Burnout 4: Revenge Review (PS2)

By Tikipod
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Updated: 1st Jan, 2006

Age rating: 3+

What is it?

It’s a car racing game where you get speed boost in exchange for driving into oncoming traffic.

Is it fun?

Yes but not as much as Burnout 3, you spend more time skipping though the reward movies/menus sometimes than actually driving. At least that’s how it feels at times.

Is it worth the money? Â£34.99

No, unless the online mode has something fantastic going for it, save yourself a wad of cash and get Burnout 3 instead.

Why?

Burnout 3 was the first in the series that I played, and it was really good fun. It wasn’t without fault, but I was looking forward to the next instalment. I quickly found myself disappointed.

GOOD – The ingame art is much more gritty and detailed looking, which makes learning tracks take longer, but that’s not so bad once you played the game a while.

BAD – The music is as awful as ever, no worse than B3, but sadly no better either – why they couldn’t put a mix of styles on is beyond me, some pop, some rock etc.

BUMMEDOUT – The main menus look pretty good, but become ridiculous when you start playing the game and discover its `reward` system. Drive in a race, get a medal (not hard) and, oh, you’ve unlocked a new car and track! Oh and then you have won some points then get entered into some big thermometer of how crazy a driver you are. And then there are a million and one reward movies that get played for things like `crashing someone into a boat`, `dropping onto an opponent from above` and `turning a corner whilst picking your nose`! Ok well I made up the last one, but it may as well be true, there are just so many ways to get a slap on the back and two thumbs up from the game that you just give up caring. More game time and less reward menus to chew though next time please!

GIMMICKY – The new traffic checking seems like a good idea at first, but I think it actually weakens the game. Traffic checking means you can ram small and medium sized vehicles (if travelling in the same direction as you) from behind, if they then hit other vehicles (like bowling pins) you can earn boost. They can also be used to hit and takeout race opponents. It’s good fun but removes some of the skill of negotiating the traffic, and also means to earn boost you can avoid driving into traffic moving in the opposite direction to yourself, so you do it less often. I much preferred Burnout 3, when you had to dip into the oncoming traffic to catch up with other racers else you’d have no chance of catching up. It made the risk-reward process much more pleasurable.

SPACIOUS – The new tracks are generally good, sometimes feeling a bit cluttered but much more open. In fact the games’ one true saving grace is the alternate track routes, the night time city road course being the best example:

Powersliding round a corner with 3 opponents on your tail, you realise that
you are going too fast, slide off the track and… POW – it’s
ok! You haven’t fallen off the course and crashed, but have instead plopped
onto the road beneath! Yay, you can keep on moving with no pauses.

Moments like this are great fun and remind me of one of the later tracks on Destruction Derby 2 (Playstation1) where the tracks would criss-cross over. I wish they had made more multilayer courses in Wipeout Pure (PSP).

BOO HOO – The crash mode is similar to before, but the pickups have been removed (both a good and a bad thing) and there is now a childishly annoying golf swing style starter meter to get you car moving. Oh and the game laughs at you if you muck it up, erm great – more time wasting!

GRRR – One final dumb thing is that if you race, and end with no medals you are given the option to race again, cool. If you end with say, bronze, you aren’t allowed to retry immediately, you have to go through all those `reward` menus AGAIN! Why EA, oh why?