- Film Director mode allows you to
become an instant action-genre auteur
- Undercover Mode story will take a while to complete
- Completely buggy and
glitch-filled gameplay
- Sub-par and uninteresting gameplay is nowhere near the fun of
the latest GTA installments
- Below-average visuals with overwhelming graphical pop-up
problems
- Infuriating replaying over and over of
one-mistake-and-your-done missions before moving on in the story
- Unpredictable shooting controls
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Driv3r
Score: 4.0 / 10
It’s hard to call Driv3r – let’s call it
Driver 3 from here – a copycat game of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA)
franchise, because in reality it is GTA that ripped off the basic
gameplay mechanics developed by the first Driver game on the
PlayStation. But while Rockstar has taken the Driver formula and crafted
a couple of magnificent action/driving games, the Driver series has
driven completely off the road it paved, becoming a complete and total
flaming wreck in its latest appearance, Driver 3. Filled with
overwhelming bugs and glitches, Driver 3 comes nowhere close to
possessing the horsepower capable of catching the nitro-powered
wonderfulness of GTA, which is superior to Driver 3in every way in terms
of quality and gameplay.
Following in the footsteps of the previous Driver games, the heavy brunt
of Driver 3’s gameplay and story gives player’s ample opportunity to be
placed in the driver’s
seat, starting in Miami. A buyer wants to
illegally purchase 40 exotic cars that have a street value of $20
million bucks and a car-thieving ring is happy to oblige by ripping off
these cars. Undercover hard-boiled cop Tanner is on the case to stop
them, using any means possible while traveling from Miami to Italy to
Istanbul. The story is actually not bad, although it borrows a tad too
much from the movie “Gone in 60
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Seconds.” Add some solid voice acting from a stable of Hollywood
veterans (Michael Madsen, Ving Rhames, and Michelle Rodriquez; Iggy Pop
and the always-resuscitating-his-career-somewhere-or-other Mickey Roarke
also lend their voices).
By the way, because it lacks any vehicle license (just like GTA) the
cars are all generically-designed-but-somehow-familiar versions of
real-life autos. Strangely, although the game takes place in current
times, most of the cars look like they have been transported right out
of the muscle-car era of the 70’s (compared to GTA: Vice City’s use of
80’s-inspired cars that perfectly fit into the game’s 80’s setting.)
The story’s not the problem, however. The plot of Driver 3 is actually
carried out very well with good cut-scenes carrying it forward. But
there’s no spark and shine from the story flowing over into the core
gameplay. Simply put, Driver 3 lacks any gameplay personality
whatsoever, which is made even more glaringly apparent when placed
side-by-side with GTA. GTA has a great balance of different and
creatively designed missions. Driver 3 can push you to the brink of
becoming comatose at times. GTA: Vice City had an amazing soundtrack
that was brilliantly weaved into the game and was just as much fun
listening to all the radio stations and the nostalgic 80’s tunes they
played as playing the game itself. Driver 3 relies on relatively
unmemorable music that doesn’t even play in the Driver 3 cars themselves
you will spend the majority of the game.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg of Driver 3’s major gameplay
dilemmas. After frustratingly finally completing the entire game, I can
only deduce that Driver 3 was rushed onto store shelves before getting a
fully thorough quality-assurance testing. There are a multitude of
glitches that really leave Driver 3 dead on the road, making the game
nearly unplayable and completely a dragging letdown at many junctures.
This game is exasperatingly full of glitches. You can get “stuck” into
static features of the environment such as underneath a partially
concealed staircase. Attempting to jump out of boats onto docks many
times causes Tanner to erupt into a frenzied frozen-in-air shaking fit.
You can drive on many curbs without incident, but other times will crash
and burn on a similar-sized obstruction. Other times the game simply
locks up completely. Shooting errors abound too. Even with your weapon’s
targeting reticle placed on an enemy, your bullets will sometimes have
no ill effects on the guy you’re shooting while conversely his gunfire
is shredding you.
Other missions allow you to “cheat” by letting you kill enemies in rooms
or tight confines by you simply staying near doorways or cover where you
can just slightly target an enemy. You can shoot them, and they act like
they aren’t even being shot at, even though they are quickly dying. I
was able to clear the very last mission, which was supposed to be a
knock-em-down-drag-em-out gunfight, by keeping at the edge of an
alleyway and shooting at my leisure the main bad guy, Jericho. This is
one buggy game that will drive you crazy trying to figure out its
idiosyncrasies.
Another problem with Driver 3 is that to progress from mission to
mission, get prepared to replay missions over and over and over and
over. It took me sometimes at least 50 tries before passing individual
mission objectives. Many driving missions require you to follow or chase
other driving characters. But the problem is they are given first-class
driving skills while racing around narrow city streets. Just one simple
mistake (which is easy to make because of the hazards like trees and
light posts that obstruct your driving path) and you lose the driver
you’re tying to follow or chase. The game demands perfection -- never
mind how imperfect the game is itself!
Not helping the demanding missions is an absolutely horrid control
system. Complete with a bad camera, controlling Tanner is difficult,
both in-and-out-of-car missions. Weaponry shooting aiming is not
reliable either. Trying to lock onto a target is ridiculously uneven;
sometimes it’s easy to get a bead on someone you’re trying to shoot;
many times it isn’t.
Compounding the legion of Driver 3’s problems is a below-average visual
presentation with weak graphics. On top of that, pop-up problems galore
negatively affect the game. Vehicles will just “pop” onto the road in
front of you, giving you little time in many instances to avoid them.
With Driver 3’s challenging difficulty already, this just makes it a lot
more maddening. Enemies also just “pop” out in rooms or areas where you
seemingly had just already cleared all enemies from. The supposedly open
world touted by Driver 3 isn’t as open-ended as advertised. Invisible
wall after invisible wall prevent traveling to every niche of the Driver
3 realm.
What’s funny about Driver 3’s ESRB Mature rating is that there’s
actually not that much blood, gore, or profanity to warrant being
slapped with “M” status. Strangely, you’re able to off anybody you want
in the game, but you are supposed to be a law enforcement officer,
albeit one that doesn’t always follow the rules. Missing for unknown
reasons to anybody but the development team, you would think there would
be some sort of gameplay punishment for acting too recklessly outside
the bounds of the law’s jurisdiction. But there isn’t. Police will
respond to accidents, but if you leave the scene nothing happens.
Accidentally shooting or driving over police officers or innocent
bystanders doesn’t affect your game one bit. I would have rather had the
incentive to avoid punishment or arrest (as in GTA) as the reason why
Driver 3 is so difficult instead of its glitch-filled gameplay.
Only one game mode offers any kind of interesting appeal to gamers,
particularly those with aspirations to become the next big John Woo-esque
action-movie director. You can take saved replays and edit them. It can
be a lot of fun and you can also upload your movies through Xbox Live
for others to download, watch and enjoy.
If Driv3r were a car, it would be recalled for crippling performance
issues. Having Driver 3’s storyline placing the hero flat-lining with
his survival in doubt in an emergency room at the end of the game is
ironic, because after playing this clearly deficient game, you’ll
really, really be rooting that he doesn’t live on for a sequel. Despite
the fact it was the original playa in the action/driving genre, the
Driver series is clearly outclassed by Rockstar’s flagship franchise.
- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com
(August 4, 2004)
