Burnout Dominator Review
Burnout Dominator is another game from the renowned Burnout series which started out under the ACCLAIM logo. You might also find the title of Burnout Domination. The entire series has been incredible so far and this game here promised to be the best one yet (just like any title that is a sequel to a previous success). When I first put in the game in my Playstation 2 I got a strange feeling. At first glance the game is very similar with Burnout Revenge but if we start to look deeper we will find several differences.
It was very nice from my point of view to see a game that is now more focused on drifting and speed chains instead of takedowns. The speed you get in this game is quite hardcore so to speak and there were several occasions when I just yelled: “Holly S@#$” at some events. What was disappointing was actually the game’s best asset. I am talking about the possibility to chain different boosts together. This is a feature that was available in the past and it was now put back in the game. Is this a sign of lack in ideas for the Burnout Series or a different approach? Maybe the developers are trying to go towards a more realistic game instead of the explosion filled previous titles. We will only be able to see this with future releases of the series and until then we can only speculate on this.
Another good aspect in the game is the introduction of Signature Takedowns. You can now unlock different parts of the race course by taking out an opponent through areas that make the shortcut path accessible. As new events are unlocked you will find that these shortcuts are very useful and can be the difference between a gold medal and no medal at all.
The biggest flaw in this game is the lack of some types of races that have been very popular. We do not have traffic attack anymore; it was replaced with Maniac Mode. This race type is basically a “drive as ruthlessly and as crazy as possible mode”. Leaving this aside one huge flow from my point of view is the lack of “Crash mode”. Burnout Domination was basically transformed in a drive as fast as possible using burnout chaining boosts. There is far too much emphasize on this part of racing.
To sum up a simple conclusion I can simply say that if you are a fan of the series the game will most likely disappoint you. I know it did me. If you are a first timer on the game though you will like it and it is probably a good game to start the series. It looks good, speed is very high, crazy driving and a lot of fun. The only problem is that (for fans) the game seems to be released just because it was possible and EA had enough money to do so.