Driv3r (2004 Video Game) User Reviews

An improvement in graphics but the game is a mess

[Adam-09265 · 7/10 · 7 February 2021]

When this first came out it looked awesome, playing the first two driver games the graphics in this third installment was a great improvement. Cities more detailed, none of that wobbly PS1 graphics, crashing a vehicle seemed to have more detailed physics etc.

The story is predictable though and follows in the shadows of GTA games with it's certain gaming style attributes along the way.

If you was like me as a child i cared for the 'Take a Ride' option more than it's story.

Movie making mode was great, i use to love making my own movies but then problems started, lets talk about the games glitches......

The game is an absolute mess for glitches, speaking of movie making mode the playback would only get so far before you just saw Tanner randomly jumping and firing his gun into a wall so that was quickly binned. Mainly for the PS2 version some of the cities had huge holes in them so you could just drop yourself and maybe a vehicle a hundred feet to a matrix style area full of weird cracked graphics. Managing to still drive your fallen vehicle down these glitch gaps, driving off the base of the game would sling shot you back up to the surface and even further sometimes hundreds of feet in the air. It's sad but all these interesting glitches is what made the game weirdly enjoyable.

It doesn't stop there...

I'm not kidding if you play in the city of Nice, and start near that big rock you can drive through, i've seen pedestrians committing suicide and just falling off (What are they doing up there?!), same with certain buildings in the city. It's not how the game was intended but these glitches make it a horror show. Not sure if as many glitches happen on the Xbox version. Vehicles falling through the floor randomly, the list goes on.

I feel like this game was trying too much to be like GTA, it's always been it's rival really but certain styles are an exact match. As a child i loved the game nevertheless, but as an adult it's just not the same and seems dull. I suppose it was about back in the day when these games displayed what gaming could accomplish graphics wise but now being 2021 the game is easily disposed and left as just a memory. I still own it but hardly play it anymore.

A worthy enough successor in the franchise

[jamiecostelo58 · 7/10 · 3 January 2007]

Driv3r was not well received by gaming critics when released, but it does show promise and definite improvement quality wise in comparison to its two predecessors. Of course, this is to be expected in the current age of gaming technology, with Driv3r showing a more realistic damage model; the use of weaponry; the ability to use boats and the excellent cinematic scenes (as well as the music) in between missions.

Greed and corruption are the main aspects of the rather entertaining storyline, and leads the player to an interesting climax; the numerous characters from the prequel certainly make their presence felt. These are the positive aspects to Driv3r which make it a somewhat enjoyable game in the franchise, even if the game-play does have the odd niggle.

In a nutshell, I liked Driv3r and what it entails; although it may ultimately lack the edge of the GTA franchise, it has enough strength to hold its own, and should be acknowledged for what it offers.

I hate rushing and minimalism in art

[amadeuseisenberg · 5/10 · 21 March 2020]

Just really dull. On foot/shooting parts are truly just an afterthought and absolutely bland. And driving isn't all that great either, in my opinion. The controls for both are not sharp enough. And the world around you is also built on the bare minimum. Great to hear Michael Madsen, though.

Driver is for driving.

[trumanburbank99 · 15 September 2005]

Well, first of all. It is a good story. The drivings not to bad and it's great to waste your time. But there is a big but, when you step out of your car. BANG! Then the game sucks. Tanner looks very strange, and the controls for the console is VERY BAD! You need two fingers to walk and turn at the same time.

The movies are great. All hi-res and very good, nothing more.

In some missions you need to drive to your destination all good, and then the big bummer you need to get out of your car. (or off your Motor) And shoot some guys. That really isn't good, to say the least.

This game has a lot of glitches, qua walking and shooting. Everything else, it's good.

So in short, Walking is very bad, and driving and movies are very good.

rubbish.

[davies-13 · 3/10 · 25 May 2006]

this game is complete and total rubbish. My cousin bought this and it looked good, but i was sorely disappointed. The missions are un- playable and the only decent thing about it is that you can drive around without cops and smash things, but even that has a short life span. the controls are terrible and the cars have bad handling. after playing the other driver's i can see how really bad this is. another let down is the aim on the guns, by the time you've got your aim right, you've been shot any way. one of life's biggest mystery's is how did this get to be platinum on ps2, i mean why? this game ruins a good game series. i give this game *** out of a possible 10 stars.

I don't know if I have some kind of alien mind or what, but I love this game!

