DRIV3R Review

Driver 3 or 'Driv3r' as the developers so cleverly devised, has finally landed on the PS2. After years of waiting for a sequel to Driver 2, our hopes have finally been realised with this summer time release. Suffering all the 'slippage' in the world, its amazing Atari didn’t push it right back for a Christmas release!

Since the days of Driver on PSone, the Playstation 2 has risen and flourished. We now have games like Vice City, True Crime, The Getaway and the PC conversion: The Mafia. All have taken the GTA/Driver formulas and have built on them. But can Driv3r come back from the ashes and reclaim its throne?

Well it doesn't start well. The graphics are good as you walk around your fully 3D house and explore for a while. But they are nothing we haven’t seen before. Getting used to the slightly peculiar way tanner moves you begin to feel like you could be having more fun elsewhere. He feels odd. Especially after you have been playing the superb 'Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow' for the last week or so. Tanner has limited abilities. Forget a tense duck and dive gun shoot out. This is a blast-fest. When tanner is on foot you will just go into first person mode and gun down the bad guys Doom-style. This is boring and unrealistic. Tanner is crying out for the ability to take cover behind objects and to be able to press up against a wall and shoot around the corner. But he can't. The need for a revised method is made obvious at the very first mission. When confronted with a group of bad guys through a small opening - Tanner has to charge through to be greeted by a wall of bullets. Rather than just pressing up against the wall and shooting like they do in the movies. What were the designers thinking? Useless!

But bouncing between the great driving and the boring shooting you do begin to enjoy it more. As the story unfolds and you get to ride that new motorbike! But Driv3r is never quite good enough to reclaim its throne. For that - more work needs to be done for the on-foot missions. A better balance is needed like that in ‘The Getaway’. Tanner must have more moves and better animation for this game to be taken seriously.

So, unless you are a car chase nut I wouldn’t recommend this game. There is more fun to be had elsewhere. Namely Vice City and The Getaway which are also a lot cheaper at the time of writing this.

Overall the game disappoints. The driving is as hectic as ever and sometimes a bit of fun. So if you want a racing game buy it. But if you want more - don’t bother. The on-foot missions are boring. Let down by a lack of moves and little control.

Rating: 7/10

This review was added on 30th June 2004 by nGaming user fozzyfanatic1.