Picture this: you’re chasing down an escaped con in a stolen police van when one of his buddies rams your police cruiser off the road. No matter, as you can jump out of your body and into that of suburban soccer mom, using her minivan to disable the escapee and complete the mission.
This is the main gimmick of Driver: San Francisco, the latest in a long-line of cops ‘n’ robbers driving games from developer Ubisoft. And it works, thanks to intuitive game play mechanics and missions that encourage thinking outside the box.
You play as John Tanner, a no-nonsense cop of the Nick Nolte / Bruce Willis variety. After an accident leaves him in a coma, you essentially spend the rest of the game “dreaming” that you’re on the trail of mass murdering psychopath Rip Torn Jericho and his cronies.
The voice acting is good – not great – and the story missions are well paced. You’ll also get distracted by a heap of “win this race”, “stop this person” and “escape the cops” missions that are as numerous as they are varied.
There’s never a dull moment, and with cars ranging from the AMC Pacer to the Aston Martin Rapide you’re unlikely to run out of things to do. The attention to detail in both the cars (inside and out) and the city of San Francisco is excellent, though the real star of the game is Taggart’s orange and black 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, which helps give the game a real Starsky & Hutch meets Life on Mars vibe.
With a dash of Grand Theft Auto-style arcade racer handling and a pinch of Quantum Leap-style body jumping, Driver: San Francisco is a refreshing twist to a somewhat stale franchise.
It’s no GT5 or Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, but it is a lot of fun. 4 stars out of 5.
By Tristan Hankins
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