[Vercettiter · 10/10 · 13 December 2013]

I love this game! And I still play it from time to time, after almost 10 years! Crazy, right? Maybe. I am aware of why people criticize this game. Poor on-foot controls, lack of polish, bad enemy AI, missions that are "too" difficult, and the game not feeling like it's finished. But, here are the reasons why I bare with it anyway. The on-foot, while certainly not feeling as smooth as it could, still works. I love running from side to side to shoot the enemy, and it works great for that. I love fps shooters! You get used to the roughness of it after awhile. The driving is also loads of fun. The feeling of the car is amazing, and sliding into turns is just so much fun! The police chases are also really exciting. The AI. It works! They do their job of trying to kill you fairly well, and can at least evade your shots a little bit. They act more like weak terminators than humans, but they still get the job done. They are fun to kill. Also, this game pretty much feels finished, to me. In a sense that, they added in everything that needed to be added, and it's fun. But, polish wise, definitely not. They could have used at least another few months polishing it. But, no! Atari needed it released right away! Oh, and if you think the missions are too tough, quit being a baby! Toughen up yourself! It is so satisfying when you finally beat a mission. Depending on what kind of a person you are, though, you might not want to do it again. It is not that hard, though. At least not to me. Also, while this game does have loads of bugs, they don't seem to get in the way of actual game-play all that much. Most of the time, nothing really bad happens. For example, falling through the floor in free roam, and having to start over. That is about as bad as it gets, and it rarely happens, depending on what you are doing. So, there you have it. I love this game! Maybe on technical terms (polish, smoothness, graphics) this game deserves what IGN gave it, a 5.4. But, based fun and how much I enjoy it, it deserves a 10 in my book.

The worst of a long line of GTA ripoffs

[matthewwestfall1 · 1/10 · 27 August 2006]

When I first got this game I thought it would be easy and I'd have fun playing it. But the second I started to move my character. i had already started to hate the game. On the first or second mission where you have to chase the guy in a car chase through Miami, it took me 4 times to take down the guy. the missions are near impossible even if they let you use cheat codes. One time i managed to beat that game. I used the Unlimited ammo cheat. That time they let me use cheat codes. I have bought that game 4 or 5 times because i got so mad at it snapped the disk in half hit it hit a hammer burned it and threw it out my window. I would take me hours to stress how much I hate this game. I never bought the game again after i broke the last one. I made it to Istanbul 5th last mission. destroyed the game. took me 11 TIMES TO BEAT IT!!!!!!!!!!!! Save yourself a seizure and don't DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most nostalgic Driver

[Badr90s · 8/10 · 3 October 2021]

Top cinamatic cutscenes and missions in different 3 countries/cities, the soundtrack and the overall vibe just magical but frustrating glitches in gameplay were the reason of this to be 8.5/10.

You're a driver, so drive!

[Furiosity06 · 4/10 · 5 September 2009]

When I first played Driv3r, I was, in a word, disappointed. I expected a lot more from one of the biggest GTA rivals of all time. It has got a ton of problems and I'll start with the basic stuff.

The plot had potential. It had a lot of great and talented voice actors. Thing was that the entire plot just felt abit like a bad TV action show. It's just a vehicle for car chases, gun fights and explosions. The worst bit though was the ending. If you have actually finished, you'll know what I'm talking about.

The gameplay itself wasn't half bad. The environments were fantastic. The hidden back alleys and shortcuts just seem unfathomable and they bear accurate resemblance to their real life counter parts. The driving physics are fantastic as well. The loose feel of the cars allow you to do massive 360s, 180s and drifts (the burnout button helps with this too) and there are plenty of jumps to find. Although, as soon as Tanner steps out of the car, things take a turn for the worse. Unlike other games of this type, the camera is constantly behind tanner. In other games like GTA you can move the camera around so you can see the whole character. Maybe they just didn't want you to see how badly he was modeled. The shooting in this game was also a last-minute job. There's no auto-lock and no cover system. All you can do is crouch behind conspicuously placed objects and pop out occasionally. When the reticule focuses on an enemy with a gun, it turns red, when focusing on a civilian or cop, it turns blue. So all in all the on foot action is crap. And it gets worse. This may be an open world game, but there is nothing you can do between missions. No side missions, no hidden areas to discover and no alternative, non linear path, you just have to plow straight through the main story.

The missions do genuinely feel like a Hollywood action film. But not in a good way, when you fail and retry a mission, it's basically the same as a director yelling "Cut! let's do it again!" because no matter how many times you retry a mission, nothing changes. Guys pop out of the same places, the same cars chase you. It all feels a bit, well, set up and fake.

So, yes. I did have high hopes for Driv3r. But I was disappointed. I can't seriously recommend it as an alternative to Grand Theft Auto. Only if your parents don't allow you to buy GTA or if you are a really big fan of the series would I suggest that you actually buy it.

