The Driver series has always been a love or hate it affair with some nice wheel action thrown in ..or at least it used to be, Detective Tanner is back only this time everyone will enjoy the ride.
The story this time is even more far fetched than you could possibly imagine, but if anything it heightens the fun and kicks it into overdrive. When the infamous crime boss Jericho manages to break out of police custody during a prison transfer Tanner is as always quick on his heels. During the pursuit to apprehend the felon Tanner gets involved in an accident, the result is a coma but unlike any other. From his hospital bed he soon realizes he has the ability to interact with the world he left behind in a way he never thought possible, this is where the bold new approach comes into play. Driver games work when it comes to the driving action but once Tanner leaves the car it often results in something completely different altogether, so how did they get around this problem? Tanner uses an ability called “shift”, put simply he can shift into the body of any driver on the road, so there is never a need to actually leave the car physically – at first I thought that was a bit of a cop-out but it works.
Shift is certainly a unique yet fresh idea that really brings the game into its own, it’s not just a gimmick that’s used to cheat you of a controllable character it completely changes the way the game can be played. Freedom is something past Driver games have tried to do offering vast expansive maps of well known cities but this time it’s taken a step further, your feet are literally not touching the ground. Shift lets Tanner inhabit the body of any driver on the road, it’s all at the touch of a button and works brilliantly. At first glance it can appear a bit silly but its such a great tool you will wonder how you played games without it, hovering over the city and shifting into the car of your choice is something you will come to love. So how is shift useful? Picture the scene.. you are racing down the freeway in a police car but the guy ahead is in a Lamborghini and almost impossible to catch, not if you shift into a truck up ahead and ram him head on. Shift is not just there to jump into the nearest car, when used properly it can be the difference between losing or succeeding in a level. It’s something you will use on both sides of the law, Tanner may be a cop but that doesn’t stop him from shifting into the body of a getaway driver complete with a barrage of chasing police cars.
The main game focuses on Tanner trying to play catch up with Jericho, this is done by a slow but deliberate attempt to infiltrate his gang. Along the way Tanner must prove himself as one of the gang by getting involved in get away driving and the like. The story is really not the best and for what it’s worth it doesn’t have to be ..but that’s not to say it’s terrible, a lot of work has been put into making shift mesh well with Tanners surroundings and the people he encounters as he tries to take down Jericho. Interestingly Tanners new reality sometimes blends with the real world, one of the missions involves speeding after an ambulance in a desperate attempt to keep his heart going. It’s these clever little ideas that really pay off in the end but the main story is not all the game has to offer.
Scattered across the map are a very generous amount of challenges/side missions and goals to meet. It’s the side missions where I had a lot of fun, one in particular had me driving under the trailers of semi-trucks to disarm bombs ..while the trucks are thundering down the freeway. Others can involve having to get to a location in a certain amount of time while losing the chasing cops along the way. Many of the challenges are races but not always as straight forward as just come in first, one particular part of the racing challenges you to control a team of two cars, so you shift back and forth to ensure you take both 1st and 2nd place rankings, it may sound complicated but like most elements of the game the learning curve is not that steep it’s more like a speed bump. As you would expect when he shifts into the body of another driver he is not always alone in the car so a lot of the conversations from Tanners unassuming passengers can be downright hilarious especially during side missions. Some characters will pop up more than once, a perfect example being a young Japanese student who is trying to pay for his college tuition and so he takes up street racing. Another sees you speeding through the streets in as you try to keep your passengers heart from stopping, and how does that work? Racing through oncoming traffic/drifting/and performing jumps will keep their heart from giving out.
The fun doesn’t end there, hidden across the city are over 50 film tokens, collect enough up and you unlock drivable side missions that are based on famous or iconic movie scenes, feel like speeding away from the cops in the bluesmobile (ford Monaco) it’s in there, or how about Steve McQueens pursuit in Bullitt ..there too. To unlock cars in the game Tanner earns willpower credit (WP), WP is gained by performing crazy stunts and generally driving like a lunatic. Very few games are rewarding in such a way so you are constantly building up credit even if you are not deliberately trying, credit is then used to buy garages across the map and each garage unlocks cars for sale and upgrades to your driving abilities. Abilities like a better boost bar, an improved game radar for finding movie tokens and much more. In short the map is so populated with side missions and challenges that you will never be short of anything to do, they vary in difficulty so no matter how good a driver you are there are always a few left that require tremendous skill.
