Cars going in the same direction as you can now be punted right out of the way with no penalty whatsoever (in fact, you earn boost and Burnout Points), which kills a lot of the intensity of the racing in Burnout stone dead. While the game is named after the Revenge mechanic introduced in Burnout 3 (wreck an opponent who has wrecked you, and you earn a Revenge Takedown), this year’s main gimmick is traffic checking. I usually get the best results by detonating the Crashbreaker nearly immediately following a crash. That, or lose all of your boost when you fail to hit the opponents. The Crashbreaker has been added into the races and becomes available after you reach a certain rank, so now you can blow up your car after a crash to exact some explosive revenge.

Racing is still very much a part of Burnout Revenge, of course. You’ve still got your Grand Prix events (which no longer allow you to retry individual races, because Criterion hates you) and Burning Laps and all that stuff, but the focus is so heavily on the crashes and destruction that racing feels almost like an afterthought at times. Even the car select menu instructs you to “choose your weapon.” I’m surprised the back of the box doesn’t say that this is not your old man’s Burnout, although “FORGIVENESS IS FOR LOSERS” isn’t all that much better. The US version’s tagline was “Battle Racing Ignited”, which really hammers home what this sequel is all about. Revenge is probably the most divisive Burnout game to this day ( Paradise has its detractors as well, because the open world structure wasn’t necessarily the best choice for Burnout), with some fans loving the new mechanics and others being decidedly less enthusiastic.īurnout Revenge takes the focus on Takedowns and combat racing that was introduced in Burnout 3, and dials all of that up to eleven. I know there are many fans out there who absolutely swear by Revenge and if that’s you, good for you! I can understand why you’d love this game, I just personally don’t care for the changes Criterion made to the gameplay.

It’s not a bad game per se and still handily beats most arcade racers from its era, but it’s just not as good as the other titles in the Burnout series. In fact, I think it may be the weakest Burnout game, not counting the DS version of Legends and the Crash! spinoff. I’ve been waiting for this part of the retrospective with a bit of anxiety, because there’s really no way around it: Burnout Revenge is not exactly my favorite.

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