Driver: Parallel Lines

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on March 09, 2006

Final Glimpse: Starting all over again.

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Let's face it: Driver 3 was a pungent mess filled with bugs, clunky controls and inconsistent AI. So it's perfectly understandable if gamers are less than enthusiastic about Driver: Parallel Lines, the upcoming fourth game in the action driving series. But before you dismiss it as another waste of time, read on because from what we've seen so far, things are taking a dramatic turn for the better.

Reflections Interactive humbly admits that Driver 3 was a sub-par product. They read the poor reviews and the often biting and incendiary comments posted in gamer forums, and took the criticisms to heart. As a result, they re-evaluated everything from their own internal processes to the various tools and technology they used, and refocused their efforts to bring the franchise back to what made it great in the first place: providing insanely fun driving and spectacular Hollywood-style crashes. Rather than keep building upon previous efforts Ц which obviously hasn't been successful Ц they decided to wipe the slate clean and start over from scratch to make an entirely new game. This meant toasting old Driver standards like Tanner, the undercover cop storyline, the Film Director mode, and reducing the amount of time spent out of the car. In fact, Driver: Parallel Lines will be split roughly 90% in vehicles and only 10% on foot, welcome news for those who despised the clunky out of car missions in the previous version.

Make no mistake: Reflections is dead serious on making Parallel Lines the best Driver ever Ц and it looks like their efforts are paying off. In the process, they had to make some hard decisions about what worked best for the game Ц which unfortunately meant dropping the online multiplayer mode. Originally, the game was supposed to allow up to eight players racing their customized rides over Xbox Live, with players hopping in and out of the minigame races straight from the single player campaign. During development, Reflections found that the online mode wasn't up to snuff so they decided to toss it and focus on making the best offline single player experience instead. Normally when a developer cuts out a huge chunk like multiplayer it raises a big red flag but in this case, it could be a good thing since veering off into non-core tangents is what got the franchise in trouble in the first place.

Further evidence that Parallel Lines will be different is the fact that the game will take place in two very different eras: the heady disco days of 1978 and cold impersonality of 2006. Why 1978? The developers wanted to pay homage to the original Driver, which itself was inspired by classic Hollywood car chase movies like Bullitt, The French Connection and of course, The Driver.

You will start out as an ambitious 18-year old known simply as TK, or Уthe kidФ, as you work your way up a New York criminal organization as a driver for hire. Your main goal during this time is to impress the right people and so you will take on missions that show off your amazing criminal driving talent. However, at the halfway point of the game there's a nasty twist that causes you to get thrown in the slammer for 28 years. D'oh! Once you're released in 2006, there is only one thing on your mind: sweet violent revenge against those responsible.

There will be approximately 40 story missions and 100 minigames or sidequests that you can embark on, including Destruction Derby, street races, track races, tag, hide and seek, cops and robbers, arranged hits (track down and kill a target), stealing cars and more. Taking a cue from Grand Theft Auto, the game will be much more open and let you choose missions as you please since the minigames will now be integrated within the main game instead of separated like before. Other than being a fun diversion from the story missions, the minigames and sidequests will help you earn money to buy vital upgrades your car, such as engine, nitrous and suspension modifications, new paint jobs and aesthetic add-ons like spoilers, and even armor plating and bulletproof glass and tires.

The game will stream the New York landscape in real-time like GTA so there will be no loading screens. The Big Apple will be accurately recreated Ц though the geography had to be compressed for gameplay purposes Ц and will include the Bronx, Brooklyn, Coney Island, Harlem, Manhattan, New Jersey, Staten Island, Queens and other well known districts and landmarks. If you get tired of driving from one end of the city to another, you will be able to use garages as save points and УteleportФ between them to cut down on your commute. Ah, if only you could do that in real lifeЕ

Anyway, to help you on your missions you will be able to steal or carjack any of the 80 or so vehicles including cars, trucks, motorcycles, hot rods, SUVs, busses, tractors, bulldozers, big 18-wheelers and even tanks (thankfully, there are no boats this time around). Even though the vehicles are non-licensed fictional creations, many of them are instantly recognizable clones of famous cars like Lamborghinis, Mustangs, GTOs and so on.

Driver's renowned car physics will return better than ever, enhanced to make the cars feel as if they had actual weight, which will not only make the cars handle more realistically, but also create some impressive Hollywood-style car crashes. Add in the realistic damage modeling and the amazing particle physics engine responsible for spraying chunks of broken car parts into the air with each crunching impact, and you've got the makings of a car crash lover's dream game.

Of course, you can't just run around creating vehicular mayhem without consequences. Similar to GTA, the more criminal your behavior, the more attention you'll attract from the police. However, in a unique twist, you will have two УfelonyФ meters. Commit crimes inside a car and your Vehicle Felony Rating increases; changing cars or УcleaningФ them in a garage will cause the meter to drop and throw off the cops. However, if you commit crimes outside a vehicle, your Personal Felony Rating is tied directly to you so changing cars won't help; in fact, the only way to reduce your Personal rating will be to haul ass and lose the cops for a long enough period of time.

During the few times that you're out of your car, you can engage in some third-person shooting that the developers are promising will be vastly improved over the buggy foot missions in the previous version. Thanks to the new open style of gameplay, you will even be able to enjoy GTA-style random gratuitous violence by walking around blasting everything in sight, which sounds like a heckuva lotta fun. You can also shoot from your vehicle if you don't want to get your Hush Puppies dirty.

Visually, the game looks fantastic. The upgraded graphics engine is apparently able to support up to 80 vehicles and 200 characters onscreen at the same time, running at a steady 30 fps. Whether or not we actually see that much activity in the final build is another story, but one thing is for sure Ц this is a darn good looking game. From the detailed car models to the spectacular crashes to the New York scenery, this will be a real treat for the eyes.

The really cool thing is how the designers are differentiating between the two eras. You will really feel as if you stepped back into 1978 New York as the cars, buildings and overall environment eerily reflect that time. The Twin Towers are still standing proud, and your character sports bell-bottoms, mutton chops and a mullet that would make the Bee Gees green with envy. The developers wanted to create a fun, light-hearted feel to accentuate the wild happy-go-lucky nature of the missions and the era, and so set the story in the summertime complete with warm yellow lighting. The period cars will even handle like the big floaty boats they were. Best of all, you will get to enjoy licensed music from the late С70s including David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Blondie, War and many others. Hey, what can I say, I love С70s music!

Flash forward to 2006 when you get out of prison and everything has changed. The streets are still there of course, but the buildings are different, the Twin Towers are tragically gone, and the clothing and hair styles have been updated. Your character will have gained a few pounds and even more anger over the years, and since the missions will shift from getting noticed to exacting revenge, the environment will reflect his mood; for example, the story will now take place in the coldness of winter and everything will be lit with a harsh blue tint. As well, you will notice that the modern vehicles will handle and perform a lot better, you can use modern weapons, your HUD changes, the music is a lot more current, and even enemy AI has been modernized with updated police chase and takedown tactics. Heck, they even used different lens flares and filter effects to simulate the differences between 1978 film stock and 2006 digital video technology.

Oh, and remember those cars you spent hours customizing back in 1978? Well, if you store them in a garage they will still be available when you get out of jail in 2006. Cool!