Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: DRIV3R

Written by Chris Reiter on July 14, 2004

Full Review: I before 3 except after V.

Grand Theft Auto is a nonlinear action-oriented Mafioso franchise. Driver isn't. Grand Theft Auto has let players go where they wanted, when they wanted, to choose from a long list of things to do. Driver hasn't. Grand Theft Auto uses a covey of satirical pop culture references in a mature but fun-about setting. Driver doesn't. Driver has been one of Atari's leading franchises for the last five years now. Not just because the first Driver topped the charts, but because it's really one of the only successful competitor's Grand Theft Auto has ever shared a garage with. After its inaugural entry in 1999 however, Driver 2 drove into stores a year later with its hinges falling off and its engine stuttering. It was a sad time, leaving many fans of the original mystified. But then in 2002 when a next-generation Driver came into light with brilliantly detailed screenshots, a new beacon was lit for the dim hopes of game players' around the world. DRIV3R has been one of the hottest gossip pieces for game players' since that time. Now we see if the hype pays up, or if the dread of another cold shoulder leaves Atari hanging themselves with a piece of wire in some seedy motel bathroom.

Balancing out the good and bad elements of today's "cool" heroes, gamers have fallen in love with one of the most popular characteristics of all -- the anti-hero. While not completely a bad person, the anti-hero is bad enough to do what needs to be done, even when he'd be willing to lend a helping hand for the benefits of good. The anti-hero is smooth, slick, and one handsome devil. Then there's Tanner, a cop who isn't a bad guy. Rather, he's just a bad cop. A hard-nosed detective, who asks first and shoots later. Or sometimes shoots first. Or gets shot at first and then shoots back. Any way you take it, Tanner is a toughie. Part cop, part wheelman, it's Tanner's job to go undercover. Enough that not even all policemen know who he is. This time after the ring leader of a car-smuggling operation the world round, Tanner sets out to track this head honcho down and take out whoever gets in his way: good or bad.

Take to the road. Chase, follow, evade, and lose. And that's just some of what you must do as the gun-crazy undercover cop, Tanner, who happens to specialize in getting behind the wheel. DRIV3R, like previous Driver games (without the crazy lettering), is essentially a driving/shooting action title that takes a much narrower approach toward diverting the house that Grand Theft Auto built. Similar to Rockstar's series, what Driver's longtime developer (Reflections Interactive) does in its latest edition is instead of linking you from one mission to another directly, you now have some free control over every mission that comes your way. Although each and every mission is nonnegotiable, and when you play the game you're starting at the beginning of the last one you encountered, this time there is a possibility of a little free reign throughout the vastness of each of the game's three cities (Miami, Florida; Nice, France; and Istanbul, Turkey) that you'll be using for your bruising cruising.

That's not saying exploration is regarded as entertaining or vital to DRIV3R's range of established objective affairs. Opposite of the recent Grand Theft Auto episodes, DRIV3R is plainer in nature. Grand Theft Auto introduced pound for pound culturally diversified persons that for each individual model had a voice of their own and certain types reacted differently to your actions. Some carried weapons, others would throw you a beating, and the rest would run away in fear. DRIV3R's people are all about the same replicated scaredy cat. Policemen do exist in DRIV3R, but only in select stages. Even then, all they do is ride around in police vehicles. Mess with pedestrians by shooting at them or merely by pulling out a gun, which produces the same reactions of them running away like idiots through shrubbery and partially through walls (literally), and the PO-lice will be on their way. This method is done of course through a ranking meter that like in Grand Theft Auto fills whenever you've done something you're not supposed to do. But this reckless behavioral pattern only counts when the cops are watching, or if you repeatedly run and gun the locals. Let me remind you, the law officials are in short supply unless you're actually caught. Then they start to appear from out of nowhere it seems. People in general just aren't an abundance in the game either, and that's sad.

So, what's there to do when there's little to no fun to be had when straying from a mission? Well, there's the option to complete the mission. DRIV3R's mission-based gameplay is actually in a game mode of its own, as there are three separate modules all together. This story mode uses the alias Undercover, while its secondary accomplices go by Take A Ride and Driving Games. In Take A Ride, you do just as the game says. Except, you don't have to do anything. No rules, no rights (unless you turn on the option to include police patrols), no nothing. This is where you're able to pick which of the game's three cities you want to have a look around in without obligations. You can choose the time of day or weather patterns too. With a vastness of unlimited freedom, this extra is really only useful for breaking the restrictions of the regular game. Doing whatever can be a bit of fun. Though, as I've expressed earlier, DRIV3R's cities stick to the dully bland side of the letter. Driving Games, on the other hand, does give the game a little life outside its straightforward basis. Here, you're able to participate in six mini-games including challenges like Survival (avoid numerous police officers, whose attempt is to narrow your escape from them using their car slamming and gun shooting actions) and Trail Blazer (maneuver through a cone-filled driving course before the clock stops ticking). Driving Games' flaws, however, consist in lack of creativity, fun, or dissimilarities from one another.

