Gaming Target - Xbox: DRIV3R

Written by Ryan Genno on July 27, 2004

Full Review: This game is so bad that this is the only time I recommend you drink and drive.

4Millions and millions of people have gone crazy for Rockstar's popular 3D Grand Theft Auto series. People loved the ability to steal cars in a big city while playing the role tough gangster looking for revenge. Since the games have been selling like crazy, GTA clones have been popping up everywhere as of late. Despite their best efforts however, none of them are able to match the quality of the original. The big difference with Atari's Driver series, is that these crime friendly games have had previous success before on the Sony Playstation and PC. Since we haven't seen a new GTA in awhile, a hot sequel like Driver 3 (or Driv3r, whatever they want to call it) sure has the potential to become the new king of the crime action game. So how did Driv3r do? Unfortunately, despite all the hype about the game's story, looks, and game play, Driv3r just doesn't come together.

In this Driver game you finally have a story to go along with the controversial car-jacking and cop killing this time. Special FBI agent Tanner is trying to do whatever he can to put a stop to a huge international car smuggling ring. Tanner may be a Сgood guy', but that doesn't mean he can't be a real prick at the same time and to be successful in this game you have to get the job done by any means necessary. If the local cops are on your tail then you have to lose them, if a pedestrian is in the way then just run them over. Simple as that!

Driv3r's main game is the Undercover mode, where you can hunt down criminals by becoming one as part of the story. That may sound like a lot of fun to run down scumbags in thrilling car chases, but in this highly linear adventure all it takes is a few seconds to lose your suspect or friends and then you're forced to start all over again. I even found that you can still lose someone even if they are still in clear view. This wouldn't be such a big problem for me normally, but you don't have too many choices on vehicles when you go on these wild chases like you would in GTA: Vice City. It also complicates things when the handling is so bad on many of the vehicles, that it feels like you're braking at the slightest move. Although Driver vets will be able to breeze through this short game because they may be used to these awkward controls, casual players will be quickly frustrated by these tedious games of catch.

Driv3r also has missions where you have to hunt down crooks on foot as well. This could have been a great way to break away from repetitive car chases, yet the producers even screwed these action scenes too. Not only is the Lock-on system quite spotty when using your guns, but the enemy Artificial Intelligence is so stupid that it doesn't even matter if your aim is a bit off. All they do is just stand there and wait to be shot! The driving missions are way more fun then the foot ones, and that's not a good thing when those are not too great to begin with.

At least the graphics fare better than the shallow game play. Reflections did an excellent job with the big car crashes and who could forget that the producers faithfully re-created major cities Miami, Nice, and Istanbul. The detail in the buildings and the streets look especially impressive. If there are any problems with these outstanding graphics here it would have to be all the sudden appearances of buildings in the distance, or as it's better known: Сpop up'. You usually don't see too much pop up on Xbox games these days because of the high power of the system, but here it is. Driv3r also has some great looking Computer Generated cinemas, with some of the most realistic human characters and shadows I've ever seen in a video game.

I would have liked if there was written dialogue in the cinemas because it can be hard to hear what everyone is saying half the time, but they still look incredible. That brings me to what this game has for sound. Some of the light rock music fits the game well enough, but many of these tracks feel out of place during a big chase. Like Grand Theft Auto Double Pack for the Xbox; Driv3r supports Custom Soundtracks feature if you want to hear your own music instead of the standard pre-selected stuff. Sadly, in a rather dumb move you can only edit the music in the start up options menu, and not while you're playing.