Parallel Lines – Driver || GTA. Can be very fun for Driver fan who never played any of GTA games.
As you insert DVD and press start button you immediately get thrown in game, kind of like original GTA. First thing you notice is the really bad traffic, to the point that you have to come to a complete stop every few blocks, just to find a hole to squeeze in. But stopping that fast using driver physics engine can be hard, so developers decided to give you set of super brakes, so that car stops dead in it tracks just as you touch the stop button. Nothing bad about that and yet you can’t help but have this weird nostalgic GTA feeling. Then you see newspapers flying all over, music playing only in cars and mini games and “stars” scattered all over the map and you begin to wonder if you inserted the correct game in xbox.
What about original parts of the game? The good thing is that game runs really smoothly and there are no pop ups or slowdowns at all. Missions are very driver-like and even have some Stuntman feel to them. You can store and upgrade cars, which is kind of useless since some of the most demanding missions, in which you can actually use better engine or bulletproof tires won’t give you enough time to go to garage and pick up your car, so you would end up picking up some random car. Also, you are not getting paid for doing the core missions, so if you need some cash to buy ammo or car upgrade you have to do the side missions.
On foot action is very much like Driv3r and I try to avoid it, by staying in car and shooting straight from it. Shooting from car is well-done and can be used to get out of bad situations. As for bad situations, cops are pretty annoying in this game as you have to obey all traffic laws and sometimes getting from point A to point B can be rally annoying since there is a cop car every 2-3 block and most of the time it stands on crossing and you have to wait for green light for around 30 seconds, at the end you end up standing in traffic for 3 minutes on your way to Queens to Brooklyn.
So the question is “Should I pick up the game?” If you are hardcore Driver fan, of course you should. Without the terrible technical problems of Driv3r this game will be fun for any fan of Reflections games, that is if you are willing to settle only for a story mode, since they cut out all mini games like survival (you can still find some of them by driving to a specific NPC on the map and playing the mini game though)