For the most part, Undercover is what resumes the interest of enduring DRIV3R (as it should be). Frankly though, DRIV3R has one too many issues keeping this game in park instead of drive. Assuming ready position into the game's 25 missions, you'll find a certain height of repetition from variable difficulties in the objectives at stake. DRIV3R isn't necessarily hard because the premise of each level's basis is hard. DRIV3R is hard because it pairs unforgiving limits with sloppy controls. Case in point, the chase venue. A number of missions place you in a vehicle, with the directive to follow another vehicle. No matter what, the other driver is always going to be better at the wheel than you are, being programmed this way. Their turning abilities are perfect, whereas you cannot make sharp turns, as your vehicle always slides out especially when braking. In these tailing instances, it's up to you to also stay an unspoken short distance from his or her car to yours. Although, if you happen to bump into any of most objects once; a tree, a lamp post, a car, a building, you can bet your sorry ass that you'll have to restart that mission from the beginning. And again. And again. And then 10-20 attempts later, you can move onto the next mission. Having the game tell you that you "lost" the other driver or that they "got away" (when they're still close by in plain view or noted on the mini-map) due to ramming one of several indestructible objects just once can be very heartbreaking indeed.

Other mission types consist of driving and destroying other vehicles (which is primarily done when a passenger character carries the gun and you take the wheel, and handle both jobs simultaneously), being chased by other vehicles (ones you need to survive either solely by zipping around, or sometimes while someone else drives and you stand in the back of the truck to gun down extremely speedy AI), and at times more interesting ones like when you need to get your passenger to safety whilst keeping your speed 50 or above -- or else your car will detonate. Afterward, it's off to return the favor by driving the same inflammable car to the enemy's location for a little payback. Cars or trucks aren't the only thing you'll take a hold off, as there are missions staged around motorcycles, boats, and utilizing your foot action too. Stretching out your gas pedal's legs make up a majority of the game, where you'll enter into buildings, ducking and dodging fast-firing fiends who are the reason the word stupid is in the dictionary. As long as you have a wall between you and them, it's almost always a certainty you won't get shot. Enemies are programmed to run out from a hiding spot or through a doorway in part, but in other instances their job is to stand their ground unless you come close enough to their angle that they realize you're killing them. The funny thing is that enemies like to hide around corners at certain points. You have the choice of turning the camera facing the inside of this interior from the outside. So it's possible for you to view where the next batch of gangsters is going to strike from. In occurrences like these, it's also possible to move yourself just at the tip of a corner to highlight a part of the enemy's anatomy that's sticking out from that angle. Fire at it, and they're dead. This idiocy can also happen during outside moments, like when a road block of cars line your exit. Enemies hang around around doing zilch until you're expected to drive straight through their so-called gunner's blockade. Because the AI doesn't actually try to attack you even though you're injuring them ahead of schedule at these particular spots, the shooting segments of the game run along the lines of laughable rather than intelligent or innovative.

Between running the gauntlet and speeding through it, I might actually have to say that the on-foot part is more fun than driving. The last time in Driver 2, series developer Reflections left off with horrendously sluggish vehicle controls. While the mannerisms of the cars have been somewhat paved over for the third game, operating vehicles in this franchise still has some holes in it. It's easy to slide around turns, with square acting as the only brake and letting go of the gas (X) and repositioning yourself as your other option. Crashing into all sorts of things is another nasty part of the deal, and this is guaranteed to happen many, many times. Bullet-for-bullet stages are just simpler to grab a hang of control-wise. Press triangle and the gun comes out. Aim and move with the analog sticks, fire with X, and you're golden. These missions also contain an average assortment of weapons, from different automatics, to handguns, a shotgun, and even a grenade launcher (or lobber, as I like to call it). But, as I've explained before, the on-foot stuff isn't very impressive. Neither is either. In fact, playing DRIV3R is one spectrum of disappointments all together.

