Every now and then, I get a hankering for casual open world racing. This usually leads me to what I think is one of today’s best racing games – Forza Horizon 5 – albeit within the arcade genre. I’m not very fond of the sim racing experience on a controller and I don’t have a racing wheel to properly enjoy Assetto Corsa, so shut up. Driving aimlessly across the desert and tumbling off of mountaintops is fun and all, but the vast openness eventually gives way to boredom. I need some limitation in my open world arcade racer. I need actual destruction in my driving game. I need Burnout Paradise.
I’ve been a fan of the Burnout series since Burnout 3: Takedown on the PlayStation 2. Before that, I was playing Ridge Racer or Gran Turismo, both of which are great in their own ways, but they just never fit my driving style: Reckless. Imagine my surprise when I found a game that actually incentivizes you to absolutely obliterate your opponents. I immediately fell in love with the series, just like most everyone who played it back in the day. Everything the previous games are, Burnout Paradise is, and then some. It’s just packaged in a different way.
One of the ways it differs is the open-world setting and the freedom to choose how you want to progress through the game. Every intersection has one of five events – Race, Road Rage, Stunt Run, Marked Man, and Burning Route – which you can tackle however you see fit, and the higher your license ranking the faster and more aggressive the opponents become. This is also one of the faults of the game. Every event is very samey, especially when you’re doing the literal same events multiple times the more you play, but if you don’t feel like racing or performing takedowns you can always try out the new Showtime mode. It’s like Crash Mode but different, and you can do it at any time – even during an ongoing event.
Many argue that the open-world style doesn’t fit with what Burnout is, but I disagree. You’re racing through a city, just like the previous games, only this time there are no big yellow walls keeping you on a set path. You can get from point A to point B however you see fit. It feels very similar to Need for Speed Underground 2 when you challenge another random driver, except there’s a set finish line instead of a distance requirement. If you know a faster route – and after playing enough, you will – you can go your own way. Like that one song, ‘Girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne.
Speaking of music, the soundtrack in Burnout Paradise is the best in the series. Unfortunately, a couple of songs are missing from the remaster – ‘Finger on the Trigger’ by Never Heard of It and ‘Everyone Has Their Secrets’ by Showing Off to Thieves – but I can still vibe to the rest of the songs. Except for, funnily enough, ‘Paradise City’ by Guns N’ Roses, probably because it’s always the first song to play when you open the game. That being said, you can adjust when a song plays, and if it plays at all, so I leave the song disabled. Except it still plays at the menu. Thankfully it doesn’t play for long, as once you get into the game the song quickly changes when it’s set to not play.
Performance-wise the game runs on anything, probably because it’s basically the exact same game with high-res textures. I have played it on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Nintendo Switch and none of them struggled for a moment. On the PC side, things are a bit weird, though. Visually it’s almost identical to the original release, seeing as how Criterion already implemented higher-res textures and better overall visuals on the PC version. The benefit with the remaster is the online multiplayer plus the addition of the DLC that I personally was never able to purchase for the original release. They shut the Burnout Store down before I could get to it, though I did end up purchasing most of the DLC on my PS3. That doesn’t matter now since it’s all in one purchase, with a bargain bin price tag across the board at this point.
The reason this review is seemingly geared towards the original rather than the remaster is because the remaster really didn’t change much. You may think this is a bad thing, and for some games I would agree with you, but with the way Burnout Paradise plays, in my opinion at least, there’s not much you really can change without it becoming a completely new game overall. So, they just gave it a new coat of paint, albeit the same color, brought the online multiplayer back, and threw in all the DLC. It’s a (near) perfect remaster for an already (near) perfect game.
If you like arcade racers, driving recklessly, and can find it for $20 or less, this is an easy one to recommend.
Might have to give this one a go soon.