Driver: San Francisco

By Tristan Tancredi

Driver: San Francisco is quite literally out of this world. Set inside the dreams and thoughts of coma patient and long serving cop John Tanner.

The game starts out with longtime nemesis Charles Jericho breaking out of the can. (For  gamers new to the Driver franchise, Jericho and Tanner have butted heads previously. The last time of which occurred in Driv3r during an Istanbul shootout).

Jericho escapes during the opening sequence and consequently puts Tanner into a coma. Thus begins, the fun of SHIFT.

SHIFTING is an addition to this game that tears it apart from other free world driving games. SHIFT enables the gamer to change or SHIFT into any car at any time. Basically you are in a car chase, the target is pulling away, all is lost... Until.... I SHIFT into oncoming traffic and smash head on into that poor sod.

Without SHIFT, this game would be another boring racing game, falling well behind similar franchises. SHIFT introduces something fresh and entertaining that is tricky to master but becomes enormous fun.

As the game takes part in John Tanners head throughout his coma, the developers at Ubisoft have free reign to introduce levels that wouldn't make sense in the real world  making this game unique and enjoyable. 

The plot sees Tanner transporting or SHIFTING into the minds of different drivers to complete tasks and get closer to discovering Jerichos sinister ploy.  

The story takes several interesting twists and turns and is crafty and well written albeit quite short.

The game is over before you can say, "Gee Whiz, this game is going to be great". Unfortunately the story mode is very short and experienced gamers can knock the story off in a few hours. 

To compromise this, the developers have added loads of side missions, including dare, take down and race challenges which allow for hours of driving carnage.

An abundance of cars roam the streets and are also available for purchase at the garages scattered throughout San Fran. Alfas, Bentleys, Aston Martins, Fords, VWs, Driver San Fran has an eclectic choice of vehicle. Cop Cars, Fire Brigades and Car Transporters are available for something a little different or you can settle on Tanners choice of car, the Dodge Challenger.

The 'Blast From The Past' challenge was a personal favourite of mine. Relive the introductory challenge from the original driver game, unlocked of course by driving the Delorean at 88mph. 

San Francisco is well designed with recreated landmarks. The city looks good, as do the video sequences and driving scenes.

The multi-player aspect includes: Trail Blazer (Beat other drivers by trailing the car in front for more points), Tag (As the name suggests), Team take down (Crash a car until it buggers up), SHIFT Racing and a variety of other missions. Rank up and enjoy the fun.

Driver: San Francisco has a unique twist on the average driving game and reaps the benefits from this. An enjoyable story mode, albeit slightly easy and very quick to complete

Now, back to my Dodge Challenger.

Game: Driver : San Francisco
System: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Microsoft Windows
Developer/Co-Developer: Ubisoft Reflections
Publisher: Ubisoft

Rating: 75%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)