DRIV3R

"--Foes, and Woes of DRIV3R--"

DRIV3R has had to live up to a lot of hype, and has received a large amount of bad press, among the good press. I must admit, DRIV3R does have its up's and downs, but over all I feel this game deserves a certain recognition. DRIV3R is also being compared to GTA (Grand Theft Auto), however I will not do this in my review, because I feel both games, yet somewhat similar are very much two different things.
The game takes place in 3 beautiful cities right across the world, Miami (much like the first 2 Driver's) Nice (France) and Istanbul (Turkey). The cities are absolutely beautiful in detail, and clearly a lot of research went into creating this massive, life size cities. There are multiple indoor locations in each city as well, which are also stunning graphically.
The plot line consists of Tanner (you) going undercover to unveil a stolen car scheme, and to bring it down. His mission takes him across the world.
I've never played Driver 2, and that may be why I found myself a bit lost character wise, Jericho (Yes, from Driver 2) appears in DRIV3R, along with some other characters which I never fully figured out their names or who exactly they were. This is where the game is lacking severely. The whole story line does not immerse the player into the game as much as say GTA, or The Getaway, therefore I found myself lost during some missions, because the transition (cutscene wise) between missions was poor. For example, in the second last mission (called 'Bomb Truck') the cutscene shows Jericho killing some guy (again due to lack of character background I don't know who it was) and all of a sudden your following some truck thats throwing exploding barrels at you. The lack of character background, as I mentioned made the game (storyline) extremely hard to follow, and at times lost during missions. The lack of character pictures, and descriptions in the manual doesn't help either.
Gameplay wise, this game is fantastic. There was virtually no lag (only during some weird glitches in the game, and occationally during a mission, but rarely) and the 40+ different cars you can drive are impressive. Hidden cars, and 'Timmy Vermicelli's' (a spoof on GTA, read the FAQ's for more info) make take-a-ride mode interesting, and less boring.
There are several hidden indoor locations around each city aswell, which are not played in missions, and can only be found by following a FAQ, or by coming across one by accident, and there are also several tourist attractions around each city, if your interested why cruising in take-a-ride mode.
The misc. driving games (ie. 'Quick Chase', 'Trailblazer', 'Checkpoint Race' etc.) can be entertaining and frustrating at times, much like any game, and they keep you playing the game once you've beaten Undercover mode.
The missions have been well thought out, and at times very hard and frustrating, but overall well set up and thought out by the design team. The transitions between missions, however, is extremely poor, as I mentioned earlier.
The music and sound effects are also another impressive feature, the music suited the situations you found yourself in during missions and take-a-ride mode, and the music in Istanbul, along with certain sound effects suit the city very well.
The ability to swim adds an extra feature to the game, and allows you to explore even more and have a better appreciation for the design of the cities.
Glitches are not rare in this game, there is a complete list here of gamefaqs.com for anyone interested in them, and the list is lengthy. However, during missions or take-a-ride you're not going to find these glitches unless you go looking for them, they tend to be out of the way, and don't effect direct gameplay

Final Thought: Overall, I had a tough decision deciding what to rate this game, because it had its Foes, and Woes, more than any other game I've played before. I decided on a 7/10, for the simple fact of very poor cutscenes and confusing mission transitions.
Even if this game did take 4 years to develop, i think an extra few months of tweaking and reviewing the downsides of the games I mentioned would have imporved my rating drastically.
Other that these fau-pa's in the game I enjoyed playing it very much, and I think it is well worth a second look for those thinking about passing it up. If it doubt, go out a rent it and decide for yourself.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/04