Driver 2 (PS)

Long-awaited doesn't begin to describe the follow up to the classic Driver. It's certainly been improved in a few significant areas - the cities are bigger and more varied, there are more cars to drive and the in-game menu doesn't take you back to the title screen every 2 minutes. There are some new spins on old missions and entirely new ideas, chasing an ambulance with police tailing you is much harder than it sounds. Add to that more intelligent traffic which doesn't stop dead after an accident (and smarter cops), bigger and better cities and great graphics and you should be onto a winner.

There are some major "buts". On a PSone the game slows down too often, plus there are major flaws in the graphics (in Havana, trucks often appear literally from nowhere). There's also nothing quite as hard as "The President's Run", the finale from the original Driver's Undercover game, and can we please have the speedometer back? Let's not forget too that it's almost turned into Grand Theft Auto in 3D, not an original concept.

Overall though, it's more of the same, only better. If you liked the original, you'll probably be turned on a treat by this. Here's looking forward to Driver 3 (out 2002 according to the end-game credits)...

Driver 1 was a classic, and with additional features promised for Driver 2, I bought this without question. True, the "get out of the car and nick other vehicles" feature is excellent, the missions are pretty involving, and the new cities are well designed. But Playstation graphics can be better than this. The pop-up of buildings can be quite alarming, particularly when you're tearing down the road to a T-junction and a colossal towerblock appears 50 metres in front of you. And in only a week of gameplay, I've found a number of "bugs" (game hanging, my car disappearing through walls into no man's land etc). Whereas in Driver 1 you would complete a mission and be offered a choice of further missions, Driver 2 is, disappointingly, more linear, with just one defined route to take. My recommendation, buy this when the heat is off and the price is reduced!

Driver 2: Back On The Streets (the full title of the game) was released on the PSone in November 2000. It was published by Infogrames and developed by Reflections. The game is over ten years old, but even though several Driver games have been released in the last decade, Driver 2 remains the series' peak. Rightly so, too.

In Driver 2 a nerdy-looking overweight money man called Pink Lenny has turned his back on American crimelord, Solomon Caine, and done a deal with a mysterious Brazilian gang leader called Vasquez. The controversial move has threatened to start a war between the two criminal big shots, and violence threatens to engulf both North and South American continents. Tanner, the hero from the first game, has to go undercover to complete missions, track Lenny and stop him before the violence gets out of hand. Tanner is joined by his new undercover partner, Jones, a smooth-talking Afro-American with the shades and Afro hair to match.

All the features from the first Driver game return for the second outing. Take A Ride allows you to drive anywhere you see fit around your chosen city; Driving Games allows you to play mini games like Quick Chase, Survival and Checkpoint; Multiplayer games are available for the lovers of 2-Player games; and the Chief amoungst the racing modes is still Undercover.

The new feature that makes the biggest impact on the gameplay in Driver 2 is the ability to explore the city on foot. Tanner can now get out of his car, run up and down streets and through alleyways. He can also hijack other cars, and as a consequence there are lots of different vehicles to try out, like limos, buses and trucks. Running on foot is an ideal feature, because you can still play Take A Ride after wrecking your car, and still be able to complete some missions in Undercover when your vehicle can take no more damage.

The improvements can mainly be seen in Undercover mode, a 2-disc epic which sees you playing through four new cities; Chicago and Havana in disc 1, and Vegas and Rio in disc 2. The game's storyline is the BEST, not just on any PSone game, but on ANY video game on ANY console. It's on-the-edge-of-your-seat stuff, and you'll find yourself constanly feeling the desperate need to complete just one more mission just to see what happens next to Tanner and Jones.

The FMVs are much improved. They're more detailed; you can see the characters' faces clearly; and the mouth movements match up with the dialogue really well. Also improved is the acting. Driver had the cheesiest acting you'll ever hear in your life, but Driver 2's acting is 10,000 times closer to Hollywood quality.

Unlike Driver which had multiple-choiced missions and allowed you to take different routes through the game, Driver 2's mission layout is very linear. You play the exact same missions in the exact same order. But this is actually a good thing. This system allowed Reflections to focus on a better and more solid storyline, which they succeeded in writing.

Each of the four cities is about twice the size of each city in Driver. It'll take you a few minutes to drive from one side of a city to the other, and there are several interesting buildings and structures to look at as you drive around. Chicago has its tall buildings here, there and everywhere, whilst Vegas has its casinos and desert scenery.

Despite the decent city accuracy the graphics seem to have taken a backward step. There seems to be more pop-up scenery than in the first game, with buildings showing up suddenly in places that initially appeared to be just grass or flat grounds. Also the game seems to suffer from slow-down at busy street junctions, particularly in Chicago. It only happens occasionally, but it is annoying when it does happen.

Despite the graphical issues, Driver 2 is a fantastic mission-based racer that has improved greatly over Driver in several departments; and because of this it gets full marks from me. Got a PSone? Then get this game! Enjoy the story. Enjoy the missions. Enjoy the game as a whole.