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Burnout: The Remix. Burnout Dominator is a combination of previous games and allows the developers to mix and match different features and tracks from previous games. The end result is that this is still the twitchy, fast-paced Burnout you’ve grown to love but also introduces some new nuances and wrinkles to the formula.
Burnout Dominator doesn’t do anything radical with its gameplay modes. You’ll still find standard races, road rage challenges (crash into enemies), drift events (have to drift for a certain distance), and lap time events. The game does include a new mode in the form of manic races. In this mode, you gain points by driving as recklessly as possible. The game does not include a crash mode, which has been a series staple for some time.
The core gameplay in Burnout is still the same. Your goal is drive as crazily and dangerously as possible to shave off those last few seconds from your lap time. The game rewards you for crashing into other cars, nabbing jumps and driving into traffic by giving you boost. Once you fill up your boost meter, you’re encouraged to go for burnouts i.e. use the entire boost until it depletes. The game also has a supercharge meter that fills up as you boost – if you time it right you will always get burnouts which will be replaced and can go through the entire track using boost. Of course, driving at such high speeds further complicates things and presents a challenge.
Burnout Dominator includes offline multiplayer on both the PS2 and PSP. The game performs well whether you’re playing offline in split-screen mode on the PS2 or six-player local wireless on the PSP. The multiplayer mode makes no compromises, but it would have been nice to have online multiplayer, especially on the PS2.
Visually, the game looks like more Burnout, which is good and bad. On the plus side, the framerate and sense of speed is great on both platforms. On the negative side, the car models and textures are simple and at times blocky. Even the crashes which were a highlight previously are toned down here. This is more noticeable on the PS2 than PSP, giving one the impression that the PSP was the primary platform for the game. That said, the PS2 version does support native progressive scan.
Burnout Dominator is a decent entry in the franchise but it doesn’t really do anything to propel it forward. For that, we’ll have to wait for Burnout 5 on next-generation platforms. Incidentally, while the game is very similar on both the PSP and PS2, it is more impressive on the handheld since the graphics hold up better and the compressed gameplay doesn’t stick out as much. -- Michael Taylor, PGNx Media
---- Mar 20, 2007
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