Burnout 3: Takedown - Review
Sow chaos in this fun and frantic racing game
There are two types of racing games; those that take themselves seriously, and those who don’t. From the subtitle, you can probably tell what type of racing game Burnout 3: Takedown is. Released in 2004, Burnout 3: Takedown is the third game in the Burnout series, and is a fan favorite. Some might even say that it’s one of the best racing games of all time. It certainly is one of my favorite racing games growing up, but I didn’t really play much of it back then. Well, I’ve been playing it again recently, and now I can see why people go as far to say it’s one of the greatest of all time – or goated, as the young say it today.
Takedown
Burnout 3: Takedown is an arcade racing game with very simple handling and fast paced racing. You are encouraged to drive very dangerously to fill up the boost meter. As you start your first race, you’ll find that you need to hold the boost button for pretty much the entirety of the race for a chance to win. Drift through corners, dodge traffic, drive on the wrong side of the road, and the most fun of all, take down your opponents. Takedown is a new gameplay mechanic in racing games at the time, where you slam your opponents and cause them to crash out. Once they crash, you fill up and extend your boost meter, allowing you to drive even faster. Expect them to fight back though, as they too can take you down. There are many ways to perform Takedowns: slam them to the wall, into traffic, and steer your wreck to opponents? Yes. When you crash out, you normally lose a chunk of your boost meter. However, you’re given the opportunity to keep the boost through Impact Time. Activate it and you perform some sort of air bending by steering your wrecked chassis to incoming opponents. If you successfully hit an opponent, you get to keep your boost. Who knew crashing can be fun? Don’t do it in the real world though…. obviously.
Takedown was such an innovative mechanic, and the developers did a good job showcasing it, by introducing a new game mode. Road Rage is by far my favorite mode in all of racing games. Your job is to take down a number of opponents to achieve the gold medal. You’re given a time limit, during which you have to rack up those Takedowns. The game mode ends when you reach the time limit, or when you’ve totalled your car. It doesn’t stop there, as there are many in-game rewards based on Takedowns. If you’re a completionist, you’re in luck as you’ll also try to collect those Signature Takedowns. These are performed by taking down your opponents at a certain location, or shunt them to a certain vehicle. For example: crash your opponent to a tram, you get a Signature Takedown. Some of them are very hard to do, as it relies on you being in the right place at the right moment – kind of like life. All in all, the Takedown mechanic is an art form in a way, and really made this game shine bright, making racing chaotic and hella fun, whilst encouraging aggressive and risky yet rewarding gameplay.
However, I Like Crashing More
This is the part where I began to think Burnout 3 is the unofficial Richard Hammond driving simulator. Anyway, crashing. Yes, there is a separate game mode dedicated to crashing, called umm…. Crash. It’s a staple game mode ever since the first Burnout game, and in Burnout 3: Takedown, it’s probably the best iteration of it; and yes, I’ve played the Crash mode in Burnout 2. The objective is to create the most expensive crash possible. Achieve a certain cost, and you get the gold medal. You can also steer your wreck to oncoming traffic to cause as much damage as you can. After a certain number of vehicles are involved in the crash, you can activate Crashbreaker. Press the button, and – I kid you not – the car explodes. There’s a shockwave around your chassis, and the explosion send the car up in the air, allowing you to steer your chassis even further. More air bending.
En route to and around the crash site, there are some bonus tokens to lift up or damage your cash score. There’s the bronze, silver, and gold tokens as cash bonus, and there’s a cash multiplier. The heartbreak token slashes your score in half. Some crash sites also have the Crashbreaker token, so you can blow up your car twice. Crashing is also an art in this game, because with the bonus tokens, your crash needs to be almost milimetrically perfect to achieve the gold medal. This creates a fun and addictive gameplay loop, and I do like it as well. I find myself trying hard to steer my wreck to as many traffic cars as possible, and chasing those bonus tokens to get the highest cash score possible. I still prefer the racing, but it’s a fun game mode to turn to when I get bored of it. Also, isn’t it fun to see bits of car flying everywhere?
Global Superstar
There are two progression paths in the Burnout World Tour, the career mode. One of them is the standard path, where you take part in races, road rage events, and so on. The other path is centered around the Crash mode. Each path has their own unlockable cars. While the Crash progression is based on total cash earnings, the standard path is streamlined and linear. You start with slow but decent cars, and progress up to the fastest cars. It should be mentioned that there are no licensed cars featured in the game, though eagle eyed ones can spot some similarities to their respective real-world counterparts. The best part of non-licensed cars is the damage model. The developers don’t need to comply to manufacturer restrictions when displaying damaged cars. The roof of the car bends, the doors open, bumpers just hanging onto the chassis; it’s just brilliant how extensive the damage model is.
There’s minimal distraction on the screen while racing. Besides, you only need to know which position you’re at, the time limit for road rage events, and how much boost you have. There’s no track map, so you have to memorize it by heart. However, is there really the mental space where you also have to go fast whilst dodging traffic and taking down opponents?
That being said, there are various types of race events. On top of standard race, road rage, and crash, there’re the occasional time trial events, where it’s just you against the clock. Maybe there’s some mental space to memorize track layouts after all. Special Events feature a very special car such as a fictional Indycar race car, and is also a time trial. Beat the target time, and you’re rewarded with a postcard. Nice, I guess. You do get to try out some of the best cars the game has to offer though. There’s also face-off where it’s a 1v1, and finally eliminator. Oh, how I miss this type of event, as it’s very rare in modern games. Essentially, the last placed car after every lap is eliminated until one remains. So fun. All of these events take place in well-crafted environments of USA, Europe, and the Far East. Racing through bustling streets of Thailand, New York, the Swiss Alps; it’s just incredible how much variety there is in both game modes and the environment.
We are the Lazy Generation
No, I’m not saying we’re all lazy bunch of people. I’m just reciting song lyrics because my goodness, the soundtrack’s well-tailored. Though not to everyone’s taste, due to the chaotic nature of the gameplay, it’s small wonder that the soundtrack is 100% rock and roll. The intro movie of the game paired with “Lazy Generation” by The F-Ups is cemented in the brains of those who’ve played the game, and will easily be played in yours on repeat after seeing and hearing it for the first time. It just hypes you up! Other artists such as No Motiv, Franz Ferdinand, My Chemical Romance, and many other major rock artists at the time featured in the game. I reckon rock is a fitting genre for this game. I can’t really imagine racing and taking down opponents while listening to “In Da Club” by 50 Cent. It just doesn’t fit. If I have to point out a flaw, it’s the in-game DJ. Yes, DJ Atomica is plainly annoying. Thankfully, the DJ can be shut up by turning his voice off in the options menu. Magnificent.
Overall, 10/10
This is not nostalgia bias. I truly can’t put a finger on any flaws of this game. Yes, I said the DJ's annoying, but it’s a very small flaw compared to the sheer magnificence of Burnout 3: Takedown. Simple driving physics, an innovative game mechanic, various game modes, great visuals; small wonder people regard it as one of the best racing games of all time. If you grew up with this game, I highly encourage you to revisit it. If you’re looking for something new to play, give it a go. And if I may; kids, put down Fortnite and give this game a try. You’ll appreciate just how good games were in the early 2000s, and realize that new and modern isn’t always better.
Slowly working yourself up to modern games? You really are digging into the classics. It's so hard for me to play PC games that were 20 years ago because the graphics and and mechanics are so old.