Title: Burnout Paradise Remastered
Developer: Criterion Software
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: Racing
Official Site: https://www.ea.com/games/burnout/burnout-paradise-remastered
Release Date: March 16, 2018 (PS4, Xbox One), August 21, 2018 (PC), June 19, 2020 (Switch)
Available on: Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Version Tested: Switch
Burnout Paradise Remastered is right at home on the Nintendo Switch. The quick hits of pure joy and near-endless replayability feel great on the go.
Paradise City, with its variety of landscapes and roads, can provide hours of joy to drive around. With hundreds of challenges and cars, it’s easy to binge Burnout Paradise Remastered without getting burnt out. The variety in the game’s offerings, from traditional car racing, to a mode in which you try to destroy your opponent’s vehicles, keeps the challenges fresh. The open world of Paradise City emphasizes a “go at your own pace” progression style.
Setting your own pace for your journey through Burnout Paradise Remastered works particularly well on Switch. With the portability of Switch, being able to put down the game and pick right back up whenever and wherever adds to the freedom Burnout Paradise introduced to the series in 2008. While the 60 frames per second refresh rate is excellent for a racing game, the small portable screen size can make seeing upcoming obstacles difficult. I can only imagine the frustration that would come with playing on the Switch Lite’s even smaller screen.
High-intensity driving
The relaxed pacing of choosing what challenge to complete next, or deciding to joy ride for a bit to find hidden secrets, is contrasted sharply by the speedy and reckless driving itself.
In a fast car, city blocks quickly come in then out of view as you zoom down the road. Narrowly avoiding traffic, I can often only hope no cars are crossing an upcoming intersection. Depending on the type of vehicle selected, a boost meter will fill by performing moves such as closely passing vehicles, performing stunts, or causing an opponent to crash. With the use of boost, cars in Paradise City can reach staggering speeds. While it can be exhilarating to reach these speeds, it also increases risk. Risk not only that you come to a sudden halt thanks to a crash, but also that you make a wrong turn, which can be an even more dramatic mistake in the heat of a race.
Burnout Paradise Remastered‘s open-world
Burnout Paradise Remastered‘s open nature doesn’t end when an event begins. While this freedom is welcome in many situations, in races, in particular, it can become a hindrance. One racing event I participated in finishes on the road between an entrance and exit ramp, just after a city intersection. In making the final turn of this race multiple times, I made the easy mistake of hopping onto one of the ramps instead of speeding through the finish line. There are numerous turns and intersections that, if missed, will have likely cost you the race. One imagines a more modern game would implement a more advanced GPS/HUD system allowing you to trace a route and follow it, but all we get is a basic map and a minimap in the corner. Glancing at these during a race can easily lead to a disastrous crash.
While crashing during a race doesn’t necessarily spell doom like missing a vital turn may, Burnout Paradise Remastered has little mercy for those who take a spill near the end of a race. With no time to regain the lead, and success only being attributed to first-place finishes, it can be devastating to watch an opponent fly past your crumpled heap and through the finish line.
Anytime I found myself far enough ahead in a race, I would intentionally go slower and take fewer risks. Despite this alleviating a lot of stress that comes with the prospect of repeating a race over and over, it also removes much of the joy that comes from driving the streets of Paradise City.
Burnout Paradise Remastered events
The variety of events to be found in Burnout Paradise Remastered ensures fun can be found by nearly everyone. If you’re yearning for destruction, hop in a vehicle focused on aggression and start a Road Rage event. Fighting the clock while attempting to wreck the requisite number of opponents can lead to hours of fun, and is especially challenging if tried in a less aggressive vehicle.
Alternatively, you can try to avoid being wrecked by overly aggressive AI as you speed to the finish in a Marked Man event. Motorcycles also feature their own events on the island and are the only events that must be completed at a particular time of day.
The open-world exists online, too. With multiplayer-specific challenges to complete, and being able to customize checkpoint locations for a race, the fun of Burnout Paradise Remastered can be extended even further.
Stunts are exhilarating to pull off
Surf Island, which was added to the original game as DLC, features a few more race modes. More importantly, it’s a much more stunt-oriented landmass than the rest of the map. Finding jumps and performing stunts such as flat spins and barrel rolls is some of the most fun you can have in Burnout Paradise Remastered. The variety of landscapes, buildings, and roads to fly off ensures performing stunts stays fresh and exciting.
The age of Burnout Paradise‘s open world is felt most often while landing jumps. Numerous jumps seem to feature ample landing room, but usually, the grass on either side of a road is out of bounds, and a crash will occur even if you should otherwise land in it safely. It can be frustrating to throw yourself off a cliff just to land off-center, requiring a drive back up a mountain to try it again.
While a specific game mode isn’t required to enjoy stunts, Stunt Run events have you fighting the clock to surpass a certain number of points earned by performing stunts. Point multipliers can be earned by actions such as performing barrel rolls or hitting billboards, which are often strategically placed to add challenge to a jump. Being careful about what stunts you attempt during a Stunt Run is essential, as crashing will reset any point modifiers you’ve gained.
There’s no story worth mentioning in Burnout Paradise Remastered, but completionists should enjoy hunting down every last shortcut and hitting every billboard to truly finish the game.
Verdict: Burnout Paradise does sometimes show its age, having originally released more than 12 years ago. Like detailing a car, there are some issues that can’t be brushed away with a new layer of paint. At its core, however, Burnout Paradise Remastered is still an enjoyable game to play and offers immense replayability, which is complemented well by the portability of the Switch.
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