Driver
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
Driver is a truly excellent game and one of the best car
action sims ever. You can say it's sort of like Grand theft
Auto without the guns and without getting out of your car
and in 3D that's what I thought when I purchased it but I
was wrong. This game is much deeper missions, branch offs
and huge virtual model after the real cities. Like the parks
in New York, and the very hilly San Francisco complete with
trolley cars. This game does has its fault s which I will
explain later but for the most part you will be amazed as
soon as you hop behind the 'Driver' seat and go on
different highly fun detailed missions. Although every thing
consist of going from point a to point b or trying to run
down other cars. Losing the cops, and other highly fun things.
Story 9. 0. /10
The story is about a cop named Tanner an ex race car driver,
the best on the force. He has the go undercover to
infiltrate a large mob ring, he is very convincing and
sometimes you aren't sure if he is 'down' with the mob or
what. As the story progresses, it builds with betrayal, then
it leads up to an excellent story that will have you doing
things that you can tell Tanner doesn't want to do. The
story is ok, but basically its lagging at the beginning
cities it isn't until you hit LA and NY than the story
really takes a better shape and form.
Visuals 9. 5/10
You step behind the wheel of a highly detail car that you
can visual see and feel the damage that it takes. Parts go
flying off like hubcaps, and a dented front with smoke
coming out of it, makes it looks like it took a pounding
through the streets. Things like back alleys littered with
trash look pretty realistic. Although the grainy Cinema
graphics will make you cringe compared to a game with
beautiful cinema such as Final fantasy IX. Even though this
was made last year you can tell the developers cut the
budget on making this look more realistic. All and all the
cars and the streets look good and other during the game
scene, which is what really counts.
Audio 10/10
The music in this game is awesome, this is some of the best
getaway music that I ever heard. Even before it switches to
what I like to call the 'cop music' it is pretty good.
Especially the music while you are in the parking garage it
really amps you up on your missions. It sounds quite similar
to old 70's funk music with newer twists to it. Some of the
music took a dive and didn't go with the scenery or the
mission you were doing. The sound effects ere pretty
realistic and hen you heard the cops voice it reminded me of
Grand Theft Auto a bit here because they would always tell
where you were going. They said some things like 'We lost
Him' which was my favorite it gave you some ease when that
happened. The voice acting could have been better a lot
better, although the voices came off loud and clear and
sounded good on the answering machine it didn't sound good
during the cinema cut scenes, it seemed awkward and weird
during these scenes and it didn't add up at all. Even though
it couldn't put a dent in the great sound effects and music
so it did do good here. It gave you a great racing or action
atmosphere while playing this game.
Game Play 9. 0/10
This game is for one player only, which is one of the faults
this game has. Your basic thing was to get from point A to
point B, in the time allotted or to not be 'tailed' by the
cops. You usually had to pick people up or drop them off or
answer a phone exchange a key and do other criminal things.
The car itself did some pretty realistic things, and at
times it was very unrealistic. This car seemed that it had
mega high suspension all the time because you could do some
unbelievably high jumps in a city like San Francisco. The
game besides its undercover mode had many other modes as
well. You could do pursuit, which was a practice of running
a car don. You could do a chase like mode where you had to
lose the cop car fairly, unlike in the real mode where you
could ram it into a wall until it took too much damage.
You also had a training mode where you could practice the
garage level plus the trials. The trails were obstacle
courses in a dirt rode, where you had to make or beat times
and get around them without having too many points shaved
off. Finally you had Survival my favorite mode. There were 4
cop cars on you at all times that were much faster than you
and they were hell bent on destroying you, the object was to
see how long you can go before your car got totaled. This
mode was mega fun in hilly San Francisco gliding down a hill
at top speeds jumping the barricade and then watch the cops
try it, and get razzed Also hat as fun here was getting hit
by the cops and flying in the air so high you can see the
roof of the buildings around you then coming don upside down
and getting flipped back over made you feel like you were
the man. There were also some modes that could of used some
work like film edit it was very hard to make a decent
looking chase film in that game, it seem like it was lacking
options to do it. You also had a cross point's mode where
the object was to hit all the points in a certain time
whoever has the best time wins. The last mode as go for a
ride, which was like undercover mode and you were just
driving around, this mode is good for when you get int oa
new city and you ant to learn the area and find short cuts
and side streets. This game also packed much unrealism, look
at the cops funny and they're on you like butter to toast.
Run a red light and their trying to kill you drive on the
wrong side of the road drive faster than 6 miles per hour
and they are out for blood take a wrong turn from what side
of the road you are on. Hell even burning out can alert the
cops. Well aside for the over sensitive cops and tight
suspension this is pretty good game and I enjoyed it. The
difficulty is medium but later on it gets increasingly
difficult to impossible. It takes only one block of memory.
Overall 9 out of 10
A truly great game and one that I have enjoyed over the
course of time that I have played it, you will truly enjoy
this one. The fun factor is very high when you first get it,
but then it drops considerably after you beat it. Other than
that this is a remarkable game and one you will have fun
with. Despite the fact that you have limited replay and bad
voice acting this is still a game that I recommend that you
get or at least get a rental. Don't get discouraged if you
can't beat the garage trial level you'll get it soon enough.
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