If you're not familiar with the Burnout series (there's
only 2 games in the line,
people), Burnout is strict arcade racing with an emphasis on dangerous
driving and
horrendous (and gleeful) car wrecks. In order to win, you must drive on
the wrong
side of the road, drive along cars (near misses) and drift around
corners. The
more reckless you drive, the more boost you accumulate in your "Burn
Meter", which
then increases speed and dangerous driving even further. If you use all
the boost
without crashing or stopping, you have pulled a "burnout". Yeah, it's
not the most
aptly named event (before playing the game, I though Burnout referred
to the crashes,
not the boost), but you get the idea. Point Of Impact ups the ante of
dangerous
driving even further by extending boost accumulation to jumps (air) and
by executing
combos. It's easier than it sounds. Try not thinking about it.
If you never played the first Burnout, Burnout 2 may be
a better place to start.
Before you do anything, you'll go through the short but useful
"Offensive Driving 101"
tutorial that will teach you everything you need to know about how the
game works.
It's not long, probably 7-10 minutes, and if you get all gold medals on
the challenges
(which is much easier than getting golds on GT3's license tests),
you'll unlock
a pretty useful car. In Burnout 2, almost everything you do does not go
without
reward.
This time around, you'll be racing in courses that are
supposedly designed
after US cities. Of course, no real names are used, and when you see
their placement
on the map, you can't help but to wonder what they were thinking; but
when you race
on the courses you can tell "Big Surf" and parts of "Hwy 88" are in Los
Angeles,
"Palm Bay" is modeled after Miami, "Crystal Summit" is like the Rocky
Mountains,
"Sunrise Valley" is like Phoenix or a New Mexico city and the "Pacific
Airport"
is a little like LAX. Also, these cities are a little better connected
than the
ones in the first Burnout, which leads to a few interesting
point-to-point races.
Burnout 2 looks fairly similar to the first game, but
with a little more "zazz".
The textures are a little sharper, the cities are bigger, the courses
are better
designed, the cars are better detailed and so on. But the biggest
upgrade is in
the crashes. In the first game, when your car would crash, it's body
would deform
and the glass would shatter. It was fairly impressive then to see your
car fly in
a flailing glory with glass particle, but when compared to Point Of
Impact, it
seems like crap now. It's that improved. Now, not only does your car
deform and
glass shatters, but pieces of your car such as hoods, fenders, trunk
lids, bumpers
and tires will fly off depending on how hard you hit something. Plus,
the particles
are much better. Glass no longer looks like black dots, sparks fly,
smoke spews and
some random pieces of metal fly in a showpiece of a projectile fury.
With each new
crash, I kind of chuckle at what flies off my car, as well as the other
cars. It's
pretty damn amusing, and some look pretty gruesome. When you get into
the Crash mode,
creating multi-car pileups can be a glorious and devastating sight.
Sadly, your
crashes can't be saved this time around. I wonder why?
Burnout 2 also comes with a variety game play modes that
really shake things up
and keep you playing for days to come. The championship mode is broken
down to a
variety of race modes. There's a typical series, where you race (x)
number of courses,
there's the face-off matches where you can win new cars, a pursuit mode
where you
have to take out a rival car, and a couple of point-to-point races. And
there's not
just one, but two championships! Complete the first championship, and
unlock the
Custom series, where you race modified street cars. It's shorter, but a
thoughtful
inclusion. The best part of the game lies in the Crash mode. With 30
crash junctions
(15 new ones over the PS2 version), your goal is to come up with the
most expensive
and devastating car wreck you can make. And it does take some skill,
too. It's a
challenge trying to meet all gold medals. I spent at least a good hour
on one stage
trying to get a gold medal. But it's a pretty good payoff to see some
mass destruction.
Everything is evened off by a single race mode and a time trial mode.
Believe me
when I say this is one big, meaty arcade racer. This is possibly the
best and most
addictive arcade racer I've played since San Francisco Rush 2049, and
that's saying
something.
I delved into the graphic details earlier by mentioning
the game's excellent
use of particle effects and blazing frame rate and sense of speed.
Currently, there
really is no other racing game on the GCN that hauls as much ass and
throws as
much eye-candy as Burnout 2 does. While I would have like to seen some
bump-mapping
on the road (if there is, I missed it), you'll be traveling at such a
high rate of
speed, you may not notice. And I would rather have the smooth, fast
frame rate with
some slightly downgraded effects than have a chop fest with some
enhancements. Racing
games demand speed, and B2-Point Of Impact does not disappoint. Oh, and
it has
progressive scan support.
The game's sound is a fairly solid as well. Some say the
music is average or
annoying, but I actually like it. It suits the game well. It mostly
consists of
rock-like music, but it's suitable. It's also cool how the music volume
changes
when you use the boost. The car wreck sounds are loud, but very good.
And this
all runs in DPL II.
The control is excellent. Tight and forgiving, this is
the design many arcade
games should follow. And this game is well suited for the GCN
controller, which
is pretty much what the controller can handle, racing games and
platformers. I find
it pretty cool that when you click that R-button down, you activate the
boost. This
version feels much more interactive than the other versions. When you
deploy a
nitrous boost, by god, you should feel it.
If there is one major thing to complain about, is that
the game could have used
at least one more city, and seeing how you earn boosts by jumping i
air, a San
Fransisco-like city would have been very ideal. But, we'll have to wait
for a sequel,
that is if Acclaim is willing to publish a sequel (or seeing their
current state, even
being in business). But this is an excellent sequel to an already
intense arcade racing
package. With 30 courses, 30 crash junctions, and pursuit modes,
Burnout 2 is
a very solid gaming package. If you've never seen what the series was
about, or
aching for a new arcade racer, Burnout 2: Point Of Impact is just the
ticket.