Being that the game is heavily influenced by cars and motors you would expect a decent amount of vehicles roaming the streets of San Francisco and there is certainly no lack of them but I didn’t expect fully licensed cars and trucks, it’s not just normal cars either. Some of my favourite cars like the Bentley Arnage T/Lamborghini Murcielago/Aston Martin V12 Vantage/Mercedes McLaren SLR/Maserati GranTurismo S and even the Audi S5 Coupe all make an appearance and can be purchased in your garage, unlike many games they don’t cost an arm or a leg either so you will eventually be cruising the beautiful streets of San Francisco in style. Oddly enough the cars handle really well, early reports of the game insisted the handling was dreadful and the cars felt heavy but to me they felt fantastic, the cars move and sound as close to their real counterparts as possible with little or no drawbacks. It’s not all modern cars either, for fans of older motors there is the Shelby GT500/Aston Martin DB5/Jaguar E-Type and a whole lot more, the list of available cars will satisfy even the most hard to please petrol heads.
The single player on its own is fun enough without the need for multiplayer and in true Driver style there is not just online play but a very fun and addicting offline multiplayer done through the magic of split screen gaming. As for the online that too is very addictive! There are nine game modes available that range from races to tag, capture the flag and a lot more. Each mode makes the best of Tanners new abilities so shifting while you are playing a cop in order to catch the getaway driver is unlike anything you ever experienced before, it reminds me a lot of The Matrix where the agents can shift to whichever vehicle will cause the most damage. Just like the main game rewards the player for the effort so too does multiplayer, rewards such as player icons and cars are unlocked as you make your way up in levels. It’s rare I find a multiplayer experience I’ll stick with but Driver implemented shift so well that the multiplayer is insanely addictive in every way possible.
It’s a good looking game too with cars glistening in the sun and sidewalks packed with people who inevitably dive out of the way when you either accidently or purposefully come speeding towards them. The gaming map is huge but not too big that you have to spend forever getting across the city, in short it’s just right. While most of the map is concentrated on the main city blocks you can cruise out across the golden gate bridge and take your ride off-road, San Francisco has never looked so good. While the city can at times look a little flat and not super detailed you really don’t notice as you speed past leaving a trail of smoke and wreckage in your wake. The games frame-rate is nigh on perfect, even when going full speed with boost firing away its hard if not impossible to notice a lack of smoothness. You would assume for such a high powered speedster of a game there would be sporadic loss of picture or frame quality but it’s just not the case, it looks and plays superbly even when pushed to the limit. Sound in the game is everything you would want and more, the actual in game music is controlled by the player and is a funky mix of 70’s rock and the occasional modern day tune to really help you put the pedal to the floor. Traffic and pedestrian sounds are crisp and come across real well even when drowned out with the roar and rev’s of a high powered engine, it all adds to the mood and Driver San Francisco is not lacking in that department either.
So is the game worth getting? Absolutely and it’s a must have for fans of the older Driver games. When it comes to negative marks I’m kind of at a loss, sure the story could be a bit longer and sure the map could be a little more detailed but that’s really my only complaints and even then the game plays so well and looks so well that all they are is minor strikes. If you like racing games especially the Burnout series you will be in for a treat with Driver, the learning curve is miniscule and the controls are so easy to learn you will be shifting and burning rubber like a pro in no time at all. To me the stars of the show are the cars, there are over 100 different motors and they all look the part, given that I didn’t expect such real attention to detail especially licensing it’s been a treat.
While the main missions can be done relatively quick a lot of the side missions and challenges will give the added lifespan of a few days at least, once you complete a challenge you can do it again any time you want, a save+ means once you finish the story you can either remain in free-play mode exploring or finishing challenges, or just play the story again with the skills and cars you already earned. If you want even more value for money then taking a spin in the online multiplayer will give you weeks if not months of high octane goodness. For a game I didn’t expect to be a hit it has certainly proven itself even with the likes of Deus Ex and Dead Island taking most people’s attention, I really loved the game and it’s everything and more you could possibly want from a Driver game. I’m giving this high octane thrill ride a 9 out of 10, if the story had been longer and the map a little more detailed it would have scored higher but as it stands its more than capable of standing up to some of the more recent game releases. Driver San Francisco is out now however PS3 owners should avoid buying it on the PSN as it retails much cheaper in stores.
