DRIV3R

"Single Player is horrid but the rest is amazing!"

Ok I'm a Driver fan and a GTA fan... more so GTA's Free Roaming concept not to much the game. So this review is not based on a GTA vs. DRIVER thing.

Story 9/10:
You're Tanner. You're a cop posing as a driver and the rest you have to see for yourself. Just play it and see. Although the story is pretty cool it's actually really short over all but very good none the less!

Graphics 7/10:
Well here's the problem. Allot of cards aren't supported by the game. And the rest had major graphic issues but that was fixed by a patch that was released right away. So overall now the graphics I think are really good. Most pcs can handle it but it does tend to studder even with its supposed "Recommended" specs. The roads though seem a little dull and at night things seem ....less detailed.

There aren't any bullet holes or blood or anything so explosions and sparks are the only real effects you see in game. Over all I'm really impressed by this game! Your cars look amazing when you crash them into stuff (or other cars) and pieces fall off, not to mention you can shoot pieces of windshields out. And when the blow up they shatter into pieces which is great! Animations are horrid though. It's really sad; it's like hitting stick figures.

Game play 8/10:
The game play is crap in SP but ill explain in my special section about SP! Basically you do mission like driving from one place to another, or catching another car or running away from a car...etc. You get map which is useful seeing as how in SP you'll definitely need it!

In the other modes the game shines. In Take A Ride you can free roam and just drive anywhere in the games three cities! You can choose a car, type of weather, cops or no cops...etc. There also bonus modes to play too. It's really endless!

You can use motorcycles, boats, cars, semi, cranes, run around and even swim (yes swim)!

You also have a move editor after you finish in whatever mode you're playing whether it's the SP or something else. When your done you can view your replay in a Movie Editor mode which lets you add camera views like slomo or panning camera shots...etc so that basically lets you save it so you can watch it back as a movie whenever you want.

Controls 7/10:
The controls are easy to use since there isn't many buttons. The hard part is actually using them in game with what they give you to drive and shoot with!

Music and Sound 10/10:
About the only thing that I cant complain about. The music while it may be nothing special at least isn't annoying enough that I turned it off. Its pretty good music that at least keeps you pumped enough! The sounds are pretty good too and also nothing special!

Learning Difficulty/Curve 10/10
Well....there is no curve. It's hard in single player, beyond hard at some points. You play it and some mission is easy and then others because of physics make it near impossible so I wouldn't recommend this if you're not good at games.

The HUGE problems with Driv3r
Well here the problem with the game. Single Player will make you hate the game.

AI Physics are rock hard on some missions. SO if you bump into them you crash and have to start over. Ai physics are perfect so they can corner well and everything. Which would be fine except the fact that your cars always seem to have the physics of a cotton ball sometimes then other times the have the physics of a planet on an ice sheet. These things usually make you restart a mission hundreds of times. I cant recall how many times I quit the game after repeating a mission about 50 times and finally giving up for the day.

Some missions require you to shoot while driving and you can't use the mouse. You have two you three keyboards button. Two to move up and down and one to fire. This is an incredible pain seeing as how it's rare to actually take out a car.

These problems mostly affect you in single player and don't bug you in anything else. But while in single player they totally kill the single player experience and result in you wanting to get a save game just so you can unlock everything so you can actually play with everything in the free roaming setting.

Pros and Cons :
Pros:
-Amazing Graphics when patched
-Huge city to explore on foot or by car
-Lots of things to do
-You can actually swim! (Gta comparison)
-Lots of vehicles to choose from
-Movie Editor

Cons:
-Single Player

Overall Opinion 7/10-Buy The Game! :
While the single player is beyond a pain and stressful the game is worth it if you get a save game of the net and play Take A Ride mode or any other mode and just cruise around! You can have endless hours of fun exploring the city seeing new sites, entering building on foot....etc

This is still the best driving Free Roam game to date I've played despite some flaws and crappy single player!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/05