Graphics

Right, well… what can I say other than awesome, astounding maybe? The graphics in Burnout 2 are second to no driving game at all, and what makes it even more excellent is the fact that this is a street car game. Street racing is very hard to simulate as you have to think about the graphics of the city, the buildings, the scale, the surroundings in general, as well as the other cars on the road. Well, they do it brilliantly. When playing the game, you get locked into this world of racing your car at 120mph down a street road, driving dangerously to get more points, encouraging you to drive on the wrong side of the road, and when you do eventually crash (which is actually inevitable) the whole game stops and goes into a little cut scene of your car, and the car you just hit flying all over the place with random bits of debris, in slow motion. Instant adrenaline. In this game, the point is to go as fast as possible and earn “Burnout” which is what you get when a gauge at the side of your screen is full, then when it is, you hit R1 and go off extending your max speed and current speed from 120 mph, to anything up to 200mph depending on the car. As you hit R1 though, the world slows down and stretches around you, then suddenly everything speeds up almightily. You really have to experience this.

Sound

Ever wondered how good a games company can make sounds? Well… after the dryness of the sounds on the first Burnout, Burnout 2 was a huge difference, for a start they were good. The sounds really brought the game to life, especially the music in general, and the way it changes when you hit R1 to get that Burnout, from flowing Rock to sudden Extreme heavy metal to go with the speed your travelling at. The car sounds are also brilliant, especially the way the cars rev up randomly at the beginning when you are waiting for the race to begin.

Gameplay

Same old, same old. Same sort of thing, you choose a car, you race, you crash, you then do it all again until you have all the secret tracks and cars. Including a rather nifty hot rod. The good thing is the different types of modes, they are interesting….very. Including a personal favourite of mine “Crash” where the object of the game is to make as big a mess as possible and crash into as many things and make the most damage. Two player is also very interesting. The good ol’ Split screen mode, one on top, one on bottom… so at the start of each round it’s like “I only lost, because I didn’t know if I was the top or bottom car!”. It really is excellent and the fact that it has these different types of modes and secrets makes you want to play it over and over, even if you're bored, you will find that it is one of those games, where you just find yourself sticking in the console for no apparent reason or even without realising it.

Story

This, being a racing game, doesn't really have much of a story line. There's no air of mystery and deceit in it like Driver, and there’s no "you're a world champion race car driver" thing like in Gran Turismo, so as far as story line goes for racing games... there is none, which is a shame because there could be some interesting plots put behind this game, but instead ... none.

Summary

The game is very good, everything about it cannot be tampered with, the only thing that is apparent with it, is the same thing for every racing game – the fact that once you’ve completed it once and got all the tracks and cars, that’s it… back to the computer game draw and there you shall stay. The completing rate on this only a one. Great to play on multiplayer mode, great to complete…. Once. After that, boredom prevails. AK