Yep, I’m doing this, I’m reviewing Driv3r. I absolutely loved Driver 1 and 2 so I was chomping at the bit for a copy of Driv3r to come in at my local used media store. Ok, I’m a bit lazy and by the time I actually realized Driv3r was a thing the game was already massively panned online, and even had it’s own scandal about how badly it had been panned. So in 2006, with my Xbox at the ready, I figured it was time I took a chance and bought the game, and even with as horrible as this game genuinely is, I still found aspects that I truly enjoyed it.

I said it up front, this game is genuinely horrible and that should be it, right? Normally I would say yes, but this is part of the Driver series and I couldn’t just give up on it. This was Driver’s chance to really put Grand Theft Auto in its place and knock it down a peg, but that didn’t happen at all. In Driver 2 the mechanic to get out of the car and walk around was introduced, and it was a complete game changer. I feel in Driv3r they should have been able to build upon those clunky controls and make Driv3r an amazing masterpiece. Bzzzz! WRONG! Tanner gets out of the car and stands like he has a stick up his ass, same with the way he walks and jumps. It’s just awful!

Regardless I pressed on and suffered through the missions to complete each section and move on to a new city, and I do mean suffered in many cases. It was as if this game was never tested. In many cases I found the AI was too accurate with their shots and fired much quicker than I could, causing me to die over and over again. When it comes to the supposed heart-pounding car chasing missions I found, in a few cases, the AI was in what should be a much slower car, but was impossibly faster than I was, causing me to lose them and restart that mission repeatedly.

I spent countless hours playing Driv3r to its completion and yes I did enjoy parts of it. I think most of the difficulty comes from the game’s glitches and seeming lack of testing, more so than any actual difficulty from the missions themselves. It’s flawed, majorly flawed, but I think the cities looked really nice, the car selections were nice, the fact you could swim was amazing, the fact you had boats and motorcycles and other vehicles you could choose from was pretty neat as well. Do I think they should have had a Tommy Vercetti lookalike for Tanner to go around and kill as an Easter egg? Nope! What Driv3r did right still wasn’t anywhere near good enough to try and make fun of Grand Theft Auto. What can I say about Driv3r? Well I played through it (twice), and I actually really enjoy the free roam mode, but you have to suffer through the missions to unlock everything. It’s part of the series and sadly it’s cemented it’s place in video game history, but Driver had one more chance to put on its big boy pants, which is honestly a reviewing I’m excited to do.