Burnout was an unusual racing game. It was a cross between the Fast and Furious and a demolition derby. Finally, a game where I could drive really fast and not have to pay attention to the norms of clean and safe driving. There are no style points, none of that. It’s drive fast, drive hard and smash the shit out of anyone in your way until you get to the finish line. It had all of the makings for a really fun arcade style racer.
Burnout went through a few iterations and my personal favorites were Burnout Revenge and Burnout Paradise. Sometimes, I didn’t want to play Gran Turismo or Forza and Burnout was my happy medium and then it kind of went away, for years, like 11 years to be exact.
Now in 2019, we get a new game that follows the same format as Burnout. Three Fields Entertainment and some of Burnouts original creators got together and Dangerous Driving is what we have.
WHAT’S TO LIKE
There is a lot to like about Dangerous Driving. As I said from the beginning Burnout was a fast paced smash and race game. Dangerous Driving is faster, if that’s even possible. There are a few different modes and Dangerous Driving gives you a lot more styles of car to use throughout your time playing. You have sport cars, sports sedans, SUV, exotics and even F1 cars. Plenty of speed to rip the street with and crash into others.
In this game you drive fast, really fast and the controls are very loose. Crashing into your opponents and nearly missing oncoming traffic builds your boost and points allowing you to open other tracks and get better cars. The game is straightforward and there isn’t much nuance involved in this game. This is a game for those that wanna drive fast and wreck things in the process.
Game modes are what Dangerous Driving is all about even though there isn’t too much difference from one mode to another. It’s driving fast and smashing everything. It’s all part of the Dangerous Driving Tour when you start the game. Career mode is the hub and where everything begins. Right away you should probably get into Road Rage which is an event to where you’ll be chasing rival cars and knocking them off within a time limit to get medals. This is basically what Burnout was all about and it continues with Road Rage. Face-off is a “Lose the Race, You Lose your Car” kind of deal. Pursuit mode is probably my favorite mode because of how it reminds me of the Chase HQ arcade game and that’s where you’re the cop and you’re chasing criminal/rival cars and smashing into them to stop them. There’s elimination, shakedown and a bunch of tracks and vehicle types for you to get your crash and burn fix on with.
Dangerous Driving gets the essence of Burnout right and you can feel that when you play this game. There is nothing like the feeling of avoiding traffic and nailing turns at high speed while also trying to knock rival drivers off the road. This is handled very well in a clean looking game moving along at 30fps.
WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE
Dangerous Driving ranks high in the intense fun department but like all games it has it’s flaws. None of the flaws of Dangerous Driving are enough to hinder me from playing the game nor should it hinder you but it will limit how much time you spend playing the game. Part of the reason is the game modes. While Dangerous Driving does offer you some good variety with the play modes, I don’t know if anyone would really want to engage all of them. Pursuit to me, is the best mode because it at least seems very different from the other modes. Heatwave is fun too. I just got the sense that just playing the game regularly encompasses all of those modes anyway. I would have liked to see something really different like a 1v1 mode or you (the player) taking on a team of enemy drivers trying to stop you from finishing the race as a better survival mode as opposed to the more time trial element it is now.
The driving experience in Dangerous Driving is well, dangerous, and mostly because the controls are loose and a little sloppy. The cars you get, especially when you get into the faster series cars are aggressively fast and very hard to control. It’s hard not to slam into a wall and take yourself out sometimes just because you can’t control the car. Turns come at you fast and it’s hard to gauge when a turn comes at you. Drifting isn’t cool either, it’s not buttery smooth and more often than not you don’t feel like drifting but sliding or skidding. You’re basically fighting the car. The car controls are my least favorite part of Dangerous Driving.
DANGEROUS DRIVING IS A GOOD PICKUP
Dangerous Driving is a game that I ended up having a lot of fun playing. Like I said, anything related to the Burnout series is something I’ll always want to play. The game itself looked clean, that fast paced action is still there and smashing cars and rivals is still an intense trip. This game does need a little work however. What would make it better is fixing the drive mechanics and matching the pace of the car to the road. The cars are way too fast especially once you gain the faster cars and it’s easy to get frustrated because you can’t control your car. It happened to me. I wiped out of my own accord frequently and often.
Dangerous Driving needs an update badly. In my opinion of course. It just needs a fix that changes the dynamics of the modes and again fixes the driving. Once that happens Dangerous Driving is that much better. Either way, it’s a solid pickup for a driving game that is just unadulterated fun and not as serious as GT or Forza. At just $29 it’s not not a bankbreaker and you can play it across all console platforms and PC.