Not so different from its faulty gameplay either, keeping an eye on DRIV3R in all its motion of commotion is underwhelming. Those pretty screenshots I mentioned earlier are false from the real truth. And that truth is...DRIV3R's graphical aura isn't flat out terrible, but neither is it beauty beyond your wildest dreams. Like Grand Theft Auto 3 or Grand Theft Auto: Vice City before it, DRIV3R opens its doors to a citywide world where you can navigate a large openness at your leisure (in the Take A Ride mode, anyway). However, unlike in those Grand Theft Auto games, DRIV3R's visual entirety packs much less of a punch. Cities here, all three of them, are big and huge, and well...boring. That's right. You heard me. Not only are there larger crowds of characters you can interact within the Grand Theft Auto games, but the responses between you and them are better too. Pull out a gun in DRIV3R, and watch as every pedestrian around you panic like idiots, as they'll run off and into walls, partially seeping through them even. The sparsity of human life in these streets also puzzles the mind. Not that it matters much that the only afflictive actions you really have against anyone in the game are to run them over or to shoot them. Pedestrians scram from all possible dangers though, so it just isn't as fun trying to mess with those who don't want to also play with you.

With its abundance tank for people on low, another emptiness happens to exist throughout the game's accuracy in design. I'm not saying that the earlier Grand Theft Auto games gave us the best looking graphics the PlayStation 2 has ever seen, but if you can imagine for a second how much went into the production of that game series, you can see why the games were both massive and still nice enough on the eyes. DRIV3R's deal is similar, but also dissimilar. Downsizing on the amount of people and the amount of finer intricacies as well, DRIV3R lacks a greater integrity in its otherwise dried state of being. Textures on various surfaces (walls, roads, beaches, water, etc.) are smeared on and appear almost invisible unless you actually stop to inspect them. Elemental weather gives effect to different times of day (though, this is a force-fed plot rather than an evolving process), lighting glare, and shadows (which seems seamless enough for some parts until Tanner starts to swim in the ocean, where his solid gray puppet starts hovering over other hardened watery colors).

Estimably, it's probably in Reflections' habits to not focus on the surroundings, but instead on the things you drive. Cars, trucks, buses, vans, boats, and even motorcycles are some of the types of vehicles you can walk up to and take as your own. Although the cars and such again aren't the most elaborate design pieces, they're definitely the highlights of the show. Vehicles within DRIV3R absorb distinct damage at key locations. Run your car into the back of another one to inspect that the whole front will be wrinkled in place. Collision occurs at the back end, the side, and the corners too. Hell, you can dent a car to a point where the fender will bend out of shape and scrape the surface of the street as you ride. Or you can shoot a tire and watch as the weight of the vehicle lowers underneath. Speaking of which, weapon fire deals a little impressive display in the game, but only a little. Blazing a trail of bullets really only gives you a weak spark effect from out of the gun's chamber. And since your arsenal is limited to a item types like machine guns, an uzi, some handguns, a shotgun, and a grenade launcher, the effect is usually the same thing. Except in the grenade launcher's case of course, which has to be the coolest gun of them all. Toss one smoking grenade in the hole, and boom they go!

Visually, DRIV3R has some strength in it. Aurally, not so much. Even though the audio in DRIV3R works well enough with explosions, bullet fire, splashes, crashes, and bashes all sounding out the sounds moderately, it's the music that gets on my nerves the most. Usually I'm not one to complain about music in a video game a lot, but DRIV3R's soundtrack is T3RRIBL3. It's filled with quirky guitar and percussion sets that are moodily quickened off and on; sort of like spending the night at a jazz club. Now, I can see how this music might fit in, but for me it doesn't. The noise starts to pick up blaring its entity into spaces when there is or isn't any action. Then it disappears. Moments later, it begins again. Then once more it vanishes. This unpleasant pattern repeats itself the whole time. With the instrumental sounds not portraying the greatest of formats, its purpose is more irritating than necessary.

Yet another ill-qualified trait comes and goes in the way of the game's voiced attributes. Tapping Hollywood for its casting parts, Michael Madsen, Ving Rhames, Michelle Rodriguez, and Mickey Rourke are amongst the personalities that drive DRIV3R. Delivery performances from these actors are decent in effect and could be better overall (although, none of these celebrities are my film favorites, and contribute to that), but that's not my main gripe. One thing is that outside the game's cut scenes (which are gorgeous by the way) inserted before or after most missions, there are much fewer moments when anyone speaks within the in-game scenarios. While in play, you're going to be hearing a lot more of the same thing, depending on what city locale you're stationed at. It seems the script calls for about five or six short dialogue bits in each city. A couple of screams for the pedestrians, something for the police to yell at you, and the enemies who do no differently. As there are about two things each party says, the voice-overs seem more fake and bothersome than the laws of authenticity could ever allow them anything else.