Three Fields Entertainment built its name on crashes, and Dangerous Driving is the studio finally putting a full game around them. Released on 9 April 2019 for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One, it is a closed-track racer with boost, takedowns and a stated claim to the biggest car crashes seen in a racing game to date.
It arrives as a spiritual sequel to Burnout, and it does not pretend otherwise.
270 Miles of Road and 31 Courses
The scale is the first thing Dangerous Driving gets right. There are over 270 miles of road spread across 31 courses, all set in seven locations inspired by North American national parks. Canyons, deserts, snowy mountains and lakes each give the track list a different look and a different set of corners to learn.
The cars match that spread. There are 26 vehicles to unlock, with more than 400 combinations of car, colour and livery, sorted into six classes: Sedan, SUV, Coupe, Supercar, Hypercar and Formula DD.
That is a real ladder to climb, and the class split matters more than the raw count. A Sedan and a Formula DD do not drive like the same game.
Takedowns, Nitro and the Burnout Debt
The racing itself is the Burnout formula, run again with care. You pick a car and a track, then try to beat the other racers, whether they are computer-controlled or online players. Ramming an opponent into the side of the track or into oncoming traffic makes them crash. The game calls this a Takedown, and it stops them racing for a moment.
Takedowns and stunts like drifting fill a Nitro meter. Cross a certain threshold and you can spend it on a speed boost.
That loop is the whole game, and it holds up because the two halves feed each other. You drive dirty to go faster, and going faster gives you more chances to drive dirty. It is a clean piece of design under a very loud surface.
First person and third person are both available.
The Crash Is the Point
Three Fields is selling destruction, and Dangerous Driving delivers it. The crashes are the headline feature, and the game knows it.
Single player and multiplayer are both here. The single player campaign is where the unlocking happens, and the multiplayer is where the takedown habit becomes a problem for someone else.
What the game does not do is hide what it is. You select a car, you select a track, and you race. For a game built on a 2019 budget and a specific nostalgia, that restraint is the right call.
Where It Falls Short
The honest problem is that Dangerous Driving is a revival, not a reinvention. Everything it does well, it does well because Burnout did it well first. The takedown, the nitro, the crash camera — none of it is new, and the game does not try to make it new.
The track count is generous, but 31 courses across seven park-inspired locations means the scenery repeats. Canyons look like canyons. After a few hours, the backdrops stop registering.
There is also a question of polish that the scope invites. A game with 26 cars and 400-plus livery combinations is asking a small studio to fill a lot of space, and the result is a racer that feels broad rather than deep. The classes give you reasons to keep unlocking. They do not give you reasons to stay in any one car.
None of this is fatal. It is the difference between a game you finish and a game you keep.
The Verdict: 7.2 of 10
Dangerous Driving scores 7.2 out of 10, matching the published critical aggregate across seven outlets. That number is about right, and it is right for a specific reason.
What matters here is that Three Fields got the crash right. The takedowns land, the nitro meter rewards aggression, and the 270 miles of road give the whole thing room to breathe. For a studio building a Burnout successor without the Burnout name, that is the hard part done.
What is noise is the volume. The 400-plus car, colour and livery combinations sound like content, but they are mostly cosmetic spread across six classes. The 26 vehicles matter more than the 400 combinations, and the 31 courses matter less than the seven locations they are drawn from.
The comparison to Burnout is unavoidable and it is also the fairest way to judge this. Dangerous Driving is not better than the games it is chasing. It is a faithful, well-built return to a style of arcade racer that the industry mostly stopped making, and it is priced and scoped like one.
If you want a racer where the crash is the reward, this is the one. If you want a racer that surprises you, it is not. The score reflects that split honestly: a good game with a clear debt, executed with enough skill that the debt does not sink it.
KEY FACTS
– Release date: 9 April 2019
– Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox One
– Developer: Three Fields Entertainment
– Publisher: Maximum Games
– Genre: Racing
– Score: 7.2/10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 7 outlets)
– Courses: 31, across 7 North American national park-inspired locations
– Road: over 270 miles
– Vehicles: 26 to unlock, across six classes
– Car/colour/livery combinations: over 400
– Modes: Single player, Multiplayer
– Perspective: First person, Third person
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
