Back for more driving lessons...
I have fond memories of playing the original Driver on the PS1. Never mind the frame rate issues, the tons of clipping and tearing in the game or the lame missions, it had some of the best car chases in a game (and still does!). I didn’t play Driver 2 and Driv3r sucked big time so my expectations for Parallel Lines wasn’t all that high. That said, I still am disappointed on how average the game is.
Driver Parallel Lines could be called GTA: Driver…or rather it should be called. The latest Driver is a rip off of all the things that made GTA good sans humor and a good does of the fun factor. You’re TK, a kid who dreams of making it big…illegally of course. You hook up with the wrong guys and get sent to the slammer for a really long time and you’re looking for some payback when you get out. The intro sounds ridiculously similar to the plot of GTA3 doesn’t it? That’s what I thought so too.
Still there are some good things about it. The game introduces you to TK circa 1978 in the first few hours of game time. Ironically, the flashback sequences are more entertaining then the meat of the game. 1978 New York is a totally different from the 2006 NY. Afros and big hair were in style then and its evident in the game’s design. Music was more funky, fashion was out of this world! On the other hand, the present day NY is drab, lifeless and unattractive. The textures and character models look plain and totally unremarkable, though the frame rate holds constant the majority of the time. The voices are merely average though and the music utterly forgettable.
Driver, like GTA, is mission based. To advance the story you need to complete selected missions. The majority of missions take place in cars, though a few of them have you on foot. The car missions though, while not particularly bad, aren’t that innovative…hell, they aren’t innovative at all. If you’re played ANY GTA game in recent history, expect déjà vu a plenty. Stealing a guy’s car to plant a bomb and then put it back in the same place without him noticing? Hmmm…where have I don’t THAT before? Apart from the story missions, you can do various oddjobs around the game, like racing and repossession (stealing back stuff…which is fun!) and they do break up the monotony admirably. Doing the side jobs also earn you cash, which can be used to upgrade your ride…which isn’t exactly useful in the first place. I mean, unless you’re intent of staying loyal to one car throughout the game, why bother to upgrade? You’re gonna be jacking and ditching cars almost constantly. Why limiting your choice to one vehicle? True, some missions are much easier with a souped up ride, but all of them are passable with generic vehicles.
It’s the on foot sections which suck, namely the aiming scheme. Seeming wanting to copy GTA to the max, Driver even goes so far as to mimic its aiming style. Why it even does that is a mystery. I mean, GTA has probably one of the lousiest targeting scheme in history! Why would anybody want to copy that?! You’re at a distinct disadvantage when you can’t hit the broad side of a barn with accuracy, more so when your enemies are marksmen (of which 90% of the thugs in NYC seem to be). At least the cars handle reasonably well. Every single vehicle in the game handles differently and it makes a TON of difference in missions.
The main thing that sets Driver apart from GTA is it’s implementation of traffic rules. Cops in this game are visible on the car and like MGS, have a cone of vision. Committing a crime (be it manslaughter or running a red light) in front of a cop will trigger an alert and bring down the fuzz. At first, I found the game’s traffic laws amusing, a few hours in though that changed. Having to slow down and drive realistically sucks. I mean it sucks in a videogame. I play games to enjoy myself damn it, not to drive like an old lady cause I’m afraid the cops are gonna take me down if I don’t. The AI for the cops are stupid though and you can easily shake them provided you’re not sleeping. Even the most stupidest thing can give you the slip. Enter an alleyway and the cops lose you. Go around a building and the cops may lose you. Drive against the flow of traffic and the cops will lose you.
A nice addition to the wanted dynamic is two wanted meters. One meter is for cars and other for TK. The car meter is used when the cops see you breaking a law while in a vehicle. Ditch the vehicle you’re driving without the cops noticing and you’re home free. The second one comes into play when you commit a crime on foot or ditching a wanted vehicle and a cop notices. While the first one disappears if you managed to ditch right, the second one will take some work to get rid off since even if you enter a new car while having a personal wanted meter alert, it won’t make a difference, the cops will still be after you.
If you’re hankering for a GTA-like adventure, you probably won’t go wrong with Driver Parallel Lines. It’s a carbon copy of GTA and fans of the series will gobble it up. If you’re looking for something unique though, look elsewhere.