Driv3r is a good game, regardless of a few minor bugs

[xtremezone · 11 April 2006]

Driv3r (Driver 3) is a very playable game. Those who rate it poorly because it wasn't simple should look into games rated N (n00b). I find the physics in Driver to be much more realistic than GTA games. The GTA series is another awesome series, and definitely has more to offer in GTA 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas than Driv3r does due to the open-ended game-play and mini-games, etc. In comparison, Driv3r's Undercover mode is a very linear path. You beat mission after mission, each preceded with a cinematic. Driv3r is not for everyone. Fans of the series will appreciate it more than others. Although it does require some patience in beating the missions, anyone who can tie their shoes should be able to handle it. I look forward to Driver: Parallel Lines, and hope Atari and company continue to make the series better.

Brilliant game, my favourite

[louandandy · 10/10 · 17 May 2006]

I cannot understand why everybody hates this game, the first two drivers were repetitive as every single mission seemed to be the same and I never felt any difference between each mission. First of all, it has got a-list stars such as Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez and Mickey Rourke with good performances, they have recreated Miami, Nice and Istanbul in perfect detail and each mission is thrilling and completely original each time. Sometimes it is a bit to hard but that makes it even more enjoyable and asides from the main game, the extras are brilliant. The driving games, such as car chases, are fun and the best bit of the game (in my opinion) is the 'Take a ride' You can drive around for hours, creating havoc and it's something you can play again and again. This game is the best!

Good...not Great

[topclaw · 30 September 2004]

As far as this game goes, I say all but one word - meh.

I suppose you could say it's alright. I mean, it is better than that Bruce Lee game, and it is better than that Beach Volley ball game, but still, it's missing something, something that makes the GTA series or to a lesser extent the True Crime games shine. It's hard to describe what but you know what I mean. Right?

The game has several characters voiced by famous actors. In fact, the main character is voiced by Michael Madsen - is there anything he isn't in? He's made appearances in both True Crime: Streets of LA and GTA III. He's also making appearances in the next driver game and some other game I forgot the name of...anyhow, enough about Madsen and on with the game.

The graphics are okay, although often it looks like Tanner has a form of mild constipation, plus the cops AI are as dumb as a sedated rabbit.

The plot's okay I guess. it's about Tanner infiltrating a gang that's smuggling 40 cars to some other country.

Overall, this game's okay. On a score of 1 to 10 1 being the lowest 10 being the highest I give this game a 10 - just kidding. An 6. Keep reaching for that rainbow Atari.

What a deception

[jcarlosfondeur · 17 January 2006]

This game is a complete deception, i have played the firs Driver on PS and it was one of the most entertaining game i ever played, in Driver 1 you where a bad guy every time who win money doing driving jobs for the Mafia, on Driver 3 i got surprised, you are a cop!!! why??, another thing that really turn me off on this game is the fact that is a really slow-motion game i think that this game was done 20 frame per second, a really mediocre title with mediocre graphics, about control? the control is very poor and the camera on 3rd person view is located back of the car so you cant see so clear what coming on the stat, its really a mediocre title.

Zzz Zzz Zzz...

[fenton_joshua · 9 May 2007]

When I first got this game I was pretty excited about it, the graphics looked cool and the car damage. Not to mention there were guns this time around... cool. So I started out in free roam to check out the game and was having a blast flipping and rolling my car, seeing what can fly off and what could I dent. It was fun, especially when I rolled my car and it went into an outrageous flipping tantrum, with parts flinging off. With my newly destroyed car, I got out of it and immediately fell asleep. First this Tanner guy looks like a bitch, he can't run, jump or swim for crap. The aiming is waaay off, the best part about being outside is 1. getting a new car to smash or 2, shooting cars and seeing bullet holes, which gets boring after 5 shots. I saw a motorcycle, sweet! I'm gonna haul ass and hit a jump. Nope. After shifting about 9 gears I found that this and every other car in the game has a top speed of what seems to be 50 MPH. The boats aren't worth it, the story is horribly boring, as for the maps, very good, but missing something. I hate the cops "You're under arrest" BANG BANG BANG! That's tough law enforcement. Easily the best part of this game is smashing the cars into oblivion, and once you do that two or three times you wish you never wasted the money on this thing. How could Reflections mess up SO BADLY?

Rating _/10. Don't waste your money like I did.

Good but something went wrong.

[Pirate-BoB · 8 December 2005]

Alright, to start off, the Driver series is great by far. Though when Driver 3 was released I went out to rent it. Played for it about 4 hours and I thought it was great. Very good game, now the problem with this game is the gameplay. GTA series is awesome, but making a copy? Eh, whats wrong with them? The driving is great in this game, but the rest of it, it is like crap served on a plate for you.

The shooting is horrible, most horrible. Everything else is at its top, besides jacking cars. I mean come on, thats GTA job, driving boats and trucks and what not is great, but still. Jacking cars is fun but with a gameplay that sucks, you make GTA look better and make Driver series look horrible.

If you like the Driver series, try it. If your looking for a quick good graphic kinda like GTA game, try it. If you hate complex gameplay (shooting) don't even bother. Instead, play Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas.