burnout paradise remastered switch review

Some will find the minimalist, idiosyncratic user interface too raw, there are no licensed cars, and the late-00s rock soundtrack is now dated. It’s a real challenge to go back to this stripped-back approach after years of more cloying and didactic racing-game design. You have to learn the environment, watching the mini-map and the compass. There are no fast travel points, no waypoints, no trinkets to collect. The array of events, from stunt challenges and races to takedown runs where you have to smash a set number of cars off the track, is varied yet focused. The environmental design, the spatial syntax of the map, the way the roads loop and curve over each other into great spaghetti junctions is masterful and perhaps has never been bettered. Taking a ramp at top speed, jet-boosting on to an overhead rail track, then smashing down on to the street again makes you feel as if you’re in the best Fast and Furious movie ever made.Įverywhere there are little secrets to find, gates to smash through and hidden routes to discover that will take you from the mountains to the city in a series of death-defying plunges. Dab the brakes and you can drift in neat, curved lines, recalling the glory days of Sega’s great coin-op racers. The cars tear through corners like wildcats, the slight understeer enabling chicane arcs through oncoming traffic. Paradise doesn’t look as good as, say, Forza Horizon 3, but the retro sheen and flattering handling gives it a classic arcade feel.īurnout Paradise feels incredibly good to drive. This remaster’s enhanced resolution and frame rate bring it up to modern standards. You can swoop between races, events and stunt runs without ever stopping, feeling out the very edges of your driving ability. You start races by pulling up at any set of traffic lights you attempt stunts and jumps simply by driving around and finding promising-looking ramps and you repair and repaint your car by driving through auto-repair stores. While most racing games force players into menus and waypoint-dotted map screens, Burnout Paradise keeps you in your car as much as possible. Then they drive – and they don’t really stop. Players are dropped into a junkyard, where they choose a car. Paradise City is a vast playground, its intricate streets, highways, tunnels and overpasses open and explorable from the start. Others, however, found its open-world structure exciting and beautiful.

W hen Burnout Paradise arrived in 2008, some players resented its diversion from the previous Burnout games, which focused on tight circuits and vehicular destruction.

Burnout paradise remastered switch review