If you were unfortunate enough to have ever set foot into the world of the abysmally ill-conceived (and abhorrently named) Driv3r – let me take this opportunity to reassure you: John Tanner DOES NOT step foot outside of the vehicle during the course of gameplay.
In fact, he doesn’t do any foot-stepping in this game at all – besides mashing the accelerator flat and weaving his way through heavy traffic.
For those of you just joining us in this generation of gaming, what the above means is that Driver: San Francisco has finally returned to the place that made the Driver franchise a franchise to begin with (spoiler: it involves driving) – and hot-damn, I’m happy to report that it is better than I could have ever expected. Well, mostly.
Sit back ladies and gentlemen; please place your expectations on the seat beside you; and applaud as we welcome John Tanner back to the class of A-listers.
Take a deep breath…
6 months after the events in Driv3r, Tanner and partner Jones are back on the streets; and Jericho (filling the role of all-round bad guy once again) is being transported via prison truck in the city of San Francisco.
You just know it’s not going to end well; and indeed, it does not. After making his escape and commandeering his own prison transportation, Jericho heads on his merry way, with Tanner in close pursuit.
Tanner goes “vroom”, Jericho goes “Muahahaha!”, a truck driver goes “lolwtf!” and next thing you know, Tanner is lying in hospital suffering a truck-to-the-face-induced coma.
It is here, in the delusional mind of John Tanner, that Driver San Francisco takes place.
No. There is no need for a spoiler warning – this is a little revelation that happens within the first 15 minutes of playing the game. It is completely insane.
It doesn’t end there, either; as the game continues, the plot gets more and more ridiculous until it even hit a point where I exclaimed “Wha- SERIOUSLY?” in a thunderous rage that scared my cat.
But out of this ludicrous attempt at making some form of coherent story, comes the single-greatest feature I’ve experienced in a driving game to date – the ability to “shift”.
Shift expectations (Sorry, Nissan)
Tanner soon learns that he has the ability to essentially “shift” out of his body, and enter into any vehicle he sees; “mind-jacking” the individual in control of said vehicle. This feature, simply put, makes this game.
The gameplay itself is comprised of pretty much every game mode you could find in other titles: point-to-point races; checkpoint challenges; take-down challenges; tailing; and even instances where you have to increase heart-rates to force information from people (did someone say Grand Theft Auto?) or keep them alive.
Nothing really to make Driver San Francisco truly stand out. Until you throw “shifting” into the mix.
Suddenly checkpoint races become a lot more interesting when you can steer oncoming traffic directly into your opponents. Take-downs are more dramatic when you feel perhaps a truck would serve as a better battering-ram.
Who needs boring, old-fashioned single car point-to-point races, when you’re given control of two cars (with AI assist when you’re not in one) and have to make sure you come in both first AND second place.
On top of that, there are now also new modes and challenges that make use of shifting in their own unique ways: defend a position by literally hurtling traffic into oncoming aggressors; move across the entire city and find the perfect vehicle you need to disarm bombs hidden under moving trucks; or simply get to where you need to be without having to navigate the busy streets and back-alleys of the San Francisco Bay.
Shifting adds to this game in every single way – taking it from a mediocre and generic collection of “done before”, into the zone of “HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT!?”
But wait, there’s more…
Of course, as a sandbox game, there is incentive to play around a bit.
Driver San Francisco offers over 100 licensed cars for you to play with – either by shifting into them and keeping them temporarily; or by attaining enough “willpower” points to purchase them from one of the many showroom garages across the city.
Willpower points are attained by completing stunt dares, side-races or side-challenges that don’t form part of the main story (but share the gameplay modes). They’re also accrued by driving skillfully – such as long drifts, air time, missing traffic, or overtaking.
Aside from cars, you can also purchase upgrades to your ability bar (which allows you to boost your speed or ram harder) or to gain extra modes such as a stunt/action cam – which allows you to record your antics in free-roam mode, for editing later.
The true joy of Driver San Francisco though, reveals itself when your friends get involved.
Multiplayer modes in San Francisco can either be kept local with split screen, or taken online (provided you have an XboxLive Gold account, or a PSN account that isn’t being hacked) – and they. Are. Epic.
The shift feature is very much alive in multiplayer – but executed in such a way that the balance of power is never thrown off; for instance in a head-to-head tag mode, the person who is ‘it’ has his ability to shift removed – while everyone else is free to use their powers of mind-jacking to steal your ‘it-ness’ away from you.
Checkpoint races challenge you and your opponents to hit checkpoints in rapid succession – lag behind, and you’ll have to shift ahead to catch up.
Throw into the mix more traditional races and challenges, and you’ve got many hours of laughing, punching and swearing ahead of you.
Co-op modes challenge you and a friend to survive an onslaught of police on varying levels of aggression; or something more lame and boring like following a car and refueling it by staying in its tail stream.
Simply put – multiplayer is where it’s at; and without the weird story flying around you to try and make sense of your situation – I would argue it’s probably better than the actual single-player game.
Conclusion
Driver San Francisco is an amazingly fun game that provides an experience that really caught me by surprise. Having past blunders to contend with, it’s tough not to go into it expecting the worst.
Sure, the plot is laughable, but it ties itself up in a way that’s consistent with the universe it has established.
Granted, it’s difficult to imagine why Tanner – a cop, a protector – has no qualms throwing the lives of innocent citizens into oncoming traffic – but try not to think about it too hard, it’s all in his head, even if he doesn’t know it just yet.
Even though the final mission is intensely frustrating, it is working off of gameplay that has invigorated a genre in ways you never thought were possible.
The game isn’t perfect; particularly in how it holds its concept together – but with the game, the extras and the amazing multiplayer modes; there is so much on offer here to keep coming back to. Craziness and all.
Welcome back, John Tanner, welcome back.
Driver: San Francisco review (Xbox 360) << Comments and views
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