Watch your step, for you’ve just entered theGraveyard. Inside, we’ll be digging up games that have long been without a pulse. You’ll see both good and bad souls unearthed every month as we search through the more… forgotten…parts of history.
Since the day I rented the original Burnout on the PS2, it has been a series that showcased just how fun the high-risk world of racing can be. That game’s humble origins are a bit of a clash compared to what the series would become, and Burnout Paradise is as it stands the final entry in the series and among its greatest games. Burnout 2 improved upon the first, the third entry was among the greatest racing games of all-time, and while I prefer Revenge as my favorite pick up and play entry, the one I reach for when I want a long play sessions is usually Paradise because of its greater variety overall and the open-world setup fits the franchise like a glove. When you have a series all about creating chaos in a car, an open-world can work out well or be too much to handle, but Criterion never created a bad racing game and Burnout Paradise was a fitting swan song for the series.
Paradise keeps takedowns intact across its open-world while changing the formula up in some big ways. Crash mode has been removed and replaced to an extent by the stunt mode where you drive recklessly and jump around the map in smaller areas to rack up points. Crash mode was a staple of the series and even had its own XBLA/PSN release that gave the feature an overhead perspective and may wind up getting covered in the graveyard one day. Losing it, but gaining something else that aims to challenge players in a different way mixes up the skills you’ve built up over time. Both the stunt mode and crash mode feature multipliers and chaining things up like donuts and big air and mid-air makeshift tricks and spins allow you to build up point totals just like you would with building up damage totals in the crash mode.
Showtime mode is another mode that brings in elements from crash mode, although it aims to have you bounce your vehicle around as much as you may from a collision and gain as many points as possible. Both of these modes allow players to feel a similar thrill of achieving new titles and accomplishing a new high mark. It’s odd that crash mode wouldn’t be retained, but it’s also interesting to see Criterion try to do similar things but with different wrappers that each fit different elements of the open-world nature of things. The stunt run sections are minimal in size, while showtime is something you can initiate whenever you want to and it’s still better to do it in a busy section, it can be fun to try it in a sparsely-populated area and challenge yourself.
Races are an all-new challenge compared to the prior games because they’re fully open-world and don’t take part in gated-off areas, so you have to have a good sense of either the Midnight Club franchise’s races or good navigation skills to excel in them. Before, you could get by on skill and now you have far more obstacles to worry about with ramps being more commonplace and it being easier than ever to take a wrong turn. One thing I loved doing in Paradise as someone who sucks at navigation in any form is to follow other drivers and then take them down when I have a pretty path mapped out – IE go up and then left and it’s easy to remember the path without having to look at the mini-map all that much. It’s not a fool-proof method to win, but it will ensure that you usually get a top-three finish if you’re careful and can earn more licenses (basically the game’s equivalent of leveling up) and gain more cars.
Graveyard: Burnout 3: Takedown
Burnout 3: Takedown changed the game for the Burnout series and had an influence that has lasted decades.
Takedowns are still the main way to conduct your symphony of destruction, and you have more space to work with than ever before and the ability to have Road Rage events with more mayhem than ever before. The open-world allows for greater numbers to be reached in theory, but the wins will cut off prett on for you and allow the player to easily gain levels. New to Paradise are special vehicles that are unleashed on the world and when you take them down, you earn that vehicle for your roster and that can give you some killer rides that excel at different things. Tougher vehicles are fantastic for Road Rage events, while faster ones are great for races or to do jumps in. Super Jumps are also perfect for some of the DLC cars – in particular the legally-distinct General Lee.
Scenic Mayhem
Burnout Paradise was an early example of DLC being something that truly enhanced the experience. The Legendary Cars pack offered up an Ecto-1-style car, a 2008-era KITT homage, a Mexican flag-branded General Lee that could be recolored orange, and something along the lines of the DeLorean from Back to the Future – right down to it having a hover mode. The DLC vehicles were a thrill and a half and the remastered edition includes both the regular versions and their toy variants for a different look and feel to races. The biggest core addition beyond the cars was Big Surf Island, a relaxing area that has a lot of explorable places to deal out damage, explore and go on stunt runs to. It reminds me a bit of the world of Outrun and in hindsight, it’s a shame an Outrun-style red sports car wasn’t put in the roster alongside it, but some neat dune buggies were and those help give it a chill vibe.
Burnout Paradise was an early example of DLC being something that truly enhanced the experience.
Visually, Paradise has held up marvelously thanks to its remaster really just being an Ultra version on PC but with a lot more stability and all the DLC included. The remaster also runs at a better framerate consistently and has better textures on console that weren’t featured on them before. The PC version is a great value too because it isn’t hurt by the DLC being rendered unplayable by DRM and it also doesn’t require as much EA launcher bloat as before. The action is faster and more frantic than ever before in Paradise City and the soundtrack adds to the excitement with a slew of licensed fair including GNR’s “Paradise City” and outstanding sound design. Playing with a soundbar now, things like crashes pop – and even things like head-on crashes into parts of the world have an extra level of damage to them because of the crunch of the metal.
Burnout Paradise is playable in its original 360 form on the Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles in disc form or if you bought it before, while Remastered is playable on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch and PC. The Switch version is a lot of fun, and although its value has been hurt by the rise of portable gaming PCs, it was still cool to have a full Burnout experience playable on the go – and the open-world entry at that. It’s a shame the other Burnout games haven’t gotten re-released, but maybe in time, we’ll see a compilation with music changes done since it’s never had licensed cars to hold it back for future releases. Burnout Paradise is a must-play for Burnout fans or anyone who enjoys vehicular mayhem and it’s aged wonderfully.
