Unless youve got the Elite licence dont immediatley dismiss the score. The problems take time to fully appear.
+ Fun for first few hours
+ Marked man & road rage are brilliant
+ The thrill of racing is still there, but very well hidden.
+ Absolutely tonnes to do
- Infuriating
- Grey
- Dull, tedious & repetative
- More a memory test than of skill or reactions
- Lonely races
- No offline multiplayer
Sorry for the long review (hence the summary) but I feel its necasary to get my dissapointment & frustration out.
You all should know the deal about Burnout by now & you should know that its been changed dramaticaly from the previous, structured Burnouts into a open world game.
At first its brilliant, it really is. For my first couple of hours I was driving around really enjoying myself, jumping around smashing through gates & billboards, driving fast & doing some great crashes.
Then it all goes downhill very quickly. Through the beginning licences, races are practicaly impossible to lose. You can (& will) spend a huge amount of time going in the wrong direction & still actualy win a race. Wheres the sense of achievement or satisfaction from winning in that? There is none.
Then you reach the Burnout Licence. Suddenly the difficulty is ramped right up & all the problems start showing themselves. The biggest problem is that you cant instant restart races. You have to drive all the way back to the start line. Not a problem some say as another race is only around a corner but this is only true early on & the mountain area to the west is short on race loactions & is the furthest distance to the event filled city area. You begin dredding the races that lead you into the mountains which is a shame because at first it was my favourite area. Now I hate it. ts just a poor design choice no matter how you look at it. Especialy seeing as though every car has a burning route which have to be restarted if you loose to win the improved version of the car your driving. Also as you progress you run out of races so you must do this eventualy & when you keep almost winning a race to get robbed at the last second, having to drive all the way back is extremely annoying. Especialy as the traffic gets increased when cruising so youll spend a lot of time driving back & crashing. Each crash increasing your anger as you just try to get to the start line as quick as possible.
It also doesnt help that unless you know the city inside & out - no easy feat when its this packed with off roads & hundreds of side streets. None of which are blocked off so you dont accidentaly go down the wrong ones - its basicaly luck if you win or not. The game has a compass that tells you which direction to head in & your indicators & signs at the top of the screen flash when A turn comes up that you need to take. The problem is these normaly come on too late & you past the turn before it even starts. But even if it does come on early enough with this being a city rather than a race track, its full of 90 degree turns that are impossible to see past the scenery until its too late or are actualy nigh on impossible too take without slowing down a great deal.
The next in incredibly annoying feature is the 'shortcuts'. Again unless you memorise the city its highly recommended you stay on the road & never take a shortcut. The reason being that 90% of these so called shortcuts trap you & send you completely in the wrong direction. So you end up loosing the race through no fauilt of your own. The whole game feels more like a test of memory than skill or reactions. Not once did I feel great satisfaction from winning a race as it just seems so random if you win or not. Sometimes its incredibly easy & the next time its incredibly hard. I also never enjoyed a race.
The city itself, although brilliant at first, also gets very dull & repetative. You'll grow very tired of the greyness of it all after a while. All teh races finish at one of 8 locations so eventualy it feels like your just redoing the same races over & over again. Theres no more exotic locations to unlock, no more 'that track was great, I want to do it again' its all just one great big grey city. Very depressing.
With the open city you also end up getting seperated from the pack & spend most the race by yourself. A farcry from the brilliant, tight races of old where every second is a edge of you seat battle with the other cars. If it wasnt for your position number youd have no idea other cars were involved at all.
Then theres the new tacked on stunt races. These are such an afterthought its insulting. You get points for jumps, billbourd smashes & barrel rolls off ramps. The later licences require you to spend the whole run boosting, never crashing & memorising (again) all the jump & billboard locations to get stupidly high scores. It just feels tedious & is incredibly dull & frustrating.
Another loss is the Crash events. Fanastic puzzle style score attack levels have now been replaced by 'showtime' which can send your car into a crash & you bounce along the road using your boost. Its fun but is nowhere near as brilliant as crash mode. Also the cars disappear when wrecked so you cant sit back & admire a great site of broken cars.
The crashes themselves are also toned down. They are more realistic but have lost some of their flare & madness. Id prefer the massive spark & air focused crashes of old to these new roll along the ground with black bits flying off crashes anyday.
My last complaint is also one of the biggest. The multiplayer aspect is dropped altogether for online only. Want to race a mate or challenge the to crash scores after youve been to pub? You better send them home to get online them as you cant race someone in the same room anymore due to it being too difficult to do in the open city environment. I find it ridiculous that its easier to play mutliplayer against people 5 hour plane rides away then it is to play someone sat next to you in the same room. Its laughable.
After all that negativity I guess I should point out its plus points.
The new 'marked man' event is great fun. You have up to 4 black cars chasing you to the finish line trying to take you down. Its fantastic adrenaline fueled rush.
Also the Road Rage races fit brilliantly with the new open world aspect. No finish line to worry about just drive & takedown the other cars. Fantastic, pure fun.
If the whole new dircetion sits well with you & you can forget all the infuriating points mentioned above then the city is a fantastic place & the game could last you almost forever its just chocked full of things to do such as ruling roads (each road has a time trial & showtime score) & the huge amount of unlockables & smashables. Its a mammoth task to hundred percent it. After 25+ hours & the elite licence I only had it 80% complete.
Lastly whe it does all come together, your in a race & all the cars are surrounding you & you know where your going, fixated on the vanishing point, boosting along at 200+ MPH, dodging traffic then its a thrill thats unmatched by any other racing game.
Which makes it all the more depressing knowing that it could have all been this brilliant if they just sticked to the structured race courses of old. If you want a new Burnout get the 360 version of Revenge. Or if youve already got it, wipe your save & start again. You'll have a lot more fun than you will with this.