I just recently got into the racing game scene again thanks mostly to some killer Steam deals, (seriously if you're not using Steam and you are a PC gamer there is something very wrong with you). I used to play all manner of racing games, most of my N64 game library is racing games for some very strange reason.Each new racing game I got though always seemed worse than the last. I was constantly disappointed with games like Top Gear, some RC Car racing game I got, and a few other racing sim games that I can't remember the names of at the moment. I noticed the only racing games I was actually enjoying were from Nintendo like F-Zero, Mario Kart, and Wave Race. That bothered me a bit and made me wonder if I actually like racing games at all or do I just like the wacky fun of Nintendo games instead. So through the whole Game Cube/PS2 era and even this current gen I didn't bother with any racing games for fear I would continue to be disappointed.
But I knew I loved the chase, perfecting time attack scores, edging out a narrow win on the final lap, and so on. All of those things I knew I enjoyed from F-Zero and Mario Kart but I could never find that satisfaction in any other racer.
Teleport to today and a lovely string of Steam deals that let me get Grid, Dirt 2, and Burnout Paradise all for under $25 total. I started off with Grid and immediately fell in love. I would do a review of Grid or Dirt 2, but those games are such a perfect mix of arcade/sim that it would just be nothing but gushing.
Enter Burnout Paradise, a game that I have oddly logged more time into than either Grid or Dirt 2 and yet I feel it to be quite inferior to both of those.
Graphics:
Not too shabby in the looks department. The cars are shiny, sleek, and overall very pretty. The landscape could use some work although I can't run this game at max settings so that could be my fault. It just seems to lack decent lighting effects all around, though, again that could just be my mid-range computer. What is dumb is I can run Grid and Dirt 2 at max and they look way better than Burnout...optimization EA...optimization...
Sound:
This game has a very large selection of music, mostly stuff I hate, but all of it is quite fitting for this game. Many times a song will pop up at the most opportune moments and makes me smile like crazy. Like if I'm in a mission where I have to wreck X number of cars I'll get some awesome Beethoven track to go with it perfectly.
The car noises themselves aren't as apparent, at least not when compared to Grid or Dirt 2. I don't sense the "umph" in these vehicles as much as I think I could have with some proper effects. No matter, the sounds of cars smattering together are pretty good though.
Gameplay:
I admit I really should have looked into what this game was before buying it a little better. I was not aware in the slightest that this game is an open world, free roaming racing game. I really wish I had been aware though, because this is really not the type of racing game for me.
The setup is you're the car in one large city, and you travel to intersections which all house an event of some kind. The events are, standard race, stunts, marked man, and crash other cars. There are a TON of events, but the main issue is each one is essentially the same after a few hours of play. Where in most racing games the variety comes in the courses you get, Burnout has one course, a large city. The gameplay itself is very good. The cars go very fast, fly far, and you get crazy awesome boosts and crashes are satisfying.
The city is covered in ramps, and you can do extra things like hunt down and destroy billboards, or find all the hidden areas and extra cars, but that tends to get boring. Again the main issue I have is the severe lack of tracks as I was not aware what type of game this was going in.
Let's break down the events for a moment. In the standard races there are many starting points, but only 5 total end points. So you will see the same checkered flag over...and over...and over...The only upside is you can choose how you get there and what streets you take and what shortcuts you want to use. The game gives you suggestions, and honestly what the game says to do is usually always the best route. Following the path you want though can become annoying as you constantly have to pause the action to check your map...lame!
What is worse, is in the marked man event you get the SAME 5 end points, they never change. In marked man cars are out to kill you and you have to get to one of the 5 end points before you die 3 times. It's fun...but again it feels exactly the same as a racing event minus the AI blood-lust with the exact same 5 end areas.
The wrecking cars event is probably the most fun though. It's stupidly simple to wreck cars and always satisfying. I have no issues with this honestly. Except that I always won it so early and the game doesn't stop until the time runs out even though you reached your allotted wreck amount. So I end up pissing away two minutes actively avoiding cars, because wrecking them GAINS you 10 more seconds!
The worst events are the stunts. You have to get lucky to win these I think. The scores you have to set are SO high after a while, and the time you get is VERY small. You have to chain your stunts for the entire amount of time to win really. But the problem with doing that is how easy it is to wreck in this game ruining your combo. The issue with chaining a combo is you have to maintain stunts consistently, or use your boosts. Of course, doing this makes you drive recklessly, and at high speeds cars tend to pop out of nowhere effectively ending a combo.
There are certain stunt areas though that make getting a high score REALLY easy as it essentially sets you right in front of multipliers and super jumps in one long strip. Other stunt areas leave you with next to nothing, and often I find myself hunting down that long strip of awesome wasting half my timer in doing so. Thankfully, as long as you maintain a chain without wrecking the timer is meaningless. You can stay on 0:00 forever really as you get a "Final" streak if you will, to get more points.
Doing events allows you to increase your license and get more cars essentially. The goal, I guess, is to get the best license possible. Each license has an incremental goal. At first you have to succeed at a few events of your choice then you upgrade. Then the events reset so you can do them again for your next upgrade, however you have to do more this time. So not only do you end up racing to the same checkered flag ALL the time, you end up doing the EXACT same events over and over again.
Conclusion:
Now I won't lie when I say I did have fun with this game. It is the kind of game that made me do that thing where I'm like "Just one more event then I'll quit," except I wouldn't quit. But it has an empty sort of fun to it. While playing I would stop and reflect on what I'm actually doing, and realizing I've "been here, done that" a good dozen times and try to understand why I'm still doing it. Just because I have 13 events left for the next license? What for? New tracks don't unlock, there are only a few more cars left to get, and what happens when I do that? I looked into it...nothing happens. You get the best license...and that's it. Game is done. And it doesn't even take all that long to do. Maybe 12 hours or so of grinding the same events constantly and that's it.
I mean the game is even shorter if you're not a tard like me and kept playing. You do a few of each event, jump a few things, hit a few billboards...crash a car or two...and then that's it. You have now experienced everything Burnout has to offer save for unlocking all the vehicles. That's why I say I got an empty feeling playing the game after an hour...because I've done it all already and yet I'm still doing it.
Is that the mark of a good game, or me feeling guilty that I paid $14 for a game that only took me an hour to really do what I wanted in it so I kept playing anyway knowing there weren't any more goals to set? I don't have an answer to that, but it is a functional game in its own right. Sadly though it really feels like a chore doing the same events over and over for seemingly no real reason chasing after some vague goal that barely exists.
*just one more event*
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