Driv3r

The last two Grand Theft Auto games have a lot to answer for. Not because of any particular loosening of society's morals that they may or may not have contributed to, or even for the surprising lack of work that seems to happen around the GameSpot AU offices every time a new GTA game appears. No, the reason that GTA's got a lot to answer for is that it's made shed-loads of cash for publishers Take2 Interactive. We're not talking a tiny little weatherboard shed, either - this is the Rolls Royce of sheds, overflowing with crisp hundred dollar bills. And wherever one publisher is making more money than can be stored in the average arboreal outbuilding, you can bet that other publishers will come a-running. We've already seen Activision's take on the genre with the generally forgettable True Crime: Streets Of LA, and now it's Atari's crack at the money vault with the annoyingly titled Driv3r. Annoying for all sorts of reasons, the least of which is that it's really irritating remembering to type Driv3r all the time.

That 3 is present, of course, because unlike True Crime, Atari and developers Reflections are working with an established franchise, and one that they've built up not only a loyal following for, but also one that's had more than a tad of hype pumped into it. The problem with chasing the consumer dollar with that kind of hype is that, unless software companies take the kind of stance that companies such as Blizzard and iD do (the "it'll be done when it's done" idea) things get rushed, and bugs creep in. In Driv3r's case, however, it's not so much a case of bugs creeping in as rushing in en masse, making playing Driv3r an exercise in frustration, not fun.

Driv3r casts you, as the Driver series has always done, in the role of a deep undercover FBI agent, working for criminal gangs while bringing them down from the inside. Driv3r's setting sees you starting out in the city of Miami, but you'll also spend time hooning around Nice and Istanbul in order to complete Driv3r. On the surface, it all looks pretty good. The pre-rendered sequences are quite good, the audio works well, and the screenshots you're looking at right now look pretty sweet. It's only when it starts moving that you realise that Driv3r is at least two bug fix revisions away from being a complete and enjoyable game.

There are two primary problems that plague Driv3r throughout. Firstly, it's almost entirely linear; you've got precious little to do outside of completing each mission in direct sequence. This is something that plagued True Crime, too, but at least there you could go and bust random repetitive crooks or hunt down Dogg Bones. Driv3r has some add-on mini-games, but all of them have to be launched separate to the main game. The non-linearity of the GTA games adds greatly to their appeal, as when and if you're stuck you can always just go deliver pizzas, play around in cabs or just create havoc. Driv3r offers no such distractions in the main game, making it even more frustrating when you get stuck.

If you've played either of the previous two Driver games, you'll be ready for the game's action-styled driving physics that see you power sliding around every corner and bumping wildly off other cars. What you won't be ready for is the game's inconsistent damage physics. Some objects you'll hoon right through, while others will stop you in your tracks, sometimes with a humorous bounce backwards. That's a somewhat forgivable sin - you really only have to crash into a telegraph pole once to know that you don't want to do it again - but what'll have you tearing your hair out is the game's rendering engine, which can't quite keep up with the frantic driving pace. As a result, obstacles pop up in front of you requiring split second reactions to avoid crashing into them, and there are plenty of levels where that's an automatic failure mark. To keep things tense, plenty of missions involve driving down narrow pathways, but when you literally can't see what's in front of you until it's too late, that's not a recipe for excitement, just annoyance.

As frustrating as Driv3r's vehicle sections are, they pale into insignificance next to the sections on foot. Now, this is an area where even the mighty GTA series could use some improvement, especially in aiming weapons, but somehow Driv3r manages to make GTA look like Far Cry in terms of precision aiming, physical movement and enjoyment. Things don't start well when you get out of a car and realise that Tanner's missing a few things. Such as realistic animation. Or the ability to properly interact with his environment and not clip into it. Often, you'll clip into an object and get stuck there, which is a tad fatal when you're in the middle of a busy fire fight.

Reflections have seemingly tried to compensate for this by making your foes as intelligent as cold porridge, and almost as animated. Each scenario unfolds much the same way; you'll get spotted - there's precious little stealth here - and your foes will scatter to their predetermined shootout positions. If you've played the level before - and bugs and an unforgiving level design means you probably will have - you'll know where they're going to be and then it's just a matter of picking them off while they stand there. Every once in a while one of them might roll to a new position, if you're very lucky indeed. Clipping issues and poor camera control just cap off what is a totally uninspiring experience, and one that seems to take up far too much time in a game called Driver. Cough. Sorry, Driv3r.

Aside from bugs - an issue that presumably could have been fixed by pushing back the release date a bit - Driv3r also has real problems deciding on just how difficult the game should be at any given time. Rather than presenting a smooth learning curve, Driv3r's difficulty profile is more akin to a map of the Himalayas, dipping into easy sections before dumping you in a near impossible mission, seemingly on a whim. The pop-up nature of the scenery makes the harder missions terribly frustrating, and during the on-foot missions, all we could think of was how much better most other third person action games are.

Driv3r, like most of its predecessors, features a star voice cast, headed up by Michael Madsen and accompanied by Ving Rhames, Mickey Rourke and Iggy Pop. They do make a good job of covering the game's plot. Sadly, of course, their efforts are all a bit wasted on a game that, simply put, is only half complete.

Ultimately Driv3r should be a much, much better game than it is. While the temptation to delay release dates can be deadly (can anyone say Duke Nukem Forever? We thought you could), it's really clear that what's been released to market is unfinished product, and as such, not worth the time it takes to play through it.

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