Burnout: Revenge Xbox 360 review

Burnout: Revenge was released for most consoles in fall 2005, but not for the Xbox 360. That was a wise decision by EA/Criterion, because the busy coders have improved the game noticeably and most importantly been able to give Burnout: Revenge a fun and long-lasting online portion - and that's not something many EA games can boast about having.

I'll skip the long introduction to the game, as most readers probably know the Burnout series, and Burnout: Revenge has been reviewed extensively for PS2 and Xbox. Let’s instead focus on the new features - in general and for the 360 specifically.

Today's Traffic: Lots of Wrecks

Burnout: Revenge includes no less than 179 races, which as always are split up into game modes like road rage, race, eliminator, crash, burning lap and so forth. The races take place at insane speeds and feature forgiving arcade controls, but the Takedown concept has been expanded considerably as the game's title implies. Now it's not just about pure destruction - it's about getting revenge. If an opponent crashes your car, the game will show you exactly who it was and then it's up to you to do a Revenge takedown. The other big change is the traffic. Now it's possible to ram the many random cars as long as they drive in the same direction as you with the exception of busses and trucks. This might sound like a significant watering down of our beloved Burnout concept, but don't worry.

Actually the game is as challenging as always. You can use the traffic to takedown your opponents and your car will still be wrecked if you hit incoming traffic. The insane speeds also require your utmost concentration and razor-sharp reflexes.

Want to be a Star?

You'll get a score for every race, which shows you have how good (read: mean) you've been driving. You improve your score with great drifts, by crashing into traffic, by doing takedowns and so on. Your score translates into stars and you have to reach the "awesome" score and win the race to get the maximum of five stars. If you collect enough stars, your rank will increase and you get access to a new tier of events. Interestingly it doesn't seem to matter much in the early races if you get the maximum score, because even bronze medals will open up for new cars and events. I bet that long-time fans won't take lightly to the very low difficulty setting of the early part, but if you take a look at the Xbox Live achievement list, you'll realise that the game isn't as easy as it may seem at first.

That's because you actually have to complete all races on ”Perfect” (that means the ”awesome” rating plus the gold medal) in order to open up for most of the game's Xbox Live achievements. Thus it suddenly makes sense to race again and again until you have the five stars. This is a good way to ensure Burnout: Revenge's longlivity and of course the overall difficulty gets tougher in the later events as well. So no need to worry that you can complete this game in a matter of hours - because you can't.

Revenge the Xbox Live Way

If there's something that can get the blood of a gamer to boil, it's to be taken out in multiplayer by an online rival. That sort of despicable deed has to be avenged and Burnout: Revenge makes sure to cultivate our road rage to perfection. Compared to the Xbox version, the 360 version's multiplayer is much more extensive and polished. An advanced log-system keeps track of who you take down online - and who takes you down. The log-file carries over from race to race, so you clearly can see who your archrivals are, even if it's a month since you met a particular bastard. It's powerful stuff and you can easily get caught up in vicious online rivalries that will be difficult to leave unsettled, even though it's way past midnight and the boss won't look lightly upon an employer who meets half asleep.

Thankfully the multiplayer lag from previous Burnout games has disappeared and most races will take place without any lag or ghosting at all. The only frustrating part is the lengthy load times, which cause lots of waiting. Often you'll spend as much time waiting as you'll spend driving on the courses. The crash races are especially bad, since a tiny error can end your go after a few seconds, and you'll still have to wait until everybody has finished. There's a neat feature, however, as the multiplayer lobbies show your high score in crash races, and that's certainly something that will motivate you to maximise your offline scores.

Possibly Too Much Bass?

Technically speaking the sound is the most impressive part of the game. Burnout: Revenge features some of the best sound effects in any racing game, I've tried. Actually the bass is so heavy that I had to turn off my surround system, because my ears hurt! The sound is pure sex and besides the fabulous engine sounds I also have to congratulate Criterion for the explosions. They are simply awesome, and I wish FPS games featured explosions like that.

Visually the difference between Burnout: Revenge on your Xbox 360 and the other consoles is huge. The graphics are extremely detailed and sharp, and you won't notice any slowdowns or lag even when you're flying low over the tarmac with the most powerful cars. While the cars aren't quite as beautiful as the ones in Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the sense of speed beats everything on the 360. The camera angles are extremely well thought-through, too, and the car damage model is excellent. The crashes are pure eye-candy, which the great replay feature makes possible to enjoy again and again. You can even upload your best clips to Xbox Live for other Burnout gamers to behold.

Criterion's Got Game

The load times are not as good as in Most Wanted, but are still better than Project Gotham Racing 3. However, the Crash races are a noteworthy exception. Once they are loaded, you can restart as many times as you want without the 360 reloading anything. A restart takes less than 3 seconds and that's a huge advantage as the more advanced Crash races can require many tries before you get a gold medal.

The Burnout series is weird. It's the same principle every time; we just get a few new ideas every year. But despite of that every game instantly catches your attention and creates an urge to play for hours on end. Alas the single-player portion gets old after some time and thus it's the multiplayer races that will keep you entertained. The new addiction revenge part is doing that job perfectly, though, and if you like arcade racing games, Burnout: Revenge is the best you can get for the 360. Criterion has done it once again.