A brilliant refresher - one of the greatest arcade racers ever.
Woah.
The first mission of Burnout Revenge is one of the most thrilling in-car game experiences you’ll ever have. I don’t know what it is about rear-ending vehicles well above the speed limit and watching them soar, but it’s extremely amusing. The arcade-game feel just screams fun - you’re not lulling along under 60 as in Mafia, you’re not getting super technical (and having your car’s performance depend on how you tweak it!) like in Gran Turismo, and you’re not worried about intricate physics of cars and how they move like in Enthusia. No, you’re just blazing through streets at ridiculous speeds rear-ending everything that gets in your path.
And therein lies one of Burnout Revenge’s many simple pleasures.
Your next missions will be an odd mixture of different types - you’ll get some typical races and some crashing objectives among others. However, Burnout Revenge does not churn out any ‘blah’. Rather, it reeks of glory and insane fun. You’re neck and neck with another vehicle in a race, trying to rid of him. You notice another vehicle just outside your opposition’s range. As you come closer, you crash into the enemy’s side and he collides into the traffic. You’re in first place, but you know any other of your opposition could catch up at any time and you’ll have to take care of those suckers, too.
More fun is applied in the crash mode - drive your car into other cars to try and rack up as much damage to other vehicles as possible. And as the damage racks up as more traffic collides with the big mess you’ve made, a special little meter flares up and raises in percentage near the bottom of the screen. As it hits 100, you’re able to jam on the R button to keep it at 100, and if you can do so within the 5 second time limit, you set off a massive explosion that practically deteriorates everything in sight. You go flying, and you get to steer - looks like there’s some traffic on the other side of the road, why not create a huge crash over there?
Burnout Revenge succeeds as a fantastic game because slamming and destroying other vehicles at break-neck speeds is insanely fun. You may not even know it yet - maybe driving games make you feel sick. Maybe you think they’re stupid. Maybe you hate games like Gran Turismo and Enthusia because they’re just so complex. Playing Burnout Revenge after those is like playing a Mario game after something like Dr. Muto - if you didn’t find the others of the same genre fun, then this one’s bound to be a winner in your books, no matter how unlikely it may seem. I’d go so far as to say you should recommend friends to buy this without detailing them, just telling them to trust you. After they play, they’ll trust you with their lives in the future.
All games have flaws, however, and Burnout Revenge comes short in a couple categories. For one, it’s possible to complete over a week of dedicated gaming. Which would basically equal a rental. For two, the soundtrack blares mediocrity - some would call it an ‘emo’ soundtrack. Though you get classics like The Door’s Break on Through, it’s only the re-mixed versions and it just so happens that those sound terrible. Of course, unless you couldn’t stand the originals. In which case it’s about even. Yes, this is just one’s own taste in music - if you dig what the ‘mainstreamers’ consider punk, then eat your heart out, because this game is covered from head to toe in that, with a little rap thrown in for good measure. Otherwise, be prepared to turn the volume down a bit in the music department of prepare to regret not buying the Xbox version of the game (which offers custom soundtracks).
Not to say those two flaws break the game, as they don’t by any stretch of the idea. They’re annoying, yes, but both curable. If you finish the single player game and get a perfect score on each objective as well as reach the highest rank the game gives you, then you can duke it out head to head online in multiplayer (or offline split-screen if you’re not among the Internet enabled). The music can be turned off, or just certain songs off the soundtrack can be turned off if you can find enjoyment in some of the selection. Both of these alternatives to what you’re generally stuck with make you forget that you were stuck with anything in the first place, easily.
Good fun is made from everything the game has to offer - we’re even given an NFL Street 2 demo, courtesy of EA Sports Big (one highlight of the publisher switching which occurred with the transition between Burnout 2 and Burnout 3). There are many ‘extras’ to unlock in the game which will provide you with some fair enough entertainment (in comparison to the game itself), and with multiplayer, I’ve honestly no clue as to how anyone could get bored of this title. This game is a very solid addition to the racing genre, and may just possibly pike your interest in the genre if you could’ve cared less before. This is also a very solid addition to anyone’s game library and practically a necessity if you own a system that supports it (sorry, Gamecube). Among other titles release around the summer of 2005, Burnout Revenge is a knockout. It surprised me, one who has so little knowledge of the racing genre that I’d only played Gran Turismo 3, Enthusia and Burnout 1 - 2 before this. I can almost guarantee that if you’re in the same boat, it’ll surprise you too. The only other and final downfall of the game is that it’s apparently very similar to the previous game in the series, Burnout 3. In which case, you should still at least rent it. Burnout Revenge breaks from what standard racers have presented and zooms through traffic asking you to crash with you behind the wheel. Man, I couldn’t be happier.