Burnout: Revenge Review

By Kristan Reed Published 17 March, 2006

Sweeter than ever.

Version tested: Xbox 360

When it came out last September on the Xbox, we can't deny our initial reaction to Burnout Revenge was one of slightly muted disappointment, and looking back it's easy to see why. This beloved series has become one of our all-time favourites, so to see Criterion shamelessly pandering to the mainstream left us with a feeling of resigned disappointment. It was - in the main - way too easy to blitz through the game, the new traffic checking system felt like one idea too many, and the online implementation was still not quite there.

So, as pointless as porting the game to the 360 appeared, it at least gave Criterion a chance to tweak a few elements of the package, buff up the visuals, and deliver a much better online game where you can now exact revenge on friends and enemies. Whether it's worth paying almost double for what amount to minor improvements is a moot point, but we'll try and leave the pricing squabbles out of this discussion for the sake of argument.

If you haven't played the Xbox version, then effectively what you're in for is some of Criterion's best work to date, alongside ideas that you'll either love, hate, or warm to eventually. As ever, the game lives up to its billing as the fastest and most destructive racing game out there, offering a brilliant mixture of racing challenges, time trials, and crash junctions.

Rival school

'Burnout: Revenge' Screenshot 1

Scratched to hell, but not a dent in sight... what's this car made of?

In the standard-issue camp, Criterion dishes up plenty of regular first-past-the-post racing against five AI opponents, as well as Eliminator races, where the last placed car gets taken out every 30 seconds, and Burning Lap (against the clock) to keep the traditionalists happy. Beyond that, there's the all-new Traffic Attack, where the idea is to shunt same-way traffic out of the way to cause as much damage as possible while topping up your time meter; Road Rage, the bash-your-rivals-to-gain-time-and-medals mode; as well as 50 Crash events - ten more than the original PS2/Xbox version, but still 50 less than Burnout 3 featured, remember.

The big, controversial difference between Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge was the new ability to gain boost from 'Traffic Checking', or blatting anything from behind smaller than a bus. Not only can you use it to top up your boost bar, but turn the road into a giant moving snooker table where you can casually set up explosive trick shots to potentially take down rivals in new and exciting ways.

At first, Traffic Checking seems like an irksome new addition to the series that makes it nearly impossible not to boost your way around every event. If you're not gaining boost from Checking, you're gaining it from driving into oncoming traffic, gaining air, drifting, takedowns... basically anything that doesn't involve crashing into oncoming traffic or an immovable obstacle. Even then, crashing gives you a chance to use aftertouch to steer your way into rivals after the fact and - you guessed it - gain more boost. Boost boost boost. It seemed like one of those needless features bolted onto a nigh-on perfect game, and one that turns the game into something a lot of us weren't 100 per cent charmed by, because boosting now felt obligatory rather than a special reward, and that in itself felt wrong.

Half and half

'Burnout: Revenge' Screenshot 2

That'll teach him to fiddle with his iPod at 209mph.

Part of the issue here is just how easy the first half of the game is. Criterion seemed to be under the impression that it needed to make most of the game so ridiculously simple that all you had to do was press one button, vaguely steer in a straight line and win a medal. And with so much of the game unlockable by winning nothing more than the ludicrously straightforward Bronze medals, you have to play for absolutely hours on end to meet anything approaching a true challenge.

In Criterion's defence, it felt the need to make the game more accessible to the masses - and it does - but on the other hand, it singularly manages to alienate the core audience that hold it dear to their hearts. Fortunately for the long-term fans of the series, the real meat of the game is in there - you just have to wait a while for it to appear. Cleverly, Criterion makes the already massively improved World Tour progression structure even better by reserving the Gamerscore Achievement points for those people willing to go all the way and complete each tier on Perfect - no mean feat. With this carrot dangling above you, there's far more incentive to replay each and every event until you've extracted all five stars from each, and with that in mind the true challenge within some of the events really comes to the fore.

The progression structure's a clever sod, too, because it allows fans of specific types of race events (i.e. Crash, in our case) to go through much of the game playing these events exclusively. Eventually, of course, you find yourself lacking enough points to make it to the next tier, but on the whole the game does a great job of allowing you to play things in your own order, rather than prescribing a route.

