Burnout Dominator is the odd one out in its own series, and it holds up anyway. EA UK built the 2007 racer for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, and it is the only Burnout game Criterion Games did not develop — though Criterion’s logo still appears at startup, the manual calls the studio “the makers of this game,” and Electronic Arts credits Criterion as developer on its official site. That confusion is a footnote. What matters is the racing.
Trailer, via Electronic Arts.
The Boost Meter Turns Blue
Burnout Dominator is built on the return of “Burnouts,” the reward for draining a complete boost meter without stopping. The meter runs on orange flames until it fills, then turns blue — Supercharge Boost. Drive dangerously while supercharged and the arrows on the meter light up; when all of them are lit, a Burnout lands the moment the current supercharge drains. Repeat it and you get a Burnout Chain. The feature had been gone since Burnout 2: Point of Impact, and its comeback is the spine of the whole game.
Four modes hang off that spine:
- Maniac Mode — drive dangerously for the highest score, earning drifts, air, oncoming and near misses; chaining Burnouts raises the multiplier.
- Drift Challenge — rack up as many feet of drifting as possible, with Burnout chains raising the multiplier.
- Near Miss Challenge — the same structure, scored on near miss bonuses.
- Burnout Challenge — the same again, focused on Burnout score.
Twelve Tracks, Eight Locations
The World Tour, the main single-player mode, splits into 7 series based on car class: Classic, Factory, Tuned, Hot Rod, Super, Race Specials and Dominator. The vehicle lineup is mostly new, with a few cars carried over from the previous two Burnout titles, among them the Custom Coupe Ultimate, Euro Circuit Racer and Works M-Type. Events include Race, standard racing for the finish line, and Road Rage.
The game ships 12 tracks across 8 real-world locations, each with a forward and a reverse configuration. The PSP version adds Burnout HQ, where players upload scores and download new tracks. The PlayStation 2 version does not.
What is missing matters as much as what returned. Crash Mode — the puzzle mode where you drive into a traffic-filled intersection and try to cause the largest amount of damage possible — is absent. So are Traffic Checking, the ability to ram smaller vehicles heading the same direction, and Traffic Attack Mode. Online multiplayer is gone.
The PlayStation 2 version also drops USB steering wheel support, so the Logitech Driving Force and Driving Force Pro do not work. This was the last Burnout game released on both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.
What the Cuts Cost
Losing Crash Mode is the real wound. It was the series’ best argument that a racing game could be about something other than arriving first, and Dominator replaces it with nothing. The four new modes are variations on a single idea — score attack with a multiplier — and they blur together. Maniac Mode is the strongest because it asks for the widest range of dangerous behavior; Near Miss Challenge and Burnout Challenge are the same test with a different counter.
The cuts to Traffic Checking and online multiplayer sting less. Traffic Checking made Revenge’s traffic feel like soft foam, and racing without it is tighter and more honest. Online multiplayer on a 2007 PSP was a promise more than a feature.
The boost system is where Dominator earns its place. Draining the meter to blue and then threading oncoming traffic to light every arrow is a genuine risk calculation, and chaining Burnouts turns one good run into a run you have to keep alive. It is the purest version of the series’ central bargain: speed is the reward and speed is the cost.
Criterion was busy with Burnout Paradise while this was being made and was waiting to reintroduce Crash Mode in a new form for that title. That explains the hole. It does not fill it.
Numbers on the Box
- Release year: 2007
- Developer: EA UK
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
- Genre: Racing
- Modes: Single player
- Tracks: 12, across 8 locations, each forward and reverse
- World Tour series: 7
- Critic aggregate: 8.0/10 from 5 outlets
What Dominator Gets Right
Burnout Dominator is a holding pattern that happens to drive beautifully. It is the only Burnout without Criterion at the wheel, the first since Point of Impact without Crash Mode, and the last to land on both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable — three distinctions that all point the same direction, toward a game defined by what it lacks.
Strip the absences away and the core is still the best thing the series ever built: a boost meter that punishes caution and a Burnout chain that rewards nerve. The four challenge modes are thinner than they look, and the World Tour’s seven car classes do not change the racing enough to justify the split. But the racing itself does not need justification. Twelve tracks in eight locations, run both ways, with the blue-flame meter overhead and a chain on the line, is a complete game.
The PSP version’s Burnout HQ, with score uploads and downloadable tracks, is the better package of the two, and the loss of steering wheel support on the PlayStation 2 is a small indignity for a game already carrying several.
This is not the Burnout to start with. It is the one to come back to once the others have worn thin, when all you want is the meter, the flames, and the next near miss. 8 of 10.
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