Driver: Parallel Lines

"Just a Bad GTA Clone..."

Ah Driver. One of the Playstations classic games. However that doesn't make the new games good. Driv3r was utter rubbish and this new one aint good either. GTA has taken Driver's crown and Driver is trying to get it back by...pretending to be GTA?!

The first sign of things to come in Parallel Lines is the fact that pedestrians actually die. They no longer jump to safety like a rabbt on a springboard, they just die. The game has enough swearing to fill the San Andreas sountrack and When you shoot people they actually bleed. After six years, Driver has lost everything unique it had and become just another GTA clone, with a big 18 rating on the front (are those things getting biger or is it my eyes?!). So, how does Parallel lines compare to Grand Theft Auto? The answer is, very badly.

Don't get me wrong, for a GTA wanabee, Parallel lines has alot going for it. It's much more solid than Driv3r. It's set in 1978. It has a huge map, which is practicaly all of New York scrunched up, but most of it is bland empty streets, and you can't go inside many buildings at all.

The actuall driving is pretty good, but fatally flawed by the inclusion of the strange motion blur and crashy effects. However, you can turn this off and enjoy your freedom. If judged on it's free-roaming alone, Parallel lines would almost certaintly be able to hold it's own against San Andreas. Driving down the hills and through the busy streets is insanely fun, but when you get to any missions the game falls downhill.

Platforming on wheels IS NOT fun. Trying to drive a motorcycle other some little bits of wood against the clock is an increadibly stupid idea and extremely infuriating. And when your'e not platforming, you're attempting to ram something that resembles the A-Team van off the road, which is very difficult when you take damage from collisions and gunshots when your inside a car.

If that's not bad enough, the enemy AI is insane. The police will chase you for breathing out of order and your allies tend to 'accidently' kill you.

The game attempts to save itself by getting your main character 'The Kid' arrested and emerging in 2006, with a taste for revenge. As hard as they try to include two games in one, being in the present makes the game seem even more like a GTA clone.

Overrall, Parellel Lines attempts to take everything that makes GTA good and incorprate it into Driver but fails misrably. Don't buy this game, it's just a bad clone.

5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/24/06