Burning love

'Burnout: Revenge' Screenshot 3

Who's going to clear up all this mess. Not me, I tell thee.

When you get through the sixth, seventh rank and beyond, it's more than evident just how good Burnout Revenge really is, and how the Traffic Checking system isn't just the annoying gimmick it appears to be for so long. It's still not quite the Burnout you might love from the past, but eventually it's an idea you start to warm to, and eventually start to admire. Once Criterion starts turning up the heat and you're weaving in and out of lorries and buses, smacking vans into opponents and setting up huge trick shot chains, you can't deny that it's actually very exciting indeed. If only the game wasn't so insultingly easy for so long, you'd probably be more forgiving.

As we always point out, the Crash mode provides huge amounts of fun, and it's no different here, with 50 of the buggers to conquer - some of which are among the most devious and destructive yet. Since Burnout 3, things have changed a notch, with the removal of the dastardly multiplier that took a lot of the skill out of the experimentation, replaced instead by a target car that does effectively the same job but in a slightly less obvious fashion. Better still, it's much quicker to restart failed attempts than before; making it even more compulsive than it was in the original version. Admittedly, it seems a little easy to gain Perfect ratings on many of the junctions, but you'll still have heaps of fun going for the highest scores - particularly now that you can finally compare your offline scores on Xbox Live, which as we all know is good for bragging rights.

As far as technical improvements go, of course, Criterion's reputation for visual excellence was practically untouchable in the last generation, so it hardly needed to do very much to make things irresistible - but at first glance there's not been a massive leap in quality if you're used to playing the game in 480p in the past. Sure, it's wonderful seeing the game in pin-sharp high definition on a big widescreen HD-equipped set, but given how amazing it looked already, you'll not really be blown away by any massive leap in standards or effects.

Heart attack

'Burnout: Revenge' Screenshot 4

Wheels on fire.

In a game of spot-the-difference, you'll immediately notice how much the cars now scratch progressively over the course of a race, how the cameras seem to show things off more spectacularly, and that there's less slowdown - but you'll still experience the odd chug on very rare occasions, so it's not flawless beyond improvement. But just to be clear, on the 360 it's an incredible looking game, that's possibly the best looking racing title on the platform to date, and one that moves at face-altering speeds that leave your heart beating out of your chest when things really get crazy.

The audio deserves a special mention, too. Not only does the game now sport the legendary theme music from Burnout 2 (a lovely touch), but the in-game audio has to rank as the best we've ever heard in a racing game, with roaring engine noises, booming crash effects and a plethora of other wonderful effects that add immensely to the atmosphere. Even the soundtrack - despite the odd blip - features largely impressive tunes from a whole selection of top notch left-field acts. Thumbs up Criterion, you got this one right for a change.

On the whole, Burnout Revenge simply feels like one of those games you're quite likely to develop quite a short-term obsession with. With so many events to conquer (179 in total), and all those perfect ratings to go for, you'll spend at least 20-odd hours unlocking everything, and probably another 30 or more perfecting each and every event. If anyone tries to claim the game lacks depth, laugh in their disbelieving faces for as long as you've got breath in your lungs. With each multi-level course criss-crossed by devilish short-cuts, some courses take ages to truly master, and even then you'll squeak through certain events by the seat of your pants. It's just such a fast and furious game, there's often a very small margin of error to play with, but one that does admittedly let you off as far as the AI goes. So often race leaders evidently 'hang back', allowing you to pip them at the post, which is a bit rubbish, but certainly eases the frustration at times.

On and on

'Burnout: Revenge' Screenshot 5

Look! We can do sparks!

The fact that Criterion has also taken big strides in providing a much more rounded online experience is a bonus, too. Although there are still only three main modes (Crash, Race and Road Rage - a chasers versus the chased team-based mode) the ranking system now follows a much more logical leaderboard approach, and all cars are available to everyone. Not only that, the new Revenge system works a charm by extending the premise of the single-player 'takedowns' into the Race and Road Rage face-offs. So, for example, if someone shunts you off the road in a race, the game's very clear who the culprit is. Not only does the game remind you who 'got' you, you can also see who you've taken down, who you've settled scores with and so on. The brilliant thing is, if you ever meet these players in the future it'll keep a permanent log of your rivalry and give you a chance to settle scores way down the line.

