#CHEP DRIVER SAN FRANCISCO PS3 SERIES#
It's a lot of busywork that could have been given some real weight if the developers had been willing to make Tanner's out-of-body experiences something more than a series of misfiring synapses.īut, disappointing though the arc may be, the missions themselves are often a blast. All of that time is spent getting involved in other people's stories, and when Tanner wakes up, they're completely forgotten with no payoff. The rest of the time, though, is spent on typical buddy cop shenanigans, as Tanner and his partner try to recapture the escaped Jericho and puzzle out the meaning behind an apparent terrorist attack. There's something entrancingly surreal about chauffeuring oneself to the hospital while inhabiting the ambulance driver's body, seeing signs that urge Tanner to "wake up" or "do it again," and one particularly haunting chase through the packed, but silent, streets of a frozen San Francisco. This is played for great effect both early and late in the game, but it just sort of fades into the background during the bulk of it all, which is too bad. The rest of the game? It's Tanner's coma dream. Charles Jericho, during a prison break, puts detective John Tanner (that's you) in a coma. What makes the plot disappointing overall, though, is how little it does with its potential. The script isn't actually bad, but lines are delivered with inappropriate emphasis and some of the word choices don't fit the characters who speak them. This allows for some lateral problem solving in single-player missions, and defines the multiplayer experience from top to bottom.īefore we touch on the mechanics of the campaign, though, we have to talk about its story. There are occasional exceptions in races, such as opponents' vehicles, and other players' cars can't be taken in multiplayer, but it's largely an open thing.
#CHEP DRIVER SAN FRANCISCO PS3 ZIP#
It allows players to instantly zip out of their car and see the city from above, zoom out to get a better lay of the land, then jump into any other car on the road. The absolute cornerstone of gameplay, SHIFT is Driver: San Francisco's unique contribution to the genre. The visual spectacle is accompanied by appropriate auditory punch, with visceral crunching and splintering sounds, the wince-inducing shrieks of paint peeling off and a funk-infused licensed soundtrack, including a particularly awesome Diplo remix of Marlena Shaw's "California Soul."īut what happens when your car's too broken to go on? That's where the game's "SHIFT" mechanic comes in. Even minor scrapes, which don't actually decrease your car's health, will leave scratches down its side or shatter its side-view mirrors, which then dangle uselessly by a few wires. You can run over a VW Beetle in a tanker or crash a Chevy Volt into the side of an H3 and it'll react realistically to the impact, glass flying everywhere, frame crumpling as the hood careens off onto the sidewalk. It's all right, though-that first impression almost immediately gives way to (if you're as poor a driver as I am) the realization that these licensed vehicles all take realistic damage. It's a minor nitpick, but it makes a bad first impression.
Driver: San Francisco simply uses the game engine any time it needs to show you cars instead of people.
They also run at a visibly lower frame rate than the game itself, a fact that is practically thrown in your face. While the cars are accurate and gorgeous models of licensed vehicles, the animation and character models used in the CG cutscenes are awkward and look like plastic. The first thing that strikes you about Driver is its graphics. Why, then, did I find myself getting up in the middle of the night to play a title that subtly mixes elements of these together under one awning? I don't play destruction derby games, or anything in the Twisted Metal series, and my relationship with Interstate '76 was less than friendly.
They're frustrating exercises in a type of precision I don't possess.
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