Driver: San Francisco pushes the boundaries of the driving sim genre with a brilliant narrative and innovative game play.
Even though it has an unbelievably implausible plot, the game play dynamics work extraordinarily well. The protagonist is John Tanner, a detective chasing Jericho, the local baddie/terrorist/bank robber.
Tanner is injured during a daring jailbreak, falls into a coma and discovers the ability to astral project, or 'shift', and possess the driver of any car in San Francisco.
He realises very quickly that this is all just a dream. I'm glad they establish this early on, because as end-of-game twists go, the 'it's only a dream' twist is one of the most irritating. But in this case, it works. When Tanner eventually comes out of the coma, the time he spent dreaming helps him figure out Jericho's next move, and a plan to take him down.
Being able to possess any driver in the city adds a fun, new dynamic to this racing game. There are the typical race types, including standard races, checkpoint races, following baddies without raising suspicion races, or taking out baddies races. Some of these are for the main story; others serve to earn the in-game currency, or WillPower.
However, with Tanner's abilities, even these races are slightly different. For example, instead of racing ahead of everyone else, he quickly possesses an oncoming car and crashes head-on into competitors. This game play dynamic is one of the most entertaining I've experienced in a racing game in years.
IN SUMMARY:
Pros: Strong storyline, shifting into other cars, huge variety of race types, split-screen
Cons: Frequent loading screens, invisible walls in a sandbox, control of vehicle is quite tough, extreme rubberband
Moment of the game: During my first race, shifting into the closest bus and trashing three of my competitors in one swoop
Rating: 8/10
Achievement difficulty: 7/10
Time to completion: 7 hours
Driver also has game modes we haven't seen before. At one time, the player is asked to drive two cars simultaneously, in first person view; drive a large truck across town, keeping above a specific speed; and even drive under truck trailers to disarm bombs.
The game isn't perfect. I'm no expert at racing games, but I found it much tougher to control vehicles in this game than in, say, Need for Speed or Forza. One of the most frustrating aspects of the game was that, on several occasions, I spun out of the race with the finish line in sight. The extreme “rubberband” effect, however, means that even if you spin out early, you always stand a chance of winning.
In fact, I once stopped dead in the middle of a race, and eventually, so did my competitors. Finally, the loading scenes are so frequent and long that they break from the continuity of the story.
There are six split-screen multiplayer modes, either co-operative or competitive, and another five modes available in online play. There is almost no lag, and players' success lies in how quickly they are able to shift effectively between vehicles. However, like in the single player mode, I was a bit frustrated by my inability to control the car effectively.
Driver: SF has a strong narrative, witty dialogue and an engaging story. This, coupled with innovative game play dynamics and new game modes, makes Driver: SF, surprisingly, one of best racing games I've played, and puts it in my top five games of the year.
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