Not only that, the Terms and Conditions page only ever shows up the first time you play online, the matches are generally lag-free, with no inexplicable drop-outs and you can also compare off and online scores in series of leaderboards. On that point, though, Criterion needs a thorough ticking off for making it a real counter-intuitive faff to easily compare offline lap times and crash scores without going through hoops. Stupidly, you actually have to log into the Live section of the game to even access this, even though it ought to be transparently visible from the in-game World Tour mode at all times. A small point, but an important one, nevertheless.

'Burnout: Revenge' Screenshot 6

Now's definitely not the time to bail out.

And on top of that - as a footnote, really - you can now record clips of your finest moments from any of the replays in the game and upload them for others to download. Similarly, people can recommend clips and you can browse the Top 20 most downloaded to see what the truly elite players get up to. While it's not perfect, it's a cool little community feature that's a nice extra, though certainly not something we'd play around with much, if we're honest.

Whether you agree with EA's decision to re-issue this on the 360 is kind of irrelevant. Sure, if you've bought it already, then there's very little reason to get this unless you're an obsessive fan, but if you resisted buying the original, then Burnout Revenge surely ranks as by far the best arcade racing game on the platform right now, and is without doubt as exciting a game as we've played on the system. Traffic Checking might irk you to begin with, but as long as you've got the patience to get over the easy first half and play the game in the right spirit, there's tons of face wobbling fun to be had. Stick with it, go for the Perfect rankings and go online with it - it'll be worth every penny.

8 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Toonster #1 6 years ago

    FIRST!

    Edit: Nice review btw.

    /reads review
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/06 @ 17:50

  • thefilthandthefury #2 6 years ago

    Glad to see this turned out well. I've only ever played Burnout on the PSP to be honest, which was fun. Think I might borrow this before commiting though, I'm not big on cars.

    However, smashing them IS rather fun :D
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/06 @ 17:53

  • kangarootoo #3 6 years ago

    This will be the racing game for me it seems. PGR3 is awsome, but just not quite my cup of tea in terms of gameplay style.

  • Tomo #4 6 years ago

    Hmm. My first foray into the Burnout series was with Legends and it was good to start with but suffered the same repetitiveness that I find with most racing games :[

  • tengu #5 6 years ago

    Racing games bore me as well, but hey, at least this one has nice crashes.

  • krudster #6 6 years ago

    Where? Even Play's charging £25/£30...

  • Darren #7 6 years ago

    The 360 version is the definitive version. The game was brilliant on the Xbox (apart from the falling-through-the-road bug), the 360 version is equally brilliant except it's less buggy (I played it for five hours last night and didn't fall through the road once), it has REPLAYS (yeah!) and a really brilliant online mode. Shame about the longer loading times but I guess that's the price we have to pay for prettier hi-def graphics and awesome sound effects...

  • Derblington #8 6 years ago

    "It's 12 quid for this on PS2 and Xbox."

    Awesome - I got the 360 version for £10 today :p

  • krudster #9 6 years ago

    Having played now for close to 20 hours, I *did* find one occasion when I fell through the world, but that was on a latter Crash juntion where I drove on miles past the prescribed point - but it didn't break the game.

  • petebritish #10 6 years ago

    I got this today and am very impressed. But having been used to Burnout takedown, I am still avoiding all traffic and crashing because of it.

    Note to self Must hit cars must hit cars..

  • S.J.Rogers #11 6 years ago

    Well I may as well spend my money on this then as The Outfit appears to be crap..!

    Although I have not played NFS-MW. Decisions..?

  • S.J.Rogers #12 6 years ago

    What would you suggest? BR or NFS/MW?

    I have Full Auto, obviously not too good with decisions.
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/06 @ 18:56

  • krudster #13 6 years ago

    BR shades it. NFSMW is good, but this is more fun.

  • S.J.Rogers #14 6 years ago

    Thanks, looks like a trip to my local Game store is in order.

    Good excuse to take back and trade in Full Auto..!

  • Xerx3s #15 6 years ago

    Looks nice nuff. Not my kind of game though. And whats up with the supplied screenshots when you review an EA game? 0_o

    "Say all you want about EA, they publish consistantly good titles. "

    You mean the EA from the other dimension where everything is the opposite from here? -_o
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/06 @ 19:47

  • SwedBear #16 6 years ago

    Good review as usual and I agree with this one ;).

