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Driver San Francisco
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Action/Driving
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii
Writer: Kris Polglase
Rating: 8/10
Gamefreaks
Driver San Francisco should be a terrible game.
It has one of the more bizarre plot devices show-horned into a
video game, let alone a driving game, and it's cheesier than an
American sitcom. Added to that is a graphics engine that doesn't
exactly challenge Gran Turismo 5 and the potential for the game to
be a giant case of "and he wakes up at the end", and you should be
looking at a contender for stinker of the year.
Yet Driver San Francisco doesn't suck. In fact, given time, the
game shows you that you don't need billion dollar budgets and
stunning CGI cut scenes to make a stonking game, you just need
guts, guns and great driving.
The aforementioned plot device is the lynchpin that keeps Driver
San Francisco ticking. You play as John Tanner, decorated San
Francisco police detective, but you also play as random taxi
driver, random criminal underling, random learner driver, random
asshole; you see in the midst of the case of his career, while
tracking the transfer of a criminal kingpin, Tanner is involved in
a massive coma-inducing car crash when aforementioned criminal
breaks free.
Tanner soon finds himself able, somehow, to assume the body of any
driver in any car in San Francisco. Whether a super-powered sports
car or a super-slow car transport, if you can see it, Tanner can
posses it. It is this tweak on a genre obsessed with the need for
speed that gives Driver San Francisco a shot in arm and freedom to
play with the conventions of the racing game.
As Tanner and the player begins to realize the predicament they've
found themselves in, while not fully understanding it, Driver San
Fran slowly unleashes its box full of tricks. More akin to an
action-racer like Burnout Paradise, as Tanner filters the real
world into his coma, he finds himself righting what once went wrong
and saving the day over and over again.
The missions and variety of missions within San Francisco make the
core single-player experience enjoyable all the way through its run
time. With chase, pursuit, escape, stunt, collision, race and
exploration aspects to different mission types, the game always
seems to be pulling out original ideas at every turn. One mission
may find you racing to the hospital, another pulling off stunts for
a TV show or street racing for cash. The sheer options opened up by
ghosting through the world and entering any car you like is
enormous.
Despite the story sounding far-fetched and unbelievable, Ubisoft
Reflections slowly reveal the true nature of what is happening and
make the reality of the situation light enough to fit the nature
and design of the game.
On top of this is a brilliant series of multi-player types that use
the main "ghosting" plot device to stonking effect in variations of
tag, pursuit or crash events. Combined with the ability to also
play events online or split screen with the "ghosting" disabled and
just focused on the cars and Driver San Francisco is a wealth of a
package.
Driver San Francisco is one of the surprises of the year, not just
in the driving genre, but in gaming in general. A game that may
slip under the radar of the masses but certainly deserves a look
for any self-respecting fan of the series, racing games or just
entertainment in general. A fun, funky blast of fresh freedom,
Driver San Francisco is fantastic.
