Driver®: Parallel Lines

I had hopes for an "unrefined gem" here, but unfortunately, this ain't it. I hate almost every aspect of this game; the car physics, the AI, the on-foot controls (especially during combat), the emptiness of the world of things to do and so on. I don't have experience with the Driver series, so I don't want to blame the game for being something it wasn't supposed to, but for me it all comes down to the "heat" system. NYC is nicely designed and there's a certain thrill to putting the petal to the metal driving through it, but the game holds you on a leash; cops will start coming after you if you cross 40-50mph, so unless you're on a timed mission, expect your right hand to cramp up holding that trigger down half-way. Sometimes they'll come after you if your heat is high and you're close to them for too long, if you cross a red light, if you drive to the wrong lane. And they don't let up. Imagine trying to do a quick side-mission and that side-mission takes five times as long, because NYC cops are batshit insane and pull out shotguns for a speeding ticket (insert topical humor here). The system just breaks flow. It doesn't help that the AI is overly aggressive and their cars don't seem to follow the same laws of physics yours does. The zip around like they're on a flying saucer instead of a heavy vehicle. Simply put, the game isn't fun. It's frustrating, it's tedious and it's made specifically to troll your every effort to succeed.

Having loved most of what the GTA series has to offer, & wanting more of the same, I was getting sick of waiting for new games to get released. Hence why I knowingly played a GTA clone. Problem is, Driver is a GTA clone that desperately clings to its racing roots, making the entire experience unsatisfying. The driving is arcade-style & very fun, but being a GTA clone, it's easy to total your car, & have to get out & find another. You can also drive like a madman through the streets, but being a GTA clone, the streets are filled with traffic, making the experience not as satisfying as it ought to be. And the maps are too small for pedal-to-the-metal driving, anyway. Weirdly enough, for a GTA clone that desperately clings to its racing roots, the racing aspect is fairly basic. You don't get a large selection of cars, & about half of them are forgettable. And trying to customize them, you can only do so much - mechanically & visually. And the GTA portion of the game is equally lacking. GTA games being known partly for their interesting plot, it's weird seeing Driver not even try. It seems you're a wheelman in the 70s, doing jobs for the criminal underground, because money. And being a GTA clone desperately clinging to its racing roots, every mission you'll get will have cars shoehorned in. Such as driving around to pick up packages someone drops from a helicopter. Missions go between extremely boring & extremely tedious. You can do side-missions, but they're repetitive & not very fun as well. Driver is simply no GTA. The map isn't big enough, the city isn't varied enough, & much of it is non-interactable. And the game being car-centric, there isn't an incentive to roam the city on foot. Add to that various bugs and gripes, & the countless crashes I encountered, & I abandoned this game having finished only 29 percent of it. It's a jack of all trades - a racer beaten by the worst Need For Speed has to offer, & a GTA clone that changes what made GTA great.

I read 2 reviews saying that after the half of the game the dificulty becomes almost impossible. So anyway, I finished the game and still waited for that difficulty spike (except for the follow the train mission and the tank fight) The driving is good but the shooting mechanics are awful. The story is ok, it has some great moments. Somehow this game has the most advanced police system, becoming wanted if speeding, going on red or going on the opossite direction on the road. Lastly the soundtrack has 4 songs that I like, one that is also in GTA SA. It should be illegal to use the same song in different games