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Driver San Francisco | |
| Developer: Ubisoft Reflections Publisher: Ubisoft Release Date: Out Now Players/Online features: 1, 2-player split-screen, 2-8 online multiplayer. |
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Well here’s a welcome return, I haven’t played a Reflections game since Driver: Parallel Lines, a game that had a very cool plot but the same not-as-good-as-GTA on-foot action as the much-maligned DRIV3R. Driver San Francisco dumps the out-of car action altogether and returns John Tanner to San Francisco, one of the cities featured in the first game, and its varied terrain, steep streets and sweeping freeways that make for a perfect driving game setting. )
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‘Shift’ allows Tanner to “mindjack” other drivers and take control of their vehicles. When you press ‘A’ the view zooms out to an aerial view, eventually you unlock 4 levels of Shift, which gets higher and higher and allows you to see more and move the Shift cursor from place to place more quickly. )
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Vehicles that were used in classic car chase movies such as Bullitt, Vanishing Point and Smokey and the Bandit, and in TV series like The A Team, Starsky & Hutch, The Rockford Files and Dukes of Hazzard are included, as well as James Bond’s iconic Aston Martin DB5, the DeLorean from Back to the Future and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, amazing street versions of Group 2 rally cars like the Ford RS200 and the Audi Sport Quattro S1, cars that you probably only expect to see in Codemasters rally games. The vehicles are virtually all real licensed ones and the real surprise comes in the fact that you can damage them all, severely. The handling model is just has just enough simulation in it to keep lovers of the more serious racing games happy while retaining enough of an arcade feel to be instantly accessible to all comers. You won’t need to be Sebastian Vettel to navigate your way around the city but the game steadily ups the difficulty of the tasks as the story progresses. That said, some challenges a one-try doddle and some are a lot harder, even seeming impossible until you have the eureka! moment and figure out how, when and with which vehicle to do it (I even found myself thinking about how to complete a particularly tricky challenge in bed one night—how many racing games have you thought about when you’re supposed to be sleeping?) It was a surprise and a joy for me to find that the game not only has an excellent first-person in-car view, but that’s it’s possible to perform even the trickiest of manoeuvres while using it. I’m happy to say that I completed the entire game while using it, and for me it was a real bonus as I think it adds to a game’s atmospheres a lot and didn’t think it would be practical to use it in a high-action game of this sort. )
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As I mentioned before, the change in game philosophy back to something more like the original means you can’t leave the car and walk around but in every other respect Driver:SF is about as “open world” as a game can be. Unlike Test Drive Unlimited the city feels like a populated area and there can be 30 or 40 vehicles and literally hundreds of pedestrians in view at any one time. As you sit at a roadside deciding what to do the action may come to you, and the spectacle of 3 or 4 cop cars chasing a bad guy is a frequent occurrence. You can ignore it if you wish, or Shift to one of the cop cars and earn WP by chasing down the speeder, or Shift to the fleeing car and try and escape the cops, it’s up to you. )
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There are Chase, Escape, Dare, Stunt and Race icons dotted around and these allow entry to quick, crazy driving challenges such as apprehending a certain car, escaping from the cops, maintaining a minimum speed for a certain time or jumping a certain distance. Success in these is rewarded with WP or unlocks new activities, challenges and cars to buy. When you’re zooming around there are also Movie Challenge clapperboards to find, some of which are placed high in the air and will take a bit of reaching either with fast vehicles or crafty use of the numerous car transporters that handily have their ramps down, as seen in certain other driving games. Every ten of these collected unlocks a new movie challenge, which will be viewed through a movie-style scratched film filter and may be related to some driving chase movies you’ve seen over the years such as Bullitt or Smokey and the Bandit. With the ‘Driver’ challenges, ‘Uplay’ challenges and ‘Special’ challenges there are more challenges than you can shake a stick at. The “Shift Protect” activity involves quick Shifting and quick thinking, and small amount of