    Been playing it for a while and it's really fun. For fun I loaded up the Xbox-version of the game and raced the first race on both. the difference in visuals are really big. Playing this in Hi-Def is so much niver than in low-res on the Xbox. On the Xbox the distance fade away in a light blur while you get a much longer viewdistance here. Also everything is much sharper and nice looking.

    true, if you already got it for the Xbox and played it there's probably not any reason buying this but for anyone not played it I definitely would recommend shelling out a few more pounds and getting this version.

  • l_p_4_7 #17 6 years ago

    The review mentions that the soundtrack has improved.

    Is there a full list of this soundtrack at all?

  • ClassicD #18 6 years ago

    I'm tempted.

    I looooooooooved Takedown but decided not to invest in Revenge because they'd introduced the traffic-checking, half the buzz was not hitting the traffic and they've removed that now. However the fact all cars are available right away online (please correct me if I read that wrong) is a good thing, I could live with just playing it online.

    Not sure.

    btw, Derblington, BOR 360 for a tenner? I assume you traded something?

  • kgthatsme #19 6 years ago

    ffs, show some IN GAME screenshots, not the same we've seen for 6 months

  • Derblington #20 6 years ago

    ClassicD - no, I work for a game company.

    richardtock - I agree, the 2 page reviews annoy me a bit too. I always liked the fact that the reviews were on one page, regardless of the length.

  • Gnort #21 6 years ago

    I have to agree with the previous posters - please go back to the one page reviews (no matter how long the one page was). The fact that reviews weren't broken across multiple pages was one of the best aspects of Eurogamer's layout.

  • gazareth #22 6 years ago

    You guys are just annoyed that you have to click an extra link to get to the score.

  • Dire #23 6 years ago

    Shocked that this game got a 8/10

    ho hum.

  • charlesbronson #24 6 years ago

    Its two pages so that they can get double the banner advertising money

  • Furbs #25 6 years ago

    Yeah none of the other sites do multipage reviews do they?

    Oh look, Gamespot - 2 page review (preceeded by a click-thru ad too).
    Oh look, IGN - 3 page review (preceeded by a click-thru too!).

  • Genji #26 6 years ago

    @Furbs

    I think the argument was that they don't want EG to be like those sites.

    And I would agree, except that EG reviews are consisently more fun to read than IGN reviews, even if they're 2 pages. IGN reviewers blather on for 5 pages in half-page-long paragraphs and poor grammar.

    As long as EG can keep the writing quality right up there, I'll be happy.

  • krudster #27 6 years ago

    I'm not 100% the soundtrack has improved - I'll check. Maybe I'm just more familiar with some of the songs now, and some of the bands. I'll do a comparison when I get a mo.

  • krudster #28 6 years ago

    And as for the two page reviews - I tend to write much longer reviews than the freelancers because I can, and seeing as you get all this blood and sweat (and sometimes tears) for free, is it really asking that much to click on a link to the next page when you reach the bottom? Or are people just annoyed they can't just skip to the score? ;)

  • kangarootoo #29 6 years ago

    "is eurogamer taking backhanders from EA?"

    Is lavalant boring the shit out of every man, woman and child who glances at this thread with his oh so uninventive bias accusation?

    I never use my ignore button, so its my own fault I guess.

  • smelly #30 6 years ago

    @krudster

    LMFAO!

    Well said!

  • smelly #31 6 years ago

    Bloody hell! Get over yourself already!

  • myk #32 6 years ago

    IMO the fake specular bloom (the blurring of very white objects) spoils any graphical improvements they've made. It looks rubbish, and after the sublime HDR in PGR makes Burnout look very current-gen. The scratches are nice, but you only really see them for about a second after the race (so completely irrelevant).

  • charlesbronson #33 6 years ago

    One page reviews is what it should be. And yes I like to skip to the score before reading the review. Then I can read your opinions knowing which way you are heading with them.

  • Eighthours #34 6 years ago

    Been giving this a bit of a bash online. The new "Revenge" stuff is far more interesting than I gave it credit for - it really provides even more of an impetus than before to take certain people out, to settle scores, to reignite old rivalries. Compelling stuff.

