Forgive the pun. But let’s cut to the chase. Driv3r is a disappointment to say the least. Once you insert your ps2 disc, you sit back, controller in hand and you lull yourself into a false sense of security. "This game is the third instalment to a very successful franchise. It can only get better...right?" Well no. Right from the start I felt that I was let down. The very first mission sets you in this house where you control Tanner, the main character. From there you move outside, leap in your car and begin to chase and keep up with your fellow cops. Right there I know I was in for a letdown. As I leapt in the car and sped to my companion I noticed that it was harder than I thought to keep up, not that his car was faster, but the controls were sluggish and turning corners always ended up me hitting a civilian car. This was also the moment I started to loose faith in the game. From what I can make out if the front of your car isn’t 4 inches away from the cop car you’re supposed to keep up with you fail the mission. So you can imagine my annoyance when after chasing him for ages, I hit a lamppost. This leaves me a total of 5 seconds behind. However the mission was very unforgiving and gave me the message "Failed". After the 3rd go I did it. Ok on to the good missions...wait..There isn’t any? Let me let you into a secret. I haven’t completed this game, nor do I wish to and in fact I haven’t completed more than level 3. So this review isn’t what you would call full. However why I didn’t bother trying to play more speaks volumes. I instead played the "Go for a ride" section, which allowed me to drive around 3 large cities and just cruise. I thought this would be my relief but alas..again! I chose to drive around and just be a pest. That is to say crash into people/cars and shoot at cops. This brings me around to the second major flaw. Cops. Or to be more specific their AI. If you crash into another car, hit a pedestrian, or do any other criminal offence the cops will send a cop car to that area and investigate. Sounds good? Well if they actually investigated it would be nice. They just get out there cars and either stand there for 10 mins doing nothing or walk about the streets. Even once i have been a bad boy the AI doesn’t improve much either. The cop’s tactics are basic, they either try to ram you off the road or..well that’s it. One of my favourite moments to test the AI is getting chased by a cop car, stopping, waiting until they both get out then speeding off. This results in a hilarious scene where the driver leaps back in and before his partner can get in, he speeds off. 9 times out of 10 running his comrade over. Bizarre! Unlike Mafia, if you speed, crash or run a red light you’re going to get arrested no matter what. This is really annoying as sometimes you don’t mean to, and the AI’s ability not to drive when then is a green signal only makes you run that red light more in anger. So if you see your wanted level rise you may as well fight to the last, because they won’t give up easy. This stalwart persistence to arrest you also brings out a few more funny moments. Like driving fast, being chased by 2 cop cars, speeding off a cliff into the waters below and watching those 2 cars follow. Once they land in the water they get out and just stare at you. Because they don’t have the brains to swim to shore or the stairs they just stay there. But the most irritated moment by far is that slap in the face moment. That moment you know your playing a game and you know you will never win. I was being chased by 3 cop cars. I blew up 2 and the other met its maker in the river. I began to swim to shore, then to my amazement a cop car respawned on my head complete with 2 people on board and just fell into the river. It makes you feel cheated knowing you can never really escape them as they will always find you. Maybe GTA had a respawn system but to my knowledge it never did it right in front of you. The second time Driv3r did it, it respawned right in front of my car, no problem, if it wasn’t for the fact I was doing 100 kmh at the time. Well that’s the end of my thorough yet not so thorough review.
I got this game in 2004. I am a really big fan of Driver games. This is a good game, though not the best in the series. First is the gameplay. I like the new additions like health and killing people, but the strange ... Read Full Review
I've played all the Driver's - from the first to most recent - Driver Parallel Lines. But I only just got Driv3r recently, I'd been putting of getting it all this time, but since I liked the others so much, and I saw it ... Read Full Review
