It was definitely my least favorite entry (aside from the original). I never really understood the praise it got. Track design is an art for to me, nothing can beat a super well designed track in a racing game, and open worlds completely ruin all of that.
Yes, aaaaaaand...
I HATE open world racers. It eliminates the sense of progression. It's less "I'm going to new countries and trying out new cars" and more "Just drive wherever and go to a spot where you can do a mission on the same fucking area you've been for the last 3 hours".
...yes.
It has essentially killed the series, yes. Have you seen any Burnout games released since? I mean, I've been a fan of Burnout since Point of Impact, and from that instalment to Revenge, the franchise was on the kind of winning streak that's rare in video games. Paradise put a stop to that winning streak - it's just not a very good game at all. Like the two posters above have expressed, it's the open-world structure that ultimately hurt it the most. The track design in PoI, Takedown and Revenge was largely brilliant, and there was a terrific sense of progression as you won events and opened up new and more difficult races to compete in. You don't get that sense of progression in Paradise. What you get is a puny-sized environment that you can drive around in and familiarise yourself with in a matter of two hours. And that's it, you've seen everything the game has to offer, and as you 'progress' by updating your license, you cruise around in the same locales time and time again doing the same shit. It is repetition defined.
The open world totally neutered Crash mode as well. Crash mode in prior games didn't require a whole lot of skill particularly, but it was fun, every Crash event was unique, and seeing the carnage ensue from strategically landing your vehicle into traffic was always satisfying. It was one of the best things about Burnout overall. In Paradise, you just pick a random place on the map, activate the mode and you start bouncing around like a fucking rubber ball every time you touch a car. It's a poor poor substitute for the real thing, and you can thank the open world for that. And then there's the whole issue with navigation as well. Since there are no predefined routes to the finish line, you can make your way to the end whichever way you see fit, but in order to follow the quickest way there, you have to constantly pay attention to the mini-map in the bottom right corner and also to the left and right indicators at the top. This detracts majorly from the core racing itself. In previous games, you were always paying attention to incoming traffic and aggressive competition, but in Paradise, the biggest obstacle between you and victory is missing a turn because you didn't catch the indicator in time. That's not fun, that's just a fucking annoyance. Thank you once again open-world structure.
Oh, it's really easy too. There's no challenge involved whatsoever.