    The one player game is a bit painful at the moment though, as I very nearly completed the Xbox version and want to see the later levels, as well as the new crash junctions.

    There is one online issue at the moment. Certain people can't join races with certain other people due to router/ISP incompatibility. Seems to be a theme of the 360's service at the moment.

  • Derblington #35 6 years ago

    lavalant - the last paragraph does say that there's nothing really worth having IF you've already played the Xbox/PS2 version. Not everyone has more than one console, so if the 360 is all you own and you haven't played the game then this is worth getting, hence the 8.

  • Hicksy #36 6 years ago

    Despite having this on xbox i decided to chop GRAW in for this as it was not proving to be my sort of game and boy am I glad I did!

    This version is considerably superior to the xbox version. The graphics are mind blowingly fast and detailed. I found the xbox version to be grainy at times which made it very hard to see the high speed burning laps, that is no longer the case. The framerate is also silky smooth.

    If you are a big Burnout fan then it is definitely worth an exchange!

  • smelly #37 6 years ago

    Hicksy: Are there any gameplay improvements, etc?

    Or are the changes purely cosmetic?

    I dont have a 360 yet, but if the gameplay has genuinely improved (extra levels or something), this'll go onto my list as my first reason to own one.

    - I do this every time a new console comes out to justify my purchas - i need at least 10 games I want to play, which arent available on other platforms (or if they are, this is the "definitive" version, and not just for cosmetic reasons), before I comit to a purchase. I dont know why i bother, i always end up with all of them anyhuws!
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/06 @ 11:41

  • Derblington #38 6 years ago

    Smelly - the online has been revamped a little, a few extra crash junctions and, I believe, some new cars. Apart from that the game is the same but it's exceptionally good.

  • smelly #39 6 years ago

    Hmm.. doesnt sound like much of a reason to upgrade my xbox version then.

    Ho hum, will wait for the next version.

  • Talha #40 6 years ago

    Well, on the risk of sounding like a broken record, this game is STILL broken IMHO - at least the single player part. Why?

    1 Traffic checking. Takes away 90% of the skill out of driving, and isn't much fun after 4 or 5 events
    2 You no longer need to steer all that much. With traffic taken care of, the bends are not that tight to begin with and the scenery is quite forgiving.
    3 You are getting boost for driving straght, taking a corner, jumping, falling, crashing, not crashing.. you name it. When was that ever fun?
    4 The tracks are few to begin with, and largely similar, if beautifully rendered
    5 The cars make meaningless progression in terms of ability, and handed to you when they make least sense.
    6 Most of the times I took out an opponent, I did so without knowing or intending so.
    7 By the time there is some chance of having fun with the game, you are already fed up of it. The samey tracks are the main culprit
    8 Since when arcade driving meant taking the fun out of driving?

    Sorry for the rant - my Burnout (PS2) is lying 60% completed, and I no longer feel like playing it. Any takers?

  • optimusprym8 #41 6 years ago

    far too much bloom effect and far too easy but once you replace your eyes, it's a larf.

  • Feanor #42 6 years ago

    I think I read somewhere elese that the rather annoying "golf-swing" meter has been removed from Crash mode in the 360 version. Can you confirm this, krudster, and does it make Crash mode more fun?

  • kangarootoo #43 6 years ago

    @Hicksy

    What kind of TV have you got? Burnout strikes me as exactly the sort of game that would benefit greatly from HDTV. Do you find that the 360 version is sharper (rather just prettier) than the XB one on a normal telly?

  • Triggerhappytel #44 6 years ago

    "Whether it's worth paying almost double"

    You can easily pick up Revenge on the Xbox or PS2 for under £20 now. And with Revenge 360 retailing at anything from £40 (online) - £50 (high street), is there really any point in buying this?! Forgive my cynicism, but for little more than a graphically-spanky update is there any point?

  • Helios #45 6 years ago

    Is there a single race mode yet?

  • miiiguel #46 6 years ago

    For the mates who are complaining abou this beeing too easy: I bet a pile of money that you've not reached 'Elite rank"..., or you can actually be all real good Burnout players... .

    edit: I'm just about to perfect all events, I just lack 8, and burning laps are freakin hard to perfect, damn!
    Edited by 1 at 23/04/06 @ 19:45