Burnout Paradise: Mad Drivers Get Into the Game

By Connect Mason Reporter Daniel Sims

Considering its beginnings, the emergence of the Burnout franchise as a part of today’s gaming culture almost seems like an accident. It wasn’t until the second game that Criterion games realized “hey, these crashes are pretty cool.” It was the added production values made possible by Criterion’s new parent company EA that helped the third game solidify Burnout’s place as the king of arcade racing and as a name synonymous with aggressive driving in games. After spin-offs and updates like Revenge, Legends and Dominator, Burnout Paradise has taken the next major step in the franchise.

Instead of creating another “win these races to unlock these cars and use these cars to win more races,” kind of game, Criterion has attempted to turn Burnout into a wholly organic and open experience. Nearly everything about how Burnout plays has been changed in Paradise to be made more dynamic and open-ended. Some may find it to be a shock to the Burnout they know, but like it or not, Paradise doesn’t look back.

When you start the game the first thing you do is get in a car and drive. From that point, there are virtually no menus to speak of, only the open world of Paradise City. All 250 miles of this city’s roads are available to players from the first time they turn the game on. Each of Burnout’s modes is activated by stopping at any of the city’s 120 intersections and peeling out.

Paradise City itself is mapped out realistically. It doesn’t feel like it’s openly based on any real city, yet everything in it is named to make sense. There are quickly recognizable landmarks and the different types of roads and areas all work together to feel like a real metropolis stretching from a coastal downtown area in the east to the countryside in the west.

The biggest impact this open world has on Burnout is on path finding, particularly in races. Races in Paradise have but a start point and an end point. Finding the best route to the finish line is completely up to each racer. Because of how intricate the city is, it’s very easy to become lost. Following other racers is effective to a certain extent, but winning really does require proper use of the compass and road map as well as familiarization with the city’s layout. Playing this way feels like Criterion has taken Burnout and placed it in a setting similar to Crazy Taxi, only far more expansive.

Try as you might, it’s really pointless attempting to emulate the old linear Burnout experience in this game. The best way to really enjoy Paradise is to accept it for what it is and take the game as it comes.

If you start a race at one end of the city, get all the way to the finish line at the other end of the city but lose the race, there is no instant retry feature. Some might be annoyed at having to drive all the way back in order to restart that same race, but chances are there’s another race that can be activated near where they are. Paradise doesn’t really want you to care about getting that one race right, it just wants you to have fun driving around the city, and those who do will probably enjoy the game a lot more.

Whenever I finished an event and was about ready to quit I would often find another one right there and continue playing. As opposed to seeing events become available on a menu, actually having them available right there in the game space feels much more tangible which ultimately made the experience more addictive for me. Burnout has really been turned into one big playground instead of a straight line of races.

Even Burnout’s online mode has been included in and adapted to Criterion’s vision for Paradise City. Here it’s been made completely seamless and really makes a statement for online modes in racing games. The entire online menu is navigated via the D pad while playing. A couple taps of the pad and you’re already in an online game. No stops, no loading screens. Your location in the city doesn’t even change. From here, hosts can set up games in most of Paradise’s modes, set up challenges for players to meet, or just drive around in what’s called Freeburn.

Earlier I noted how Burnout has started to symbolize aggressive driving in video games. Paradise’s online mode asserts that possibly more than ever. Even when players aren’t racing or engaging in any of the official Burnout modes online play can turn into what is essentially a jousting deathmatch with cars. In fact I hope it becomes a whole mode in the next Burnout. In a server with lots of players using headsets and USB cameras which allow for mug shots showing the laughter and anguish of victory and defeat, Paradise online becomes somewhat like a fraternal battlefield.

Sadly though, the one mode of Burnout that hasn’t translated all that well to Paradise’s open world is also the main source of fun in the franchise for a lot of people: the crash mode. In this game it’s been re-interpreted as “showtime.” By simply pressing both shoulder buttons (or bumpers), your car will go into an endless roll where it can crash into other cars to rack up damage. In this, Criterion seems to have forgotten what made crash mode.

The crash mode introduced in Burnout 2 was essentially a set of puzzles where players figured out how to make just the right crash in order to cause the largest pileup. Showtime mode in comparison feels unrealistic and just doesn’t have the same thrill of creating a chain reaction. The prospect of a mode being essentially a set of puzzles probably didn’t mesh well with Criterion’s vision of a completely open-ended Burnout, but it still probably would’ve been better if crash mode had simply been made as a set of crash events activated at intersections like all the other modes. What’s happened to probably the fan-favorite mode of Burnout though doesn’t badly hurt the overall impressiveness of how Criterion has evolved the game in Paradise.

Bottom Line

Even though Burnout Revenge is officially considered to be “Burnout 4,” I really think Paradise deserves that title. It really is the first real upgrade in the design scheme of Burnout since 3. Unlike 3 and Revenge however, Paradise is meant to be played with a mentality that’s much more aloof. Many fans may not like the shift but overall I believe it’s resulted in a game that’s much more organic, tangible and addictive.