Driver®: Parallel Lines

So. It's 2006, Ubisoft pulls out Driver: PL in the PS2, and inmediately, people starts with the negative reviews, as expected. It really is hard to get a series back on it's feet after a notable failure, which the critics considered Driv3r to be, but yet, somehow, they managed to pull out a game that, although not top-of-the-line for the year, was pretty great and gave the series a good timeout. Set in just one city, but 2 eras, the game impressively makes the feeling of the era change between the 70's and 2006. Seriously, I'm actually impressed by how a game with this visuals manages to make the feel pretty different, and everything's helping. The HUD, the lighting, the vehicles, the whole city... This is not a game you buy to casually play. Trust me, you won't like it if that's what you're looking for. This is a game you gotta get into, to feel the heart put into it, and what really shines in it. The vehicle handling's pretty arcade, although physics on the other hand are pretty great for a game like this, developed in such era. You will quickly feel that car speeding down the road, flying through the traffic as if you was nothing but air. The detail put into the vehicles in this game is pretty impressive. The story focuses mainly on vehicles, and interacts with them almost everytime. You won't feel the missions being repetitive unlike in other games, which will also leave you wanting more once you're done with it. The gunplay is... Pretty bad, but you won't go through a lot of gunfights. You're here for speeding, chases are great, and the AI is actually pretty impressive when it comes to chasing, they'll generally avoid traffic successfully, and will be a threat against any balanced vehicle. If you're willing to drive hard while the sirens of the police get over the funk blasting out of your 70's speakers, this is your game. It won't be visually stunning, but that's not what you, at least 14 years after the game's release, are here for... Are you?

for the for the price it was a no brainer. wasent expecting much but it was mindless fun. graphics fairly good considering. and the Music alone made it worth the money (what money?) I found myself re visiting the game, more times than i care to admit, just for the music, but then all my fun ended after some bizzare unwanted (or needed) Patch from GOG? Now just get the Game stopped working mewssage (you think?) and it wont run. Even the great guys at GoG Support could not help (Yes there is actually REAL Help here at GOG! Take note hatful Steam!) So 5 stars when it worked really but one for the minor detail of it not working at all!

I thoroughly enjoyed Driver: Parallel Lines. I Played GTA III/Vice City/San Andreas several times and it is feels like GTA-Light. The graphics is good, the driving is fun and the soundtrack is amazing. The story is clichéd but acted well. The problem is that the game is *very* glitchy: going to main menu results in the crash 90% of the times in Vista 64. 1978->2006 results in the crash is well, so you need to restart the game. Once you find a way around the glitches it is a very well done game. Not sure if it is worth the whole price, but it is certainly worth the price on sale :).

I love playing racing sims, so I usually get too frustrated with any other game that uses arcade-style driving. Driver: Parallel Lines has decent enough driving so that I can actually enjoy what the game has to offer. The analog steering is a bit too sensitive, but at least it has analog throttle and brakes... and lots of cool cars and sounds. If you have a bit of imagination, you can have countless hours of re-playability with this game.

A few people, including me, are encountering a bug that makes the game very literally unplayable. What happens is that after the program launches, the menu loads but no input is recognized - mouse, keyboard, controller - nothing works and thus there's no way to even start the actual game, much less control it. And no amount of troubleshooting can fix it. It seems to work for a lot of people but beware that this may happens.