Review by Fall3n Angelz

For those who have mastered the art of not blinking, Burnout Revenge offers one of the most exciting racing experiences, ever.

Gameplay
Imagine Destruction Derby and San Francisco Rush colliding in high def at 209 mph to make one amazingly intense arcade racer. Now strap a bomb to that SOB and light her up! Revenge can best be summed up as a bar fight, with cars, and the developers have purposely embraced that concept: More than ever this Burnout entry focuses on the takedown (putting one of your rival racers into a wall, off a cliff, through a fiery death in a gas station, or into an unsuspecting minivan full of screaming children, etc.).

Aside from races and variations of racing (time trials, eliminators, and the like), there is also Crash Mode, which is where you're given the opportunity to launch your vehicular nuke into one of 50+ unique intersections in an attempt to bankrupt insurance providers. Luckily things like multipliers and bonus pickups have been done away with, so it’s just you and a bunch of helpless civilians with really crappy brakes.

Besides a few new additions such as ramps, shortcuts, race crashbreakers, and the elusive but always satisfying vertical takedown, Revenge also adds a major element to the franchise: checking traffic (hitting small same-way traffic from behind). While this will make taking down your rivals much easier, for veterans of previous installments, the lack of skill now required to survive may come as a disappointment. If you happen to get too close to a car when attempting a near miss, rather than crash, you simply knock the car away like it’s a 5 pound rubber ball. It definitely takes the intensity down from what it was in Burnout 3, and feels like a step in the wrong direction for the series. It also can cause some problems online, where checked traffic will follow you around like you're Neo at the end of Matrix Reloaded, or they’ll double back and slam you into a wall.

The game relies heavily on keeping your boost filled by driving against oncoming traffic and executing over-the-top power slides, but the track layout sometimes puts you in a situation where you are stuck with an unavoidable crash. This both adds to the intensity (theres nothing like powersliding blindly around a corner only to barely pass in-between two oncoming buses), but also detracts from the experience when you aren’t so lucky.

With all this in mind, Burnout Revenge is still extremely fun, but it just doesn’t quite live up to the perfection that is Burnout 3.

Graphics
Somewhere between the Xbox version of Burnout and the 360 version of Most Wanted, lies this game. Revenge has an overdose of particle effects, explosions, debris, and the shiniest cars you’ve ever seen. The tracks are all varied and beautiful, but some can be a little dark at times. That, coupled with the annoyingly excessive clutter that litters the so-called ‘shortcuts’, can make for some seriously aggravating crashes, especially in a game that requires perfect reflexes.

Burnout Revenge pushed the original Xbox to its limits, so even a year later it still holds up remarkably well. The added effects and not-so subtle touches go a long way to stepping it all up a notch. Basically, it looks great, but you’ve seen better. At over 200 mph though, there’s a good chance you really won’t care.

Sound
Not that it needed it, but the 360 version's sound has been considerably beefed up. This extra beefiness translates to your sound system as screeching tires, wall-rumbling explosions, showers of glass and metal, and what sounds like a jet engine when you hit your boost. It all sounds about as good as if you were actually there, maybe even better. Not that it’s anything new, but driving past anything in excess of a couple hundred mph makes an incredibly cool whooshing noise.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack is a misguided selection of feel-good punk and rock. The songs aren’t especially bad or whiney, and thank God there’s no rap, but they just don’t amp you up the way a soundtrack about turning other drivers into wall-goo should. Fortunately for you, you just copied Garth Brooks’ greatest hits onto your hard drive, right?

Multiplayer
Even though the multiplayer is extremely bare-bones, it is easily the best part of the game. It features a sampling of the main modes from singleplayer (Race, Road Rage, and Crash), only with fellow Live players replacing the AI. There are Ranked and Player matches, and you can create your own lobby, but the options are minimal at best. The game definitely could have used some extra touches like modifiers (a la Unreal Tournament) or even bots to fill in the empty slots.