driving skill too. An armoured security van will be under attack and you must Shift to well-placed vehicles and ram the incoming attackers. A bizarre mixture of RTS and Burnout’s Crash mode, it’s one of the most original ideas in the game and you’ll probably either love it or hate it as it invokes a sense of panic that I don’t think I’ve experienced an a driving game before. There are 10 garages spread across the San Francisco Bay area and buying each one unlocks a unique set of vehicles to purchase. Driving through the forecourt also repairs a damaged vehicle and this is worth remembering when you’re being chased and can’t Shift. D:SF’s unique approach continues here as a badly damaged car doesn’t start to pull to one side or make grinding noises like other fames, but starts to make a cardiograph ‘flat line’ noise until you repair it or Shift to a new vehicle. The Film Director mode will be familiar to Driver 3 veterans and it’s a welcome return for an easy-to-use and entertaining “game within a game”. It allows you place the camera just about anywhere, slow down the speed and zoom in close, You can edit up the 5 minutes or so of gameplay into a movie of your very own and save it or upload it to the online Driver Club, the possible length of the upload seems to depend on how much traffic there is in the clip. Cutting together an exciting sequence can see an hour or two disappear, and thanks to the ability to position cameras, the slo-mo and the same film blemish effect that I mentioned earlier the results can be very moody and impressive. I’m sure some gamers who just want another driving game won’t even try this mode, and boy are they missing out. )
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Driver: SF also has a vertical split-screen mode that works extremely well and runs very smoothly, it even supports the in-car view. It has co-op games similar to the online game (Trailblazer, Chase and Escape) and competitive Tag, Trailblazer, Classic race, Sprint GP (a series of short races), Checkpoint Rush. It even has a Freedrive mode in which you can just explore and arse around. I could see this being a good thing if you have a well-matched buddy to play it with, but a handicap system would have been a great idea. The game is one of the best-presented I’ve seen in some time, and you even get a “Previously on Driver San Francisco” TV-style recap whenever you start playing again. However, the soundtrack is a feature that’s caused me great consternation. A confused mess, it features allsorts from Aretha Franklin and The Chi-Lites to Elbow and Primal Scream. Some tracks seem to suit driving perfectly, other are just an annoying racket in the background that sounds like your car has a mechanical problem. The original music is brilliant however, and very evocative of the wheelman/car chase movie genre. )
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Vehicle list: Abarth 500 (2008)
Alfa Romeo 159 Ti (2009)
AMC Pacer (1980) Aston Martin Cygnet (2011)
Audi A4 2.0 TFSI (2010)
Bentley Arnage T (2005)
Cadillac DTS (2010)
Caisson Fairview (bus)
Camion Hydramax 505 (Fire Engine)
Chevrolet Impala (2006)
DeLorean DMC-12 (1983) Dodge Challenger R/T - Tanner's car (1970)
Dykemann Bison 453 (garbage truck)
Ford Crown Victoria (1999)
GMC C5500 - panel truck (2008)
Hudson Hornet (1951) Hummer H3X (2009) Jaguar XFR (2010)
Jeep Wrangler (1988) Lamborghini Jalpa (1986)
Lancia Stratos - Rally (1974) Lincoln Town Car (2010) Maserati GranTurismo S (2008) McLaren SLR (2008)
Nissan 370Z (2009)
Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser (1972)
Pagani Zonda Cinque (2009) Pontiac Lemans (1971)
Dodge Ram 3500 Laramie (2010)
Range Rover Sport Supercharged (2010) RUF RK Spyder (2009)
Shelby GT500 (1967)
Van Doorn Atlus (panel truck)
Volkswagen Beetle (1963)
Y.A.R.E. Buggy Impressive list isn’t it? And they all handle pretty much like I’d expect them to as well. But the exotic and diverse roster of cars would be next-to pointless if the game didn’t play so well. The fact that it all works in such a slick, entertaining and polished way and never feels forced or silly is a credit to Reflections. )
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We’ll even let the nutty plot go without criticism and even pass by Tanner’s incessant Disney–esque “humorous” quips with a mere mention. Driver San Francisco is an absolutely marvellous piece of modern entertainment, and signals a long-awaited return to the top for Ubisoft Reflections.
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- Sublime driving model and physics. - Remarkably varied and innovative gameplay. - Over a hundred licenced vehicles that you can smash to smithereens. - Massive play area. - Well-designed and varied online play. - Director mode. |
- Mad plot will alienate some. - Bland, low detail scenery. |
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