DRIV3R

"Love it or hate it... it's a good game"

Gameplay 8/10

First off, the on-foot controls are akward at first, but they only take about 10 minutes to get used to. The driving controls on the other hand are very easy to use, and the driving physics of this game are like no other. The driving physics are not realistic, but they are incredibly fun to play with. The AI of this game is good and bad all at the same time. What I mean is that the on-foot AI is horrible. If you are shooting a friggin machine gun at a cop he will stay standing in one spot and whip the handgun and shoot you. No ducking, no running, just shooting. Same thing goes if you are about to to hit a cop with a car. The cop will just stand in one spot, shooting, and not even make an attempt to get out of the way. However, once the AI gets behind the wheel, you have posiibly the greatest AI pursuer there ever was on your tail. It is almost impossibly to lose the cop cars in driver three. The driving AI (for lack of a better term) in this game forces you to pull of risky moves in order to get away from the patrol cars. You'll find yourself play games of chickin on busy freeways and speeding down cluttered alleys and backroads to gain a little bit of space between you and the patrol cars. However the "driving AI" is not perfect. There are some places where cops will crash into things and will not be able to get close to you (i.e. The Marina in Miami). But the second you exit those "tricky spots" (depending on your wanted level) you'll probably have cops swarming you.

Storyline 7/10

The first time you play through the story mode you first words might be ......huh? After playing through it again you realize that it is not the best story in the world. It is not horrible, it just isn't great.

Graphics 9/10

HALEH LUH YA!!! Finally a free roam game such as this with exceptional graphics. The game has three huge and highly detailed cities that look beuatiful. The cars are just awsome looking, and that damage modeling is awsome. This game is a crap load of eye candy. There is someslowdown that I noticed in the PS2 version but the Xbox version seemed to get rid of that. However there is a huge amount of pop up in this game but after a while you won't notice it.

Replay value ?/10

There is definitely a lot of replay value but the main thing that gives it its replay is not exactly for everyone. There are driving games that you can play but only a couple of them are any fun. There are also three cars in each level that you can unlock. Also in each level there are 10 Timmys. Timmy is a is a Tommy Vercetti look alike, and when you kill all 10 in a level, you unlock an armory in that level that when entered unlocks a secret mode. The main thing that gives this game its replay value is its film director. This lets you make your own replays by placing cameras to catch your actions in the way you want to. However many people don't like to even bother with the film director.

Rent or buy?

RENT RENT RENT! This is a love it or hate type of game, so if you end up hateing it you don't want to see 40 bucks go down the drain. However you need to at least give this game a look at.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/05