Friday, 10 April 2020

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 18: Burnout: Revenge (PS2)

I'm playing one title from my 629 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 

Previous days games can be found here, but today we have...


Burnout: Revenge on Playstation 2


I find myself wondering what to write about this game that could possibly be interesting, worthwhile, or new.

It was in my backlog because I hadn't played it - but then, after the VERY turn of the century music had played, and the VERY turn of the century intro movie had finished, and I actually started playing, it was... well... it's Burnout, isn't it?

Sandwiched between the breakout third entry 'Takedown' and the landmark 'Paradise' (Both of which I've played a lot), Revenge is much more an iteration on the former than a step towards the latter.

There are small tweaks to gameplay in a lot of areas and the titular Revenge mechanic is the largest of them - and it is a good one. Essentially you get extra points for taking out the car that last took you out. A different coloured icon over the vehicle is about as much as this amounts to, but it really works. I found myself desperate to put my rival in a wall and genuinely disappointed if I hadn't achieved this before the race was over - even if I had won.

As a polishing of the original Burnout formula it's a hard game to fault. It comes with EA's trademark sheen and there's an impressive sense of speed for a 6th generation game - with the sound effects of particularly of quality when it comes the all round atmosphere of careening through city streets. 

I'm in the minority that really can't be arsed with 'Crash mode' so for me nothing before Burnout: Paradise even comes close to that game's quality. But Revenge is the 'next best' in the franchise and if you hadn't played any of these games from the pre-HD era then this would probably be the best place to start.

Although, with that said, I'm quite partial to Dominator on the PSP. Let's face it, these are not deep games, it's a pure arcade blast from start to finish and that structure suits handheld gaming really well.



Burnout: Revenge - You've probably played it already, but if not, you should



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