DRIV3R review

The majority of Driver 3's problems stem from what has been added to the classic car-chase formula. Even today, the original 32-bit game holds up well; its simple environments allowing for slick getaways and tight chases. In today's marketplace, however, simplicity is frowned upon and certain features are pushed into a game that could really do without them. Having forgotten the lesson of Driver 2, Reflections have sped bumper-first into an all-out GTA-rip-off, which means our undercover wheel-man, Tanner, has to get his hands dirty...The high-price point, extensive marketing and flashy FMV have created a buzz around Driver 3, which ultimately disappoints. The technically impressive (though artistically bland) full-motion videos mock the in-game graphics, whilst the outdoors look convincing and solid enough, excessive aliasing gives everything a jagged edge. The indoor environments are devoid of any believable lighting, making them appear very flat. The frame rate rarely holds firm when you're cruising the streets of Miami, Nice or Istanbul. The new damage and physics modelling, creates frequent judders that break up the action whenever you impact heavily with another vehicle. The draw-distance is vast, however specific scenery is held back until it's within close range. The result is that you often see cars, lampposts and bits of buildings fading in front of you. It's not as obvious as sudden 'pop-up', but the effect is similar.Yet it isn't the technical worries that will disappoint fans of the series (after all, we're used to that sort of thing by now), rather the glaring gameplay inadequacies that utterly destroy most of the main game and cripple the extra modes.Tanner's on-foot movement is terrible - to the extent that it's almost funny. Using the twin-stick system (standard first-person shooter control set-up), you move the viewpoint around with one stick and control movement with the other, always facing forwards. However, this is mapped so badly to the flimsy dual-shock sticks that the camera lurches in and out, unsure of where it should be, and the cross hair (a rather crucial element of aiming and shooting) twitches back and forth with the precision of a blind rhinoceros. During the shooting sections Tanner will laughably stand, trying to hit opponents as they respond in kind; either remaining perfectly motionless while firing bullets vaguely in Tanner's direction, or merely unaware of him shooting them from ten feet away. This terrible artificial intelligence is actually a blessing, as any sort of movement or advancement on their part would render the game impossible to complete due to the control system. As fifty percent of the Undercover mode requires shoot-outs, it makes for some infuriatingly slow progression. Even if you manage to drive perfectly to your destination, a random bullet will require you to do it all again from the beginning; this structure is seriously flawed and unbalanced.Once behind the wheel of a car, however, things do improve. The handling is a slightly 'heavier' version of the classic Driver model; tapping the hand-brake to get around corners is immensely satisfying when you emerge from a corner undamaged, the wheels skidding and spinning you into a straightened-out position ready to speed away.However, once again, it is the new additions that cripple the experience. The vehicle damage is authentic, but when the bonnet flips up (as it invariably does after a couple of hits) it completely blocks the view of the road ahead. The over-the-car viewpoint is far too low to see over, and a switch to the 'bumper cam' is necessary until the bonnet decides to flip off completely. Since the cities are riddled with hills, steep slopes and ramps, the spongy physics throw the car around a lot, making it hard to see over the top of the vehicle. The first person viewpoint is often far better, however it can make reversing a real pain and manoeuvring around obstacles tricky - there simply isn't an alternative that caters for all situations.Mission types on offer are quite similar to what has gone before: getaways, chases, surveillance, or just getting to a given location and then blowing away everyone there. There are some slightly more inventive mission types, however that are nicely ripped off from famous films. Driver 3 suffers a similar problem to that of its prototype ancestor (Stuntman), as successful completion of a vehicle mission is dependent on following a preset path very precisely. It requires insane amounts of trial and error - no, it's worse than trial and error... it's progression by luck. The linear structure allows no freedom to navigate around difficult sections. Take for instance the speedboat sections, with appalling physics and collision detection it becomes amazingly hard to actually leave the boat in any sort of dignified way (Gamestyle is thankful that Tanner can swim). Only convertibles and sports cars, give the proper feeling of making a getaway... of actually being 'The Driver'.It's all sounding very negative - and rightly so! Driver 3's main campaign is simply appalling. There are few redeeming features other than the imagination that has gone into giving great-looking action scenes that any movie would be proud to call its own. But this is not a movie, it's a piece of interactive entertainment. The dynamism of the Driver 3 engine and the vastness of its locations will entertain regardless of the cast-iron shackles that plague the Undercover mode. Selecting the Take a Ride option from the offset opens up two of the three cities. Here you can drive, run, shoot and swim to your heart's content. The maps are huge, yet the loading times are kept to a bare minimum (everything is loaded in one clean sweep), and they are filled with all kinds of junctions and side-roads, hills and coastlines, bridges and tunnels. The cities do, unfortunately, lack the kind of simplistically wonderful placement of alleyways and boxes, opening out onto road junctions with long stretching motorways, the likes of which the original Driver flaunted; the more 'real' style of the environments can, therefore, lack the same dizzying speed and craziness; but the physics and damage models make up for this in their own way.It's actually quite amusing, seeing what sort of effect you can have on the surroundings and on your own vehicle. Glitches can cause you and pedestrians to hover in the air, cars can flip into peculiar positions, Tanner's uninterruptible animations conflict with the sort of havoc that is going on around him, and shooting your car enough will set it alight and exploding into little pieces with bits of the chassis flying everywhere. The frame rate can sink into the single-digits when so much destruction is going on around you, which is a terrible shame to witness.Once the rampage is over, you can replay the destruction thanks to the Film Director - the place where the cinematic magic happens. Driver 3 offers some new features to play around with, as in addition to the usual camera types, there is a 'wheel camera' and motion blur and zoom effects can be applied to any shot. There is now a slow-motion option to really make the dramatic moments stand out. Reflections obviously considered this a very attractive feature and included it into the game as well, plus the Director mode itself can be accessed at any point in the game, if you've finished a mission finally and want to gloat, or merely witness your twentieth failed attempt in glorious slow-motion.Finally, in addition to these modes are the driving games; Chase, Getaway, Trail Blazer, Gate Race, Checkpoint Race and Survival all speak for themselves. These are extremely good fun, as they cut out the vast majority of the junk that interrupts the main mode.Driver 3 is a game of two disparate halves; the excellent handling and dynamic physics are at odds with the typically forced gameplay structure and ludicrously stupid design. It all feels so unfinished; the sloppy frame rate, the glitches, the bland interior graphics and the - quite frankly - untested broken on foot controls. The sandbox environments, driving games, replay modes and often striking sunlit landscapes are the few rays of sunshine that attempt to filter through. Ignore the main mode almost entirely and you'll save yourself the pain of crushing disappointment, and should enjoy the freedom of unrestricted frolicking. The game's tag line, 'Good, Bad, Both' seems more apt than Atari probably ever imagined.