Driver

A masterpiece of car chase gameplay

Graphics and poor voice acting aside, this is a fun driving game. Almost too fun at times, with the missions and jobs you’re required to do. The main issue I have with this game, though, is the controls. Good LORD are they sensitive! Sometimes, it feels like you’re driving on ice when you turn. You have to be so delicate with the handbrake as to not careen into oncoming traffic or light poles. And those RNG-controlled cop cars? Get the **** out of here. There is NO prediction as to when or where they will show up. I once got to my destination to be met with berries and cherries flashing in my face, prompting the game to tell me to “lose the tail”. This often ended my missions. As much as I liked this game… **** this game.

Driver is a decent driving game which draws influences from classic 1960's and 70's car chase films and attempts to bring those movie car chase scenes and mimic them in this game. Reflections has done a good job with this concept with great looking 3D environments, a soundtrack that fits well in the game and sound effects that sound powerful. The games 3D environments that you can drive around in were somewhat of a new thing back then and still look great. Driver was a breakthrough in 3D driving games that even the mighty Grand Theft Auto series took this concept and the 3D view and built on it, and then Grand Theft Auto 3 was born, 2 years after this game. The environments are a little empty though and some of the cities roads are very strangely designed (I mean, Los Angeles has one of the longest straights I've ever seen!) The game play is simple: It involves you driving around in a car, around a big city, avoiding traffic and the cops, and either trying to get to a destination quickly or trying to get away from the cops as safely as possible in the single player campaign mode. The game play is quite limited and it does get quite repetitive after a while as you drive to this destination, then drive to another destination, avoid this, avoid that. The handling model feels responsive, polished and allows you to skid around corners and dodge traffic. The games main missions require a flamboyant driving style and good car control as you dodge traffic and avoid charging cop cars. The cut scenes that carry the story forward are nicely animated (seems that Driver games always have good cinematic cut scenes to advance its stories). As I said earlier, the sound effects are fantastic with some great sounding car crash noises and car engine sounds. The menu music is funky to listen to and is probably the best track in Driver's soundtrack. Chases with the police helps to liven things up and the police A.I is fair for most of the time and is able to dodge the traffic instead of mindlessly smashing into them unlike in Driver 2. Sometimes when the roar of the police engine and the sound of the police sirens is just behind you, you wonder if you're going to escape them or not. Along with the single player campaign, there are a few driving games to try out. My personal favourite is the Survival mode where you try to survive for as long as possible against a rampage of cop cars with supercharged V12 engines under their bonnets (well not literally, but they do seem to have a slight speed advantage) that try to damage your car. Now this game is good but there is one problem I have to address. Police car A.I is quite fair (unlike in Driv3r) most of the time but in one particular mission, they are far too aggressive; they slam in to your car consistently if you're not careful you could find yourself getting smashed around like a pinball in a pinball machine. This mission (I'm not telling you what mission it is) that I'm talking about is one of the hardest missions I've have ever come across in a Driver game because of the brutality of the A.I. It is a huge problem which may cause you to rip your hair out. Despite this "Minor" problem, Driver is a solid driving game and the fact that it was one of the first 3D driving games, it is one game that hugely influenced the 3D Grand Theft Auto games and the sandbox genre

Simple pero entretenido.

This game either didn't age well or wasn't designed well, plain and simple. Cops just appear in front of you on the radar, cars have the damage resistance of cardboard, cops only know how to ram you and not arrest you and car physics are equivalent to that of bumper cars. Just play Driver 3, PL, 76 and San Francisco.