Danger Zone 2 – Review – Feel the burnout

The highway leading to the danger zone is, in fact, a real road this time

Danger Zone 2 is, in all but the name, a direct successor to the beloved Crash mode in Burnout Revenge, in the best case. manners. This colorful car destruction game is what I had hoped for when last year 's disappointing Danger Zone put its action in a gray box without the joy of a warehouse. It laudably brings your cars – yes, plural this time – back to the ground and on realistic closed-circuit tracks where they can really perform. And by "perform", I mean "accidentally and horribly destroying, twisting your car in a flaming mass of twisted metal and causing stacks of 80 cars with your Smashbreaker explosions."

The Burnout Crash formula has always been brilliant, and it's still as enjoyable as ever.

That's what the Burnout Crash mode has always been: Arcade-y runs leading to late-end collisions. It all boils down to a grand finale, in that if you destroy enough passing cars by conventional means, you will receive a Smashbreaker – basically a bomb inside your car that sends explosive shockwaves to cause even more damage. Once you've triggered it, you can guide your burning car – in the air – to other cars or power-ups that allow you to continue the accidents. When the dust settles, the damage is counted and you get a score reflecting your destructive power. The formula has always been brilliant, and it's just as enjoyable as ever.

The change of scenery is the best improvement that Danger Zone 2 brings compared to its predecessor. The bright sun and open roads allow this suite to stretch and Crash Test scenarios take advantage. Not only does Danger Zone 2 feel significantly faster than its predecessor – and the visuals do a very good job of transmitting that sense of speed – but many junctions now have a sometimes long run to the explosive sequence of accident at the end and welcome secondary goals are incorporated to animate this extra driving time. You might need to crush a number of cars on your way to the danger zone, get there by using a continuous turbo boost, and so on. Trying to accomplish this adds an extra layer of challenge and fun, which in turn will give you drastic chances of scoring gold or platinum prizes on each track.

Of course, the physics is a little exaggerated, but it goes on the side of the fun

The power-ups come back, forcing you to think carefully about where to aim your car before and after the outbreak of your Smashbreaker explosion. junction of accident. Catching cash mics quickly increases your score, while pressing the Smashbreaker icon gives you an extra precious chance to blow up your car. Each of the 23 outdoor junctions (29 if you count the six tracks of training) has enough challenges and variety of layout to not be ranked first, and you will have to think strategically about how to do it. Address each traffic puzzle. The integrated leaderboard of the first Danger Zone comes back happily, allowing you to try and improve your friends and add a little organic replayability to each junction in addition to simply winning a better medal .

Zone 2 Danger also the number of cars to drive to eight, including an F1 racing car (again, hi Burnout!) And a Hulk-like trailer, which can fork through any other vehicle. And they are deformable now too. Of course, physics is a little exaggerated, but it's kind of fun to let you send traffic-controlled cars flying left or right, depending on whether you press the Square or Circle button, respectively, close to it. them.

Of course, I also want more leads. I will almost always want more leads.

This sequel even manages to sneak in a bit of the rest of Burnout despite the technically restarted Crash mode: some run-ups of crash junction, as well as the three bonus tracks that unlock After completing kernel 23, use Burning effectively Lap mechanic. Basically, you have to go as fast as possible, turbo boost and all, as clean as possible. This dangerously increases danger zone 2 as part of the preparation for a collision, because when it serves as the sole objective of the three bonuses, it's not as much fun without the ability to crash. (That's exactly what I felt about Burnout, too.)

Apart from that, I'm glad to say that, unlike the first Danger Zone, all that I can do, it's kill this one. Of course, I would like to be able to replay my best crashes, then have edit controls to position camera angles and upload videos to social media, but there is no such tool right here. In addition, the menus look like unfinished placeholders thanks to their super-plain fonts. Oh, and of course I want more leads. I will always want more leads.

While it's a pity that Danger Zone 2 only works at 900p / 30fps on standard Xbox One and 1080p / 30fps on PS4, the 1080p / 60fps or 4K / 30fps options are offered if you are on Xbox One X or PS4 Pro (alternatively 4K / 30fps native on X, 4k / 30fps check on Pro), or on a capable PC. But at least, when you fail and you have to reload to try again a junction, these load times are fast