Burnout Paradise became a classic in the racing genre. Ten years ago, it was one of the first racing games enabling the player to discover a huge city without boundaries. Nowadays, this isn’t so innovating since a lot of games like Forza Horizon or Ubisoft’s The Crew took that formula and made it even better. Since there’s no new Burnout releasing, EA thought it was time to bring back the king with a remaster. Is this a remaster worth getting or should we stick with our modern racing games? Time to find out in our review!
Return of Burnout
Burnout was once one of EA’s most popular racing games with big releases like Burnout 3 and this Burnout Paradise. Although Burnout 3 is considered as the best amongst the fans, Burnout Paradise was the best-sold entry in the franchise. It’s no surprise the public liked this virtual paradise this much. A combination of fast cars, a solid soundtrack, and a city free to explore simply worked amazingly well in 2008. It looked like the Burnout franchise was here to stay until EA decided to cancel the franchise due to a lot of people leaving Criterion Games, the team responsible for the franchise. It’s a shame we won’t see any new Burnout games releasing in the future so what better way than to soften this pain with a remaster of the most popular one in the franchise? The only real question you need to ask yourself, however; is this game still worth it with so many other options currently on the market?
A gorgeous remaster
First things first, EA did go all away to remaster this Burnout to perfection. From the moment you turn it on, you’ll be impressed with its new and improved graphics. The cars never looked this good and the open world also received a facelift, making it all a lot prettier than you ever remembered. The game runs extremely smoothly and it’s a true pleasure to play this on your modern console. Of course, not everything looks as sharp as it should, some elements in the environment aren’t as pretty as they are supposed to be, especially the buildings can look rather dull. That being said, the game did keep its fast pacing so you really don’t have that much time to look at your surroundings. As far as remasters go, EA did a decent job in bringing this game to the modern consoles.
Fun but too easy
Now, graphics alone aren’t what make a game into something you should buy, the gameplay itself is the most crucial part for sure. Burnout plays very fluently and thanks to its open approach, you’re always free to go where you want. If you’re not really feeling like clearing some of the missions, you can simply enjoy your time discovering the city. Just like the original version, Burnout Paradise is packed with hidden things to discover and literally tons of races to compete in. Setting up a race is easy and won’t take any of your precious time away. At its core, the game offers an incredible variety and options, the only problem is that there are a lot of better games out there nowadays.
The biggest issue is the level of difficulty. Compared to more modern open world racers, this one’s simply too easy to clear. The first races are extremely easy to finish and the more you advance, the better your cars become, taking away the true challenge if you ask me. Of course, this offers a lot of fun for gamers who aren’t really into hardcore racing games since this one allows some mistakes. The crashes are even part of the game’s selling points (and yes, they are extremely gorgeous). If you want to spice up the difficulty, you can always race against other human players, it’s just a shame the difficulty can’t be changed in the menus.
Conclusion:
Burnout Paradise Remastered isn’t a bad game and the graphics really got improved a lot compared to the original. It’s a bit of a shame the level of difficulty isn’t any higher and compared to the more modern open world racers, this one simply doesn’t offer the same amount of quality. If you’re looking for a high paced racer where crashes form a huge part of the actual gameplay, this game should be the one for you.
