One of the best racing games ever, Revenge delivers high speed thrills in all of its various events and modes.
The events are varied and fun. There is your typical race mode and eliminator race, where the person in last place gets eliminated from the race when the timer runs out; these are especially tense and exciting. Then there is traffic attack where you basically just check same way traffic for time extensions and points, road rage where you must takedown specific cars (marked by a blue triangle above them) for time and points and crash mode which is like a puzzle game where you are plopped down on a course and you must cause as much monetary damage to other vehicles, more on this later. You also have previews and burning laps which are essentially time trials also grand prix mode where it is a series of races. All of these are enjoyable and offer up a ton of fun. Crash mode is basically, you and a course, you have a simple start up mini-game and then you must decide where to start causing havoc, but you only get one crash so you got to make it count. Intersections and big vehicles are good places to start destroying other cars. There is a formula to crash mode however, after you crash you can hold down R1 and use the left analog stick for “aftertouch” this lets you control where your car goes after you crash, sideswipe a car then aftertouch into that bus and watch the ensuing damage. If you manage to total enough cars then you can use your cars “crashbreaker” this basically implodes your vehicle and causes even more damage, if you destroy enough cars you can get multiple “crashbreaker” opportunities. Combine these two maneuvers and you got crash mode in a nutshell.
Revenge has a lot of cars to choose from, they obviously differ in look, their weight is categorized by light/medium/heavy, forcebreaker power (crashbreaker explosion strength) varies from car to car and the top speed usually differs slightly. Choosing a car takes some thought but not that much, crash mode is the mode where your going to have to pause and think about which car you want to use, the wind effects light cars heavily but light cars are easy to maneuver in “aftertouch” whereas heavy cars dismiss wind effects but are a bit more difficult to use in “aftertouch” but they generally have larger “crashbreaker” power. Essentially you want to use your newest cars but that’s not always the case, sometimes your newest car may not be better. Also you can change you cars color before an event, I always choose yellow for some reason.
Revenge handles like the perfect arcade console racer, If you want a simulator or are looking for the next Gran Turismo don’t pass up Burnout, it delivers an experience like no other and you get an amazing sense of speed. The controls are pure pick up and play, all you need is the go-forward button (x), go-backwards button ([ ]) and the go-really-fast-emit-blue-exhaust-smoke button (R1) and the left analog stick to steer. Using boost in Revenge is important, it can get you easy takedowns, help you recover from messed up drifts and you can plow through almost anything, boost is your friend. Pressing triangle gives you a driver’s view through the windshield and L1 lets you see behind you, both come in handy, triangle is pretty good for seeing oncoming traffic and L1 lets you see if anyone is going to usurp your position. R2 activates “crashbreaker” and you know how “aftertouch” works, L2 lets you change the licensed song and that’s about it for playing Revenge, nice and simple.
About the licensed music, yeah, Revenge only has a few original soundtrack scores and most of the music is licensed, well EA can’t do everything right. The music is good though and it is mostly metal, pop and rock and typical upbeat music, plus you can change the song if you like the one that’s playing. But Revenges sound effects are the real deal, everything sounds great in Revenge, the whooshing sound when you boost, the actual boost sound, when your trading paint with another car you can hear the individual paint molecules getting wasted and the intense friction scraping of metal on metal… well maybe not that detailed audio but Revenge sounds awesome. Revenge also looks really great as well, the cars are phenomenal looking and have sleek and slick design models, the damage modeling is great and the tracks and scenery look superb. The blur effects when you boost and the lighting on your ride are in your face and the whole game just looks nice. Also it runs really smooth, the framerate never gets serious slowdown and keeps up pretty well.
The tracks in Revenge all have distinct looks and atmospheres, you will race in many different locations around the globe and they all look nice. They are filled with alternate routes and shortcuts as well, but not all of these are beneficial, alternate routes usually do not have pedestrian vehicles for you to check or lanes where you can drive into oncoming traffic (doing both of those gives you boost). There are also usually some high ramps and jumps where you can get major air. Getting a takedown (totaling another car) feels awesome, especially when you get a chain or special/signature takedowns… apotheosis. You can just slam other racers into walls for takedowns, go off a ramp and crush them when you land, psyche them out and many others. My favorites are using other cars to traffic check them into your rivals for a takedown, imagine it, slam a sedan and watch it annihilate a fellow racer and getting and “aftertouch” takedown, yeah, if you crash you can use “aftertouch” to try to do a takedown. Also you can shunt a car in front of oncoming traffic or slam into the other lane and get a takedown; there is just so many ways to take care of business in Revenge, plus takedowns get you boost.
After each event you get a rating and a medal. Bronze, silver and gold for the medals and ok, good, great and awesome for the rating. The rating determines how many stars you get, ok being 1 and awesome being 4, then the medal is combined with it. Bronze will lower the rating one notch so great and bronze will become 2 stars not 3, silver keeps it as it is and gold raises it one notch, so getting a perfect 5 stars needs a gold medal and awesome rating. These stars raise your rank up, each rank needs a good chunk of stars to fill up and then you move to the next rank. Rank determines which sections, regions and events you can do.
All in all, Burnout Revenge is a high octane, electrifying and exhilarating racing game that is loads of fun and downright cool. Audio and visuals are great, many events and challenges in the campaign to keep you busy, multiplayer options, smooth controls and a vibe that encourages aggressive driving and risky moves. If you don’t drive hard and go on the offense your not getting anywhere in Revenge, here you can drive how you always wanted to, slamming, shunting and sideswiping cars, just keep it in the game alright? Pros- great sense of speed, nice visuals and audio and various events. online and same console multiplayer options. controls are awesome and easy to learn, opponent AI is good.
Cons- multiplayer isn't perfect just some minor nitpicky details still very enjoyable, menus are kinda confusing and sometimes events that were previously locked become unlocked and then you have to hunt around for a new event.
Extra department breakdown because GS gives us bad options.
Difficulty- "just right" is not right, Revenge isn't easy or hard, it is medium. sometimes it is really challenging and sometimes pretty easy.
learning curve- yeah who doesn't know how to play a racing game?
time spent- yup, Revenge is quite lengthy.
classification- it is just plain fun.