It’s about time we saw a current generation Driver game. Driver: San Francisco takes place after the events of Driver 3. (I refuse to call it “Driv3r.”) John Tanner survived the shootout at the end of that game, but later got into a pretty serious car accident that put him in a coma. Driver: San Francisco is Tanner’s dream, but he doesn’t realize it. You’d think the fact that he’s gained the ability to instantly “shift” between any two cars would be a bit of a tip.
That is this game’s most interesting new mechanic, after all. Gone are the on-foot segments of previous games. Now, if you want to change cars, you simply press a button. The camera pulls out above you and you can pick any car to take control of (besides cars that are important to the current mission, of course). In the demo I played, shifting was unlimited, but in the final version it’s an ability you’ll have to earn by doing jumps or slides or other fancy things.
Shifting between cars keeps the action flowing well. If you crash into a wall because you’re a menace to society and should never be allowed on the roads, virtual or otherwise (like me), rather than trying to recover, you can just jump to your next automotive victim until your wrap THAT one around a tree or something. It’s great fun.
Naturally, Driver: San Francisco is an open world game that takes place in the mysterious fictional land of San Francisco. (The guy responsible for showing the game off was sure to mention that they took some liberties with the in-game version of the city so it won’t be a perfect replica.) It’s a pretty big playground, with “about” 208 miles of roads to explore.
The single player mode wasn’t playable (at least at the showing I attended), but the multiplayer mode was. I took part in a contest to follow a marked car as closely as possible. As long as players remained in its stream, they earned points. The first player to 100 points was the winner. (I made it to about 30 points because I was too busy crashing into things and shifting to do very well.) I don’t think Driver: San Francisco is a game that should really be sold on its multiplayer mode. It was fun enough, but the real appeal of the game is the giant open world, and you don’t exactly get much of a chance to explore it when you’re hovering around a certain marked car.
Driver: San Francisco seems to change the Driver formula enough to keep things fresh, not just within the series, but as a driving game in general. Look out for it this fall on all three home consoles, Mac, and PC.
