Shift In To All The Cars

Driver: San Francisco (PC) was on sale last week and I couldn't pass on getting it. 19 hours and 13 minutes later, I finish the game with all the 140 cars owned and all of the challenges and activities at least played if not done. The game is not much of a racing game as it is an action game with cars that occasionally has races in it. A lot of the time you'll be chasing down bad guys and ramming them off the road. All the while, you have the powerful ability to shift in to any car on the road (except protected enemy cars) to complete your objective. The shift ability is an enjoyable mechanic that is used to good effect in the game. The most simple example is to shift in to opposing traffic ahead of your target and cause a head-on collision. The shift mechanic gets a glorious power up near the end of the game that exemplifies the goofy fun this game gives the player.

The graphics don't impress at first. The environmental geometry is simple and the textures can be muddy. However, the frame rate maintains a great pace on my desktop PC and this is with streets with a lot of traffic and pedestrians. Once you get a fast car up to speed, weaving in and out of traffic, and passing score of people on the side walk, you can forgive that the game doesn't look good in still shots. The sound effects of the game are adequate, but it is disappointing to go from the wonderful noises of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit to the serviceable effects of Driver: San Francisco. The music has a variety of rock and jazzy tunes that fit the atmosphere of the game.

Lastly, the story deserves praise for using a silly premise to contextualize game mechanics and have it be fun and enjoyable. It seemed a coma-induced "it was all a dream" story used to justify the shift mechanic would end in failure. Instead, the story has enjoyable characters and the right amounts of drama and comedy to provide light entertainment.

I had a lot of fun playing Driver: San Francisco. Open-world games can become boring quickly if there is too much repetition, busy work, or down time. Driver: San Francisco keeps things short, quick, and fun.