It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a game that has so utterly divided the forums and comments pages into two very separate camps. When Burnout Crash was announced everyone thought it’d be a mini crash mode game taken from the original and rejoiced. Then when they saw the game in action everyone cried foul. All I will say is be careful what you wish for and the proof is in the pudding. Maybe if the game had a completely different name people wouldn’t be busy hating it and actually play the damn thing because if they did they’d realise its good fun!
Viewed from a top down perspective, Burnout Crash is if anything closest to physics puzzle game only with the emphasis on the bang not the puzzle. You steer a car that you cannot brake into various intersections of road to hit oncoming traffic. The traffic continues to cross the screen and you mission is to try to take out as many cars and buildings as possible to cause the most monetary damage possible. Now you don’t actually move in the game but you have a meter that fills the more carnage you cause which allows you to explode into flames and you can control the aftertouch to try to land where you think you’ll be most effective. If that’s to take out a bus in the process, all well and good. Now there’s a fair bit of skill involved but also a pinch of luck too as you’ll be trying to blast other vehicles in your blast radius into oncoming traffic to maximise your potential.
There are three modes. The first sees you try to cause as much trouble before either five cars escape or a screen cleaning big event is triggered such as a tornado, alien attack or plane landing on the motorway. The second is to cause the most damage in 90 seconds and the third is to crash a set number of vehicles and then try to keep them on fire to rake in the points. Each is interesting and the main mode is the most fun to see what kind set piece ending you can get. While there’s no real multiplier the Autolog makes a welcome return constantly pitting you against your friends scores and sending challenges to each other all over the place. It even charts their scores on-screen as you play.
What the game does have though is great replayability. It’s not a game for a long session but a great drop in and out game for you to kill 15 minutes with while dinners cooking or to pop on to try to beat a couple of mates scores and then jump onto something more substantial.
Positives
~Great fun in short bursts
~Satisfying explosions and carnage all game long
Negatives
~Sometimes feels scoring is down to more luck than judgement
Conclusion
A great game in its own right, if people leave their Burnout preconceptions in the glove compartment and just enjoy it for the bite sized fun that it’s aiming for, they’ll get a lot more out of it. If you expect life changing game play and a proper racer, you will find none of that here at all. Arcade, silliness abound.