've still had a lot of fun playing the game and cant stop staring at the beautiful graphics. The cars are finely detailed and whenever you smash into something... Then you can really see how it looks like when they make crash tests!
Criterion keep on coming with updates and news on their website, just recently they released the Cops & Robbers package which is an event where you are either the police OR you're chased by the police (In Burnout:Legends this mode is called Pursuit, but you can only be the police in this one), soon they will release the Big Surf Island package that gives you more space to play around with your cars.
The Pros:
- Great graphics. The city looks so beautiful both day and night with many light sources and effects. (My computer aint the top of the top, but the graphics looks wonderful on even mediocre settings)
- Great variety of cars. Some might have almost the same stats, but each car looks different with their own looks.
- Long playtime. When you thought you were finished, then you find out there is much more you still can do both offline and online!
- Good controls that reacts right away. (Though some cars can be a pain to try and drive, but that's how it is when you try to drive a Racing car =p)
- Easy to manouvre menus and easy to access online mode
- Geat downloadable contents. Criterion comes with great stuff, such as the Legendary cars. (Cars based on famous cars such as the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and it can hover!)
The Cons:
- Most of the soundtrack is old tracks from previous games (especially Dominator)
- I kind of miss the speed-o-meter, though without it leaves it up to you to imagine how fast you're driving.
I recommend this game to everyone. If you are not familiar with racing games, Burnout Paradise is still a very good game to try out and is easy to get the hang of as well. Lots of fun either alone or with friends!