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Driver: San Francisco
The Driver series sees its beginnings back
on the Playstation 1 and was one of the first games to feature a full
city for players to drive around. This is a series that has definitely
seen it’s ups and downs, unfortunately mostly downs in recent history.
These days however it seems like every second game released features
sandbox style game play and unrestrictive game rules. Does Driver: San
Francisco offer enough old school driving mayhem to please fans of the
series but still add something new so that it can stay relevant?
The
story for driver has a huge influence on the game play for driver, this
is because Tanner it put into a coma early on, this is not really a
spoiler, this had been strongly hinted at and is basically revealed
within half an hour of playing. You then spend the rest of the game
trying to figure out what happened and tracking down a major criminal,
with your sidekick along for the ride. The story sounds pretty average,
the “and then I woke up” kind of storytelling, but it is handled in such
a way that will actually allow you to be drawn into the story.
The
fact that Tanner is in a coma has allowed the developers to add a
completely unique game play element into Driver: SF, Tanner is able to
leave his body and hover over the city, and then go into the body of
anyone driving another car. This is certainly unique and can create
some interesting strategies, for example, to stop a high speed pursuit
you can possess a truck coming in the opposite direction and ram into
the car. You can’t do this in any other game, it does seem odd that
Tanner can’t simply stop the car they are chasing but I suppose he can
make up his own rules while in a coma. Sometimes when jumping into
another drivers body you can get involved in their
conversations/arguments, on particularly memorable mission involved
scaring a driving instructor when giving a student a hard time. It’s
nice that Tanner doesn’t seem to take this new found super power too
seriously and has time for things like this.
You
would expect a game called Driver to have a good driving mechanic,
fortunately this does not disappoint. Each car feels distinct enough
for players to develop favourites over time and feel uncomfortable
driving other types of cars. It definitely has an arcade feel to it and
this feels just right, you will find yourself sliding your car, or
somebody else’s car all over the road. Unfortunately there is no
burnout button as there was in the original. There are a nice variety
of side missions available that will let you test out these different
cars and styles. The game does a good job of getting drivers to try out
a range of different driving abilities. Speaking of driving abilities,
Tanner’s abilities improve as the game progresses, such as the ability
to ram other cars with more force and accuracy.
Driver
seems to have a fairly average graphics engine, with minimal shading or
shadows really visible. Character modelling and talking animations do
look really good though and this really makes a difference in the
quality of the cut scenes. All the cars that Tanner is able to drive
having fully modelled interiors that look good, everything here is as it
should be, this adds a lot to the experience. The world itself can look
pretty bland, it would have been nice to have a bit more detail go into
buildings, but this is not essential as the focus will generally be on
driving. The whole game has a strange light yellow filter which gives
it a real 70’s feel and I liked that , despite it being set in modern
times they never felt out of sync with one another.
Some
of the cars featured in Driver are meaty and growling beasts while
others are perky and spritely sounding things, both ends of the spectrum
are handled well and each car sounds as you would expect. The radio is
nice and really has a 70’s feel without actually being 70’s songs, this
aspect was handled nicely and really does add to the experience, we’re
not talking about the level of radio as GTA but it never takes away from
the driving. The voice work is also handled well and is complemented
nicely by the character animations. Dialogue can get a bit long in some
points but the voice actors do well to try and keep players listening
and not skipping through cut scenes.
Driver
focuses on what any game called Driver should, and that is driving, and
it does this well and anyone use to arcade racers will feel right at
home. If you are willing to overlook the gimmicky nature of
transferring into other cars there is a good game in here, you do really
have to buy into this completely to enjoy it though. There is nothing
here that will ruin the experience, bar a couple of side missions here
and there, and there is a lot of fun to be had. The story is not the
strongest aspect of this game and nor should it be, you can’t get out of
the car and walk around, the star of the show is the cars and it fits
the Driver franchise to a tee. |
