Title: Burnout 3: Takedown
.............................................. System:
Playstation 2
.............................................. Genre:
Racing
.............................................. Publisher:
Electronic Arts
.............................................. Developer:
Criterion Software
.............................................. Release: September 7, 2004 .............................................. Online: Yes .............................................. ESRB: Teen (T)
..............................................
Unlike the racing events the crash modes do not have separate events, however each crash event is set up very differently and is enough to keep you playing through them all. The main idea of the crash mode is to rack up as many crashes as you can. At the end of the crash event the game will count up all the damage you have caused in dollars. Then based on the amount of damage you caused to the traffic in the area you will be awarded a medal, and if you did extremely well and got somewhere around one million dollars in damage you might even make it into the newspaper. This is another neat feature about the game. If you get into every newspaper article available you will unlock a fire tuck which you will be able to use in multiplayer modes.
If you think it sound a little crazy getting around one million dollars in damage with just a car you might be right. But added into each event is a number of bonuses in the form of icons on the road. Some of them are at ground level and some of them require you to use a ramp to get to them. The most important of these icons is the times two and times four multipliers. At the end of each crash event, if you got a multiplier, it will multiply your final score by either two or four depending on which one you got. If you were able to get both of them the game will only take the highest multiplier, which would be the times four. There are also a few coins scattered around the levels that will give you extra money when totaling up the final score. With all these good bonuses in the game it is very easy to get your score up so a heartbreaker was added into each level. The heartbreaker will cut your score in half as well as cancel out any multipliers you picked up. The heartbreakers are usually continually placed next to the times four multipliers or in an easy to hit place. If you end up hitting one of these you might as well restart the level because your chances of scoring a gold medal are shot.
The last bonus that is included in the crashing events is the crash breaker. In each crash event you must have a certain amount of car crashes before you can use this feature. This feature allows you to explode your car by simply pressing the A button. You can either use this to create more damage by sending a few surrounding cars airborne or you can use it to go a few feet down the road to get a multiplier. There are also one or two crash breaker icons in each level. If you are able to hit one of them your car will explode without having the required amount of crashes, it also does not cancel out your chances of getting your normal crash breaker.
Because of the amount of icons and bonuses in the crash modes there are quite a few ways to control how much damage you will do after you have initially crashed. For example, you could crash into the traffic and then use your crash breaker and aftertouch to get to a number of bonuses, even including another secondary crashbreaker. Both the crashbreakers and the aftertouch gives you a way to control the amount of damage you do after you have already crashed into something.
Many good games today get crushed because they have no multiplayer capabilities. Luckily Burnout 3 does not fall into this category and has a wide range of events you can play with a friend or with others over the Internet.
