Burnout Crash

It’s strange to think that the Burnout series has been around for ten years. Ten whole years of burning and crashing.  I’ve been hooked on the series since the very first game and I must have played all iterations of the series over the years.  Even setting a world record with other Ready Up staff playing Burnout Paradise.  It’s been a few years since we had a new entry in the series so I was eagerly expectant at a new Burnout to play.  Okay, so this isn’t the Burnout you are used to, in fact, there is no accelerator button or boost button in the game and it’s all viewed from a top down perspective.  Are you still reading or have you run away in shock?  The fact is, you should still be reading because this game is something special.

I’ve seen several forums set alight by the fanboys moaning about how this isn’t Takedown or a new Revenge; the last laugh is on them.  Burnout Crash is a new take on the series, taking everyone’s favourite crash mode and making it a true arcade experience.  You view one junction at a time from a top down view-point, much like the old Micro Machine games and all you initially have to do is steer your car into the traffic to cause a crash.  Cause enough damage and your crashbreaker meter fills up. When it fills completely, a press of “A” explodes your car and all around it starting off chains of damage.  While exploding you can guide your car to hit other objects to keep your chain going; the more damage, the greater score you’ll get.  If you can keep your multiplier running, your scores can be immense, but there is a technique to doing this.  If you fulfill various objectives, mostly damage caused, you’ll earn stars which then unlock more cars to use.  Everything can be destroyed from buildings to vehicles and hidden bonus cars that ramp up the score.  It can get really hectic, trying to keep an eye on your car and not let any cars escape from the carnage.  If five cars escape, it’s game over and you WILL be pressing “crash again”, lots of times.

The main mode is called Road Trip, where you tackle one junction at a time, spread over several different areas including desert, seaside and even Roswell themed locations.  Each location has unique modifier power ups that are launched when you destroy a set number of cars.  Each junction features three modifiers including storms, aliens, tidal waves and holes in the road; this all helps to boost the score.  If you are unlucky enough to miss an escaping car an ambulance will turn up and if it escapes the level you regain a life.  If all your lives are intact a bank truck appears and if you destroy it you can get lots of extra points.  The two other modes on offer, Rush Hour and Pile Up offer quick gameplay, almost akin to the original series where you have limited time to cause as much destruction as possible or keep the fires burning.  It’s all hugely addictive and easy to start over again when you haven’t met your targets.

Music and sounds are used to great effect in game, with various well known songs appearing at certain points to let you know what is happening in all the carnage.  My personal favourite being Spandau Ballet’s “Gold” popping up when you blast the hidden gold car.  Yes, there is a slightly annoying range of voiceover phrases, but I found them easy to ignore, much like everyone’s favourite DJ from the older Burnout games.  The Autolog feature from the most recent EA driving games has also been integrated into the game to post and receive challenges from your friends who also own the game.  Oddly there is no global leaderboard which seems like a missed opportunity, but it’s not a gamebreaker.  It’s easy to send a challenge to your friends but infuriating at times trying to beat the seemingly unattainable high scores they’ve set.  You can also play with Kinect controls which is easy to steer but  found it tricky to move after exploding a crashbreaker; a nice touch but I preferred using the controller.   Everything looks and sounds lovely, in a very familiar Burnout way, and that can only be a good thing.