At least as good as its predecessor; traffic attack and crashbreaker races are great new additions...
Make no mistake about it: Revenge isn't out to reinvent the wheel. It has more than enough features to not be Burnout 3.5, but it's not necessarily the revolutionary leap that Takedown was from Point of Impact. It feels like Criterion took things that weren't necessarily bad about Takedown, but were slightly inconvenient in regards to gameplay, and either eliminated or augmented them. All in all, though, it's still a quality title with a lot of merits.
The first thing players should notice that has changed and improved is the overall level stratification. Working their way up from Harmless to Dangerous to Elite gives the single-player experience a more centered direction, whereas it just felt like B3 was a game of unlocking and hopping from region to region with a little less focus. The stages are much more expansive and comprehensive, as well. They have a darker, grittier, and more urban feel about them that really captures the feel of the depicted city/region. Angel Valley has the sunny, yet hazy feel of L.A.'s sprawling freeways. Sunshine Keys is almost blindingly bright and strewn with South Florida's pastel high-rise condos. Eternal City has all of the small nooks, crannies, and rotundas of ancient Rome.
Once the racing starts, though, players will notice immediate differences. The most conspicuous change comes in the use of traffic as weaponry. As a player's car barrels down the road, he can use cars ahead of him as automotive hockey pucks. It's an addition that renders B3 virtually unplayable. Rest assured, after nearly twenty hours of nailing trick shots, it's gonna be really tough to go back to Silver Lake. Also, it's a bit tougher to take down opposing cars via the conventional shunting into the guardrail. Make no mistake; it's still possible; it's just going to take a little more work. Most people will formulate the strategy of smashing into traffic in the hopes of nailing opposing vehicles.
The destructive power of the Crashbreaker is also available in races, although it's something that Criterion has wisely harnessed in the earlier stages of the single-player tour. It takes an extensive amount of gameplay before Crashbreaker Races start increasing in frequency. It takes an awesome yet potentially cheap new feature and handles it in the best way possible. Essentially, upon crashing or being taken down, a racer can detonate himself to score a takedown against either his new revenge rival or any oncoming cars to prevent them from taking a lead. It comes, however, with a cost, which is appropriate for the risk vs. reward nature of Burnout. If there isn't much boost on the player's car, the explosion won't be particularly large. And, if he doesn't hit any opposing cars, the explosion will use all of the car's boost and leave the player back at square one. Some may criticize the new feature as being merely a glorified aftertouch or a cheap defensive move in multiplayer, but when honed and used sparingly, it's an incredible addition to gameplay.
As for new modes, Revenge's main addition comes in Traffic Attack. Utilizing the ability to smash into oncoming traffic, players are under a time limit to destroy as many cars as possible. The only way to keep the clock running is to continuously destroy cars. The first few stages are fairly straightforward and simple, and most people will go above and beyond the gold medal requirements. However, the ante gets upped as the game progresses; as time limits increase, medal criteria stiffens and players must learn different strategies, such as sending slapshots into the opposing traffic lane. It can be a little bit easy, but it's certainly fun.
With only a year to spare between games, Criterion has poured its heart and soul into making the returning features as solid as possible. Crash Mode is expanded exponentially. Whereas B3 featured some relatively complex stages, Revenge has some genuinely byzantine stages. Multiple tiers are largely the order of the day, as are some truly outrageous leaps, including one through a giant donut sign. Just as in the racing game, the ability to take out cars ahead of you comes into play, illustrating an integration of racing elements into the crash elements. Rather than rely on boost and multipliers, the speed is kicked off by a sports game-like meter (baseball and Tiger Woods come to mind) and the rest is up to you.
The racing is largely what players would expect: high octane and completely balls-to-the-wall, just like it should be. The title of the game comes from the emphasis on getting payback on opposing cars. When a player is taken out, the icon over the offending car turns red to point out who to target. Revenge takedowns get tallied and trophied -- by the way, the trophies with explosions turn into blown glass sculptures that look amazing -- as do setting records for takedowns and doing new takedowns, like the Vertical Takedown, which is really something to see.
Road Rage is back and as hardcore as usual. It seems like business as usual, but the A.I. seems to toughen up much more as the game progresses. I got Psyched Out a few times and driven into dividers more than once. The CPU can play just as dirty and aggressively as the worst of us at times. Burning Lap is hard as hell as usual, and the compulsive perfectionist in all of us will spend many a wasted second cursing loudly as we accidentally cheat ourselves out of a gold medal for the umpteenth time.
Online users will have no problems logging in and tearing into the roads. Xbox Live, due to its streamlined nature, is easier to hop on and jump into a game than the DNAS to EA transfer on PS2. Overall, it's a pretty lag-free time. The online multiplayer experience was satisfactory, but load times still detract from the online experience. It's kind of a tough call in some regards. I wonder at times, though: do the load times feel like eternity because the pacing of the game? On the other hand, it still feels like eternity regardless, especially when you're waiting to line up a nice crash. Also, it would be nice to have a Road Rage multiplayer online that's not Red Team vs. Blue Team. The single-player Road Rage is exceptionally addictive, and it's an element that doesn't translate well into multiplayer, as all of my games involved taking down another team rather than going for the kamikaze-style roll of the dice that is regular Road Rage. Albeit small ones, they're the main issues with an otherwise marvelous game.
Other little things really go a long way with this one, though. Xbox users, rejoice: you will no longer have to unlock every freakin' car on whatever system you're using. From personal experience, there's nothing worse than having your Xbox die or get stolen and starting from scratch. Criterion got wise and implemented memory unit support. It's a pittance compared with the overall experience, but something that will be widely appreciated. PS2 users with HDTV sets can look forward to gorgeous graphics in progressive scan, which hang fairly nicely against the Xbox counterpart. And, of course, in typical EA fashion, product integration has its rewards. A Madden '06 save will unlock the Madden Challenge Van, which is pretty good for big explosions until players get their hands on the Carl's Jr. truck (Paris Hilton whoring herself for a burger not included) and its monstrous Crashbreaker level. Oh, and the soundtrack is much better, featuring Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, Maximo Park, and a ton of better songs than B3, although some diversity in the soundtrack, like a genre other than just indie rock or rock-flavored dance music would be better, especially for PS2 users. Xbox players, of course, won't have that problem thanks to custom soundtracks.
There's no question that Burnout Revenge is one of the year's best titles, if not the best racing game I've played all year. It manages to exhaustively deliver everything that made Burnout 3 so fantastic while adding small tweaks that make its predecessor an immediate item for trade-in at your local game store. And, while you're near that store, invest in some eye drops and band-aids. You'll thank me later. Make no mistake about it: once you pop in this new Burnout, you're going to have a hell of a time going back to the old ones. And that's the mark of a good sequel.