Burnout 3: Takedown ROCKS!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great graphics, lots of stuff to do

Cons: Nobody plays it on Xbox Live any more

The Bottom Line: 
You can pick this great game up for cheap now, so get it!

Author's Review
I was never a big fan of racing games, so for me to enjoy one it has to offer a lot more than just a realistic experience of driving circles around a track. That being said, Burnout 3: Takedown is one of the best racing games I’ve ever played.

What I like so much about this game is that it isn’t just another straightforward racing game. While I did enjoy playing Forza Motorsport on the Xbox and the Gran Turismo series on PS2, this game is better in a lot of ways. While you can still go on races, one of the key elements in this game is taking down other racers – hence the name of the game. By taking down, I mean running them off the road and trying to destroy their vehicles. It’s a high speed demolition derby where originality gets you bonus points.

This game has four main modes of gameplay. First, there’s the standard racing mode where you go around the tracks trying to make first place while taking out the other drivers. Second, you have time trials where you must complete a track within a time limit. Third, you have the road rage areas where you must try to take down as many opponents as possible and earn points while doing so. Finally, you have the crash mode where you have to drive your car into an intersection and cause as big a pile-up as possible, and your score depends on the monetary value of the damage you caused.

The main part of the game is a world tour where you travel around the globe competing in racing events that utilize one of the four gameplay modes. Like many other racing games, you start out with a few available events, and the rest are unlocked depending on how well you do in those starting events. Eventually, you’ll unlock enough to travel the world and compete in the toughest races. I really liked that this game makes it pretty easy to unlock events quickly, so you’ll have plenty of time to practice on those tracks.

When you are in the racing modes, you will earn points for the ways you take down other drivers, plus it tallies up your total number of take downs. This score will let you earn cars along the way. There isn’t any kind of car buying system, so you only work towards a point goal and then it will unlock the car you need. You’ll soon find that as new events come available, you’ll still have to go back and work for a better car if you want to be competitive in those new events. I think this gives the game a great open field for gameplay where you won’t be stuck trying to get past just one part.

I was a little disappointed that this game didn’t offer any kind of garage type setting where you can beef up your vehicle with improved tires, engine enhancements, and so on. The cars are not customizable in any way besides the color, so it forces you to work to complete those goals before you get the better car. In a way, this system works a little better because you can tell by the competition’s vehicles if you will be able to compete effectively or not.

Because you have so many different areas to visit with a total of 40 different tracks, this game is heavy laden with menus and load screens. Sometimes it takes longer to go through all the before and after menus than it does to play an actual event, like the crash areas. I love playing the crash parts over and again, but it gets annoying having to wait on menus and track downloads every time I want to play in those areas.

The control system in this game works great, and it is pretty realistic in terms of physics. It’s not on par with the more technical racing games, but that shouldn’t be expected from a game where you can earn bonus points if you send your opponent’s car flying over a guardrail and into the embankment on the other side. You just can’t do that in Gran Turismo. One thing I found most pleasing was that your car almost never spins out of control, even when taking the tightest curves at high speeds.

I was impressed by the graphics in this game, especially in the crash zones. When you watch the vehicles pile up, debris will go flying everywhere. You may see a truck hauling a boat on a trailer, and that boat will go skidding down the highway and crash into a van that might flip over on its side land on top of a motor home, and so on. If you ever saw the chaotic opening sequence of Final Destination 2, you’ll know what I’m taking about. When you are racing, it is sometimes a little difficult to see other vehicles in the distance, but you’ll see them soon enough when you’re going over a 100 miles an hour towards them.

I wasn’t all that impressed by the sound, mostly because there’s way too much talking. The game is narrated by this DJ guy who talks a lot in between menus, and it doesn’t help when I already have to wait on all the loading screens and menus in between the actual gameplay. The soundtrack is filled with dozens of songs from real bands, but I’ve not heard of most of them. The in-game sound effects with engine and crash sounds are pretty good, but it all goes by so fast that I don’t really notice them.

This game does support Xbox Live, but hardly anyone is playing it since some sequels (such as Burnout: Revenge) have already been released. I tried several times to find anyone to play online, and only once did I find someone on there, but it was just kid testing his microphone by saying ‘helloooooo’ over and over. We didn’t even get to race.

The Burnout series of game has been one of the more successful racing game franchises around, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing Burnout 3: Takedown. It has great graphics combined with original gameplay, and it’ll offer you many hours of fun. I bought my copy used on eBay for less than ten bucks!