Take me down to the Paradise City
Where the grass is green
and the girls are pretty.
Oh won’t you please, take me home
-Guns ‘N Roses
Criterion’s Burnout series has always had a very special place in my heart. From the original to the God-like Burnout 3, to now, I’ve never criticized the series too much, and I’ve always welcomed a new release. Granted, I haven’t been able to take the time to play through each one, but I’ve never held a grudge against the series (which, when you know me, says a lot about the game). But recently…
“Ew” I said, looking at the description of Burnout Paradise. “They took my Burnout and tacked on a sandbox environment.” Really, who could blame me for thinking that? Sandbox games are either very good or very bad, with the occasional exception finding some sort of middle-ground, and when a sandbox structure is added to a series, it usually lands in the “very bad” category. So, criticizing Burnout Paradise was very easy for me.
And then I played it. And it all began to click.
Burnout Paradise gets everything right from the moment you press start to play. The opening cinematic tells you about the city, shows you the starting car, and then lets you go in less than a minute. Paradise will never, at any point in time, hold you back or force you to do a mission or drive somewhere. Of course, doing events is the main way to get new cars. If you’d like to stick with your starting Cavalier though, Burnout doesn’t have a problem with it. What you do in the game is completely up to you from the moment you start the car.
Paradise has a heavy focus on exploration. Aside from the first Junkyard (Car selection) and AutoRepair (drive through it to repair your car), the in-game map is a blank slate. At each stoplight, there is a different event for you to try out. That event will be marked on your map for future reference, and the same applies to any “Drive Thrus” that you’ll find when cruising around Paradise City.
Events in the game can vary from Races to a specific point, making other drivers crash in Takedowns during a Road Rage, or trying to rack up enough points during a Stunt Run. And choice of car is important to winning an event: you might break time records with a Speed car, but you won’t last long in a Road Rage without an Aggression car. By winning events, you’ll unlock new cars, and with enough events won, you’ll upgrade your license. With each license upgrade, the events become playable again, so you can replay them for another win. How you upgrade your license is up to you, as Burnout doesn’t care if all your wins are from Stunt Runs or Races or whatnot.
There’s no set course to the finish line either, so it’s up to you to determine the best route to the end. And in order to find the best off-road and on-road routes, you’ll need to drive around and get familiar with the city.
But really, you won’t mind cruising around the graphical beauty that is Paradise City. Each sunny road of Paradise is well detailed and gorgeous, and the gleam of sunlight of the roof of your car is eye-catching. And with hidden roads, jumps, and areas around every turn, you’ll be amazed with how much there is to do in Burnout.
Online is a blast too. With the Freeburn Online mode, you can roam around the city with a group of friends or strangers. And if you want, you can compete in a race, try and beat each other’s Time or Showtime records (Paradise’s Crash mode), or work together to complete various Team Challenges. It all blends together in a mode that works wonders.
But even with all the bells and whistles Burnout has, that’s not to say that life in Burnout Paradise is…well, paradise.
Sure, the game might advise you blaze your own trail to reach the finish line, but as you’ll soon find, that’s not the best advice. The game’s AI tends to stick to the main roads, and with no huge arrow or closed roads to show you where to go, you’re often left lost and confused if you don’t follow the computer-controlled cars to the finish line and boost ahead last minute. And while you might have found a great hidden road that goes above traffic, watch out that it doesn’t lead you away from the finish line instead of towards it.
Also, after touring Paradise City for a few hours, you’ll soon grow to hate traffic. Traffic gets more annoying than a cave full of Zubat in Pokemon. Constantly, you’ll find yourself zooming along, having the time of your life, when some idiot soccer mom in her damn SUV decides to drive slow and get rear-ended by your Nakamura Ikusa GT. And then, everything goes into slow motion, as your forced to watch every second of your car becoming a heap of scrap metal. While watching your crash might be cool the first ten times, after a while, you’ll be screaming for an option to turn it off or skip it. And here’s a quick question: why is it that when I ram into the back of an opponent in a race, I brush it off, but yet collapse when I hit a station wagon. I’m driving a huge, fat VAN and I can’t handle a station wagon?! WTF?!
After a while, everything can grow to be repetitive. Yes, going off an insane jump is always fun, but doing another Race might not be your cup of tee. And with no real map to guide you along to these hidden spots, you’ll often just find yourself driving aimlessly with no end in sight. Luckily, online Team Challenges add a little excitement to Burnout, but if you’re a Silver account, you’ll be Googling for jump maps of Paradise City quickly.
All in all, Paradise City can either be a repetitive hell, or it can live up to it’s name. It all depends on how you want to play and what you do in the game. While it’s not as epic as Burnout 3, it can be the driving sim of your dreams. Whether it’s all online, beating every event, or just cruising around to relieve some stress, Burnout Paradise leaves it all up to you. And if that isn’t a great sandbox game, I don’t know what is.
9/10
Good: Great graphics, controls, online
Bad: Repetitive, annoying wrecks
WTF?: Why so many limited options, Criterion?
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