After seeing the phrase "Tanner will return in 2002" at the end of Driver 2, I waited years for a good sequel.
Enjoyable gameplay.
Back in the day, the driver series was something of a marvel. It didn't have (or need) guns and bombs to be enjoyable. In fact, most of the missions were more akin to an off-road race (in a city, no less) where you could pick your own route, dodge roadblocks, and reach an objective as fast as Tanner's lead foot could move you. For the uninformed, that was the main character I just mentioned.
Tanner still seems to have a lead foot here, too. In fact, his whole body seems to be made of lead, considering that he moves about as smoothly as a cast-iron fence. This is bad enough, but Reflections went and made him a cast-iron fence with weapons. This isn't the Driver spirit here, it's a shoddy GTA clone with characters stolen from previous installments of the series.
As a matter of fact, the only saving grace this game has is that badass Jericho is still badass Jericho, even though he's significantly different from his past self. Tanner and Tobias have become Tommy and Lance (GTA:VC) to an extent, and while the new characters are interesting, they're somewhat cliche at best.
The graphics are grainy for the most part, and while the car models have a decent amount of destroyable parts to them, the motors all sound the same: Annoying.
There are possibly hundreds of glitches and problems throughout the game. Apparently, sunsets all emanate from a beach in Nice, France. And sometimes the sky turns green if you spin around really fast. Share this knowledge with friends, and have countless hours of fun outdoors altering reality by looking like a moron.
The voicework for the characters is very well-done, I'll give them that. Of course, that's a double-edged sword. Normally, having something done really well will make everything else seem a little weak in comparison. When it comes to Driv3r's synth-driven, repetitive beats, which are poor to begin with... well, I'll just say "You're winner" and let the people who know what I'm talking about laugh for a while.
Overall, Driv3r is a blatant waste of a previously great franchise. Instead of maintaining the fast-paced driving that made previous installments iconic, it Reflections went and made a poorly devised and horribly executed GTA. Ironically, it was beaten by the series that initially copied it.