Driver: San Francisco Review

It’s fair to say that Driver 3 wasn’t very well received a few years ago. Now Ubisoft are publishing the game with reflections still at the helm on the development side of things but the good news is that this game gripped me from start to finish and just got better and better the more I played it.

You still play as detective John Tanner and as arch criminal Jericho carries on his ways to jail after he was caught in Driver 3 the escort is attacked and manages to escape. Unfortunately, you also get caught in the carnage and then things get really weird, You see, the game is only actually played in San Francisco at the very beginning and end of the game, the rest of it is played inside the imagination of Tanner as his lying in a coma in a hospital bed. His struggle with Jericho in the game is actually his internal fight to regain consciousness. I know it sounds ridiculous but it actually gives a generally different spin on things and opens up the game to a whole load of original things to do. For a start, you can teleport into the heads of other people in other cars. Taking a snapshot of what they are up to. You can then take on all sorts of missions as these people, such as performing stunts, scaring driving instructors, going on street races or capturing criminals as the police. Do a few of these missions and you can then do a Tanner mission to progress the story. There are also tons of blue icons scattered around the map. Which includes garages you can buy to access hundreds of licensed cars. Dares, to increase your will power which can be used as currency for upgrades and more races to try out. You see all of these from an out of body perspective as you float above San Francisco and choose the next care you want to leap into.

Handling of the cars varies on depending what car you’re driving. But oddly the Dodge Charger you drive as Tanner is one of the worst to control. Get into one of the sports cars however and things move at one hell of a pace. The game runs very smoothly and in an open environment like this the graphics are bound to take a hit. However, the textures on the faces during dialogue are some of the best I have ever seen in a game. Voice acting is also top notch and there are some generally funny moments in the game when you take on the personas of other people and the passengers are wondering why you’re acting all strange.

The story doesn’t take long to complete at all. There isn’t much replay value in playing through all of the extra missions on the huge map, or directing my own films. Still, the option is there, if you are into that kind of thing. The game also has multiplayer modes, challenges and split screen, so if you want more than just the story that’s there for you as well.

This game is one of the most enjoyable racers out there on the market. SO for that reason I’ll give it:

8.0/10