The ranking system also comes off as an afterthought. The #1 ranked player who never loses in Road Rage or Races, can lose a Ranked crash party, and end up #33,453. Then, on their way back to the top, they would devastate the rank of everyone he, or she, came in contact with. Also, if you leave a game that’s already started, you will take the hit to your ranking as if you lost the remaining rounds. This keeps losers from quitting when they are getting owned, but it can make you want to obliterate your Gamecube when the server drops you or your lovely 360 decides to freeze…again!

You’ll also find a few cheaters online. Occasionally you may hop in a match, only to find that the host has a car that goes 100 mph faster than yours. Adding insult to injury is the fact that Microsofts “File Cheater Complaint” system is all show. These punks will continue to do it, and legit players will continue to suffer.

Additionally, your online experience is further marred by several frustrating glitches. For instance, have you ever wanted to finish a race in 1st place, only to have the guy half a mile behind you get the win? Well now you can! Thanks EA! Other glitches include getting a takedown on someone who was nowhere near you, incorrect updates on your screen (“so-and-so did this” when they really didn’t), and lag. Laggy players are almost impossible to takedown, as they will be here one second, and there the next.

The worst offense by far however is that, in multiplayer races, there is actually a penalty for being in 1st place. Your boost is all but reduced to fumes, so even if you havent crashed once and everyone behind you seems to be aiming for oncoming traffic, they will still catch up to you. Sure, it makes for slightly more intense races, but being punished for being the best racer is a HUGE design flaw, and theres nothing worse than being a mile ahead of everyone for the entire race, only to have someone slingshot past you at the finish line because you simply could not get any boost.

When all is said and done, this is still the best online racer to date, and can be enjoyed by just about anyone, but it is definitely not without its faults.

Achievements
A mostly well-planned achievement set. The game only rewards your single-player efforts for perfecting each rank, which means getting a Gold medal and an “Awesome” rating in every single event. Burnout starts out quite challenging, but once you get some better cars, and especially once you have some of the Special cars in your arsenal, most players should breeze through each event in one or two tries. Some, like the Preview Events and Burning Laps can be especially excruciating, but only if you're a nub. Still, the amount of events will have even seasoned burners playing for quite a while.

Fans of Burnout should remember the signature takedowns, and there’s an achievement for getting all 24 of these. While you may get more than a few by accident, actually trying to get the rest is a serious pain.

Online you have a few doable achievements that you could boost, but its much more fun and rewarding if you get it legitimately. These include win 50 races, escape 30 times in Road Rage, 50 online takedowns, and a few others. The only one you may struggle with is settling the score 100 times with the same rival.

These achievements definitely help you get the most out of the game, and they don’t make you do stupid things like host a trillion games, but they lack imagination. A lot more could have been done here...

Lasting Appeal
Whether you're going for all perfects, trying to rank up to Elite, or just like making all the pretty things explode, the single-player is a great experience with more than 100 events. Once it’s over though, there are infinite possibilities waiting for you online. The achievements help extend your gaming as well, as you could do a couple perfects or online wins a night.

There are a few free downloadable cars, but since they are simply copies of existing vehicles (albeit much better-looking ones) they don’t really add all that much to the experience. However, there are currently no other online racers looking to dethrone Burnout in the foreseeable future, so expect the virtual lanes of Motor City and Angel Valley to be filled for quite some time.

Final Score

• Lengthy, worthwhile single AND multiplayer modes
• Passable next gen graphics that fly by very smoothly
• Solid, fun arcade gameplay

• The soundtrack just doesn’t belong in Burnout
• In some ways a step backwards for the series
• Lots of cars, but you will not really use any except the one to the far right
• Crash replays still have a lack of control and bad camera angles
• Some serious problems online
• No Drivers Ed Car!!!

Note: A rating scale of 0 - 10 is used, with 10 being the highest a game can score while 0 is the absolute worst. Each category has a point value associated with it and a final score is displayed at the end of the review. The opinions expressed in this review are not necessarily the opinions held by the owners of www.achieve360points.com.