|
That’s Driver 3 to you and me. My first foray into the ever-popular open-ended type gameplay came with Grand Theft Auto III. Rockstar’s game was fascinating because of the wealth of options you had at your disposal, which Rockstar later, arguably perfected with GTA: Vice City. I admit that I only briefly played Driver 2 to get a feel of the game, but from what I played; DRIV3R is a much improved game.
Developer Reflections’ Driver series has always starred Undercover FBI Agent Tanner (who GTA: Vice City fans may remember as the name of one of the people you had to kill) and you’ll control Tanner once again in DRIV3R. Tanner is now investigating a group of car thieves and this adventure starts him off in Miami then Paris and then Istanbul (that’s in Turkey, guys). The story isn’t all that deep but it is rather satisfying; with good enough cut scenes and big Hollywood names for the voice acting.
DRIV3R is more like True Crime instead of something like the Grand Theft Auto series. Here, you have a story and you have a linear series of missions to complete but you are given three huge cities to explore if you wish. It isn’t like GTA where you can pick and choose which missions you wish to complete. These missions are usually vehicular-based (destroy a certain place, chase someone, get some cars to a certain spot). These vehicles include plentiful cars, motorcycles and boats. There are several on-foot segments as well. The control is similar to the GTA series and you can also jump, swim and roll. The on-foot shooting leaves a bit to be desired but comparable to the GTA games on consoles. To assist you in the shooting, you’ll encounter numerous guns in the game (pistols, submachine guns, a shotgun, an assault rifle and the fan-favorite rocket launcher).
Reflections has had a lot of time to perfect their physics engine and DRIV3R is perhaps the most thorough example. You can save replays and then edit them by adding slow motion effects or changing the camera angles. These replays wouldn’t be much fun if your car didn’t do some noteworthy actions. The physics are definitely embellished to give the game a larger than life feel. For example, a simple turn or a ramp jump can evolve into an exhilarant venture. The only problem with the driving engine is that some objects will let you run through them while others like trees or streetlights while totally stop you.
Going through the linear missions took me about ten and a half hours. Since the missions don’t really give you time to enjoy your surroundings, I spent a good deal of time driving around in the “take a ride” mode. Here you can pick which city you want to drive around in and take a stroll. There are numerous, car-based side missions also included.
A big part of what makes DRIV3R a less-fulfilling experience is the rather poor AI. The enemies are quite possibly the dumbest enemies I have ever faced. They don’t detect you until you’re ridiculously close to them at which point you simply need to waste a good bit of ammo before they go down. If you’re in a car, they won’t chase you or shoot at you, but rather they get in their own car. You can blow up cars in the game by shooting at the engine. On the other hand, the driving AI is vicious. These cars stop at nothing to stop you, even if it means ending their own lives in the process.
One part of the visuals is excellent. The three cities are wonderfully designed and very distinct with a superb version of Miami. The car models are quite satisfying and you can still beat them up quite a bit. The particle effects are awesome, particularly the explosions. When everything works, the textures are excellent and hi-res, adding to the cities’ authentic feel. There is a bit of pop-up here and there but not nearly as bad as the Xbox version of the game. As a trade off though, the framerate isn’t nearly as smooth.
The audio portion of the game is great, though. The music has a very Hollywood feel to it, particularly during the cut scenes. The sound effects are adequate, with decent gunfire and vehicular sounds. The voice acting is what makes the game stand out, though with numerous Hollywood stars. Tanner is voiced by Michael Madsen, Calita is voiced by Michelle Rodriguez, and Ving Rhames plays the game’s narrator. Other voice acting talent includes Iggy Pop and Mickey Rourke.
DRIV3R could have used another month or so in development. That way that guys at Reflection could have fixed the spotty AI and graphical problems. As is, fans of the series will certainly want to pick this up since this up since it is the best iteration of the series. If you’ve been looking for another open-ended style game, at least give DRIV3R a try. It has a bit of problems but far from being mediocre. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jun 30, 2004
|
