Burnout Review [2001]

Burnout was a game made by Acclaim and released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox back in 2001.

Burnout is a very good game, it has a good variety of tracks and it tests your evasive and driving skills. Some downfalls is that it has only 9 cars and the game is fairly short itself. This is the menu:



The driving view looks like this:



Gameplay: You might think this game is easy, but its really not. The game puts a lot of vehicles and you have to try your best to dodge them.



This isn't mandatory but if you keep crashing, the CPU is going to leave you behind and you'll eventually lose.



There's a Championship mode, which is basically the Grand Prix for this game. The Grand Prix is short, but the stages take a long time to beat. There are required positions though. In the beginning, you can be 3rd or 2nd and still win. But later on, you have to be 1st every time, with the increasing difficulty of the AI as you progress though the game. There are only 4 cars per race, including you, so that means your always racing with 3 CPUs (unless its a face-off). Every time you beat a regular Grand Prix, you unlock a face-off, which can be accessed through the "Special" mode in the Menu. You will go against a car you haven't unlocked yet. If you beat it, you win the car. There are only 4 face-off challenges. There are 4 types of cars: "Easy","Medium", "Hard" and "Special". The easy ones are somewhat easier to handle. The "special" contain a truck and a bus, but they are unnecessary to use since they're extremely sluggish and you probably won't win if you use them. But you can use them for fun and to challenge yourself.



Theres also a boost bar, you fill it up by going fast on the other side of the road and not crashing, doing near misses, etc. Once it gets full you can use your boost (which acts like nitrous). If you used all your boost without stopping your bar goes back up to half after you finished using it.

Also in some of the stages, there are lots of curves and you never know if theres going to be car until you crash head on and crashing is the last thing you'll want to do since it takes a long time for them to put you back in the course. And literally touching a car will make you crash. After you beat all the Grand Prix (and the 2 marathons which takes over 12 minutes each), you unlock a mode which is basically free mode (with no traffic cars). Theres a time attack mode in which you try to accomplish the best time. Single race is when you have a regular race with the CPU, not much different from the rest of the modes.

Graphics: I wouldn't care about graphics in this game, its the game play that keeps me attracted, and it was released about the same time when the 6th generation of consoles came out.

Sound: The sounds of crashing, drifting and all that is superb. The music in this game is pretty good. I'll provide some links so that you can listen to the music.

YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Fatal Instinct
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Heart Failure
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - In Control
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Menu
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Nought 260
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Oversteer
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Whiplash
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - 66 Kicks (My personal favorite track).
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Credits
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Dead Ahead
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Downtown Drift
YouTube - Burnout 1 OST - Eurorush

These were all composed by Stephen Root.

My experiences: I really like this game, I bought it back in late '08. One thing I didn't like is that when one car crashes, the accident is huge, so if your right behind the car, your probably going to crash. One thing that pissed me off is that every time your going through a two way, a car just passes right in front of your face. It seems to happen only when your there, not when the CPU is there. Also if your all the way ahead, you never seem to leave the CPU behind. I personally like the Roadster. Even though there are only 9 cars, I don't mind that much. So my overall grade for this game is a 9.

I recommend this game to you if you want to get your driving, patience and evasive skills to be tested.
Thanks for reading my review!