First and foremost, let me admit something. I am not a gearhead. To me, a car is a very expensive tool with a very specific function. Get me to work, take me to food joints, and make the occasional trip to the multiplex. Any other special occasion that prompts me to leave my apartment? That's just a bonus. When I'm ready, get me back home. That’s all I ask of my 2007 Toyata Yaris, and it performs rather admirably in that regard. My car doesn't have a gender, nor does it have a name. Sometimes, when I can feel its four cylinders of fuel-efficient baddassery struggling to get up to 40 miles per hour, I slap the dashboard and say “C’mon Baby!” to give it that extra motivation. That’s about as affectionate I get towards my wrench with wheels.
That being said, that doesn’t mean I don’t like to occasionally sit behind the wheel of a digital super car and tear ass around the blacktop. I suck at racing games, but I still go through phases where I play them constantly. I’m on a Forza 3 kick right now, and it's filling that speed void pretty well. I like the variety of cars and how you can scale the difficulty to your liking. It’s got all the custom tuning you need, and there’s a laundry list of upgrades and gizmos available to trick out your ride. However, it’s not so overly complex that it repels casual race fans who just want to dive into for a quick run around the track.
But what about when I want to tear through the streets of a "real" city, plowing through fruit carts and dodging cop cars? GTA? Not for me; I never could get behind how the cars handled and beating up digital hookers doesn't do it for me. I didn’t really like Burnout or Need for Speed either. No, my favorite car chase game is still the first Driver.
Driver allowed me to get as close as possible to being Steve McQueen without having to wear a turtleneck and suck down two packs of smokes a day. I loved how heavy the cars felt and how they would fishtail like crazy around a turn. I was hooked the first time I chased someone around a corner and and saw a loose hubcap fly across the screen. There weren’t many menus to navigate, you didn’t run laps, and the story was cool enough to pull you along. On top of all that, the director mode rocked.
Then they made some sequels, and the franchise went downhill like a Humvee plowing through a mountainside shanty-town. The first mission in Driver 2 showed promise with similar controls and novelties like curved roadways. You could also tell the developers were aping The French Connection when you chased an elevated train through
But if Soundgarden can get back together to play Lollapalooza this year, then I guess they can resurrect the Driver brand. Ubisoft is set to release Driver: San Francisco in early 2011. They’re saying it is a sequel and a “reboot” at the same time (a requel…?). It’s supposed to take the series back to its roots, while also introducing a new “shift” mechanic that will let the player jump from car to car in an instant during a chase. It’s an interesting idea (It reminds me of that movie Fallen), and I’m curious to see how they integrate it into a narrative. There are few details about the plot available. Apparently the story plays out inside Tanner’s mind while he’s in a coma. This explains why he can float above the city with a bird’s eye view and take control of people in other cars. It’s a departure for a typically hard-boiled genre game, but more power to them if they can pull it off in the story. If I can buy into Inception enough to see it three times in the theater, I’ll certainly take that leap of faith in a racer.
Here are a few things I hope Ubisoft does with Driver: San Francisco.
1) Keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times: I haven’t seen anything definitive yet, but it looks like Tanner’s staying inside the car in Driver: San Francisco. This makes sense, as the “Shift” feature looks to be an alternative to the hackneyed carjacking and run-and-gun elements from the previous sequels. There may be small sections where you exit the vehicle, but they must be brief and painless. Let’s keep the action focused on the car chases.
2) Shift happens….Don’t let it hit the fan: While the “Shift” power looks cool, I don’t want the missions to be overly dependent on its use. The last things I want are rigidly structured missions that play out like “Shift Puzzles.” I hope there’s enough variety thrown into the action and that the shifts don’t overly-dominate the gameplay. "Shifting" should merely supplement strong driving mechanics.
3) Annnnnd…..ACTION!: Bring back the Director. One of the best parts of Driver was the free-form cruising you could do, along with the mini-games where you were pitted against an onslaught of pissed off cops. The game would save a section of “film” of your chase. You could then use the “Director Mode” to edit the camera angles and shots just like you would in a car chase. You could then save it to a memory unit to play back later. It was unique and a lot of fun.
4) Calling all cars: Co-op play is almost a must in games these days, and Driver: San Francisco should be no exception. Imagine a “Tailing” mode, where you have to hunt down and then stealthily tail an AI car through the city. You could coordinate with a friend, having them wait at an intersection waiting to pick up the tail while you hang back to avoid detection. You could tally a score for staying undetected the longest and would have to actually obey the traffic laws to stay incognito. Once the mark picks up on you and tears off, it’s off to the races and another score could tally for how quickly you take them down. This could be a cool versus mode as well.
These are just a few ideas that I would like to see, but it’s probably too late to implement them if they haven’t been already. But given the dearth of information we have about the new Driver, I’ve got a lot of hope for it when it hits the market.