Like Driving with a handicap.
Following the trend of the two pervious titles on the PSX, Driv3r consists of some overly difficult driving exercises in the main story with a few enjoyable driving games and a free roaming mode in an attempt to satisfy gamers. With lush and specifically detailed cities such as Miami, Nice, and Istanbul Driv3r is not a sore site to look at from an environmental stand point. However, some dull object design line the city with some poor bitmapping at times on buildings. Also, 98% of these buildings are empty shells and provide no entrance.
The controls are frustrating at times, especially when you need your character to quickly enter a vehicle and the designated R1 button is unresponsive unless you are in the exact spot it wants you to be. When you finally make it into the vehicle, steering controls are either too responsive or not responsive enough, there is no happy medium. Moreover, Driv3r offers all too many on-foot aspects to each mission where the controls are equally frustrating. Essentially, these on-foot sequences are where the blemishes of the games visual display and control issues take the forefront. These missions consistently feature you chasing some character and killing all the thugs that hinder your path. Often times you will hide until the appropriate moment and then rummage for health shortly after.
This leads to the Driver series’ Achilles heal as always: very high difficultly level. The game is often unforgiving to any mistakes on the part of the gamer even in near impossible situations. Boiling down to a systematic trial and error process to memorize exactly when to turn and what path to take for a minor nudge into another car or a not-so-perfect turn will result in a mission failure: truly frustrating.
The cinematic cut-scenes are very impressive and offer some catchy music. However, you usually won’t care for the story and will skip these sequences just to embark on your next near-impossible mission.
With the Grand Theft Auto series already showcasing what can be done to create an immersive free roaming in the next-gen realm, Driv3r seems a little incomplete. It is a fun ride that just needs a tune-up.