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Burnout 2 Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Burnout 2 is like the Fast and the Furious but without the annoying actors and pointless storyline...
Burnout 2 arrives; faster, bigger and better then the original, if you like arcade racers and are fed up with racing simulations then Burnout 2 offers everything youâd wish for and more.
Whilst we were pretty big fans of the original, the sequel goes one better in virtually every aspect; the visuals have improved, the game has been more structured and more importantly the gameplay has a greater flow to it with an improved Burnout system and crash replays.
For those not in the know, the original title featured you racing against a number of competitors in a traditional multi-lap race. Pulling off manoeuvres such as passing close by cars and driving on the opposite side resulted in your Burnout bar increasing, once you topped it off you could activate the Burnout meter and speed up your car to eye-splitting speeds.
Perhaps the only similarity between Burnout 2 and realistic racers such as the Gran Turismo series is the inclusion of a teaching mode, which youâll have to pass before you can start the main game. Unlike the training mode in GT, Burnout 2 eschews proper driving techniques for out and out hair-pulling antics. Youâll learn how to squeeze in between cars to boost your Burnout meter, along with the techniques to powerslide around corners and gain vital points for notching up airtime.
Once you pass the Driving School 101 mode youâll begin the main championship mode, which involves a variety of differently styled competitions and tournaments. The main challenges see you racing three other competitors in a three-lap race across a variety of different locations. Finishing these opens up harder challenges, including a variety of themed challenges, such as ramming a convict of the road whilst driving a cop car to beating a Hot-Rod in a one-on-one. Completing these modes adds the car in question to your roster of available vehicles. Itâs a more structured system then that which was featured in the original, and the game benefits immensely from it; whereas the original was great for pick-up-and-play sessions, the sequel provides a much more durable experience that youâll find hard to put down.
The new Burnout meter has been developed and enhanced to include a fighting style combo system, for example by passing through narrow gaps quickly youâll link up the number of narrow passes you gain, resulting in more points and your gauge growing quicker. These can be linked with other manoeuvres such as gaining air and powersliding, resulting in a substantial racing system with some depth for an arcade-based racer. Eventually youâll gain the skill to activate the Burnout meter and then driving on the wrong side of the road at 200 MPH notching up the points, which will then activate your Burnout meter again, and again until you either win or mess up. During these moments Burnout 2 is virtually unrivalled, youâll find yourself glued to the screens in a moment of pure adrenaline packed, octane-fuelled gaming glory.
Recognising the strengths of the original and working on the flaws has been the biggest strength of Burnout 2. The original had a number of good ideas and the racing experience was up there with the best, however annoying replays, unstructured gameplay and lack of depth really harmed the final product. Thankfully all of these issues have been addressed; the replays still kick in, however theyâve been reduced from three to one, which doesnât distract from the game like it did in the original. The racing experience has been enhanced by making the civilian traffic more advanced, theyâll now manically flick their lights, hoot their horns and swerve out of your way, whilst your competitors are more prone to the spectacular crashes that the game is all about. The result is a game that just feels more balanced then the original, and truly deserving of its title as a sequel.
The visuals have undertaken a massive overhaul thanks to improvements on the RenderWare engine, which has been created by Criterion themselves. Environments are now packed with detail and look startlingly with clean, varied and detailed textures. The cars themselves look very cool, especially when theyâre decorated with decals and the various paintjobs that you can unlock. Combine this with an aneurysm inducing frantic 60FPS framerate and youâve got easily one of the best looking PS2 racers to date. Itâs great that weâre beginning to see good results being pulled out of the PS2, no longer do we have to settle for dirty and repetitive textures, so take this as a warning lazy PS2 developersâ¦
Unfortunately the sound department is something of a mixed bag, featuring the usual mixture of butt-rock guitars and big-bass techno tracks. A nice feature is the way that the music kicks in when you activate the Burnout bar, however I preferred the original when everything pitched out and all you could hear was a heartbeat. Itâs certainly not bad enough to warrant turning the music off, however it definitely wonât set you alight like the rest of the game does.
