RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Reviews > Driver 2
The game revolves around being in a car mainly, and doing various missions and things in the car. Of course, the fact that you can get out of your car expands the limits of the missions you do. In the Undercover mode, which is generally the Story mode, you undertake several missions in a total of 4 cities, Chicago, Havana, Vega and Rio respectively. The storyline is based on a few gangsters with very illegal stuff and your guys have to stop them, of course, your guys are not cops, so as well as having the enemy gangsters after you, you also have the cops, but anyone who's played the original Driver would say "What's new?"
Besides the obvious part of getting out of your car and taking any other car that's lying around, there are new Driving Games to play, such as survival. Now this is very annoying unless you've found the Invincible cheat in Vegas, because 4 cop cars immediately come crashing at you. They're much more powerful than normal cops and are invincible themselves. If one gets flipped over, another comes. A lot of the Driving Games are from the original such as escape from the cops and also, catching another car. Of course, all of that is one player.
The 2 player mode is another new feature and really adds more gameplay. There are multiplayer games such as Capture the Flag, which is quite amusing. You can also do the escaping the cops where one is the cop (first player) and the second player is the escaping car. And of course, you can do a battle, where the first car to take full damage loses. But on those ones, there's no other cars, no cops and you can't get out of your car, so it's more fun to just drive around and just mess around.
On to the missions. The one player missions involve many scenarios, including Catch a person, meaning you have to smash the car up before they escape you. This might be a truck instead of a car and you might only have to smash it enough for the person to give up and make a run for it. Some missions involve you having to follow a car carefully, so they don't see you. On one those ones, the car turns around and comes straight at you so I suggest you learn how to reverse ha ha. Some of these will have you throwing the PlayStation out the window because they're so damn hard, but then there are easy ones, where you just drive around avoiding the random enemy gangster or cop car. There is one problem, most of the missions have time limits making it a little harder each time, but you'll usually make it with a few seconds left.
And now we come to the Take a Ride section, which if you've played the original Driver, you'll know is the most fun, because all you do is drive around, no missions or anything, just drive. There are hidden cars, areas and cheats for you to unlock in each of the 4 areas and on a personal note, if you head East from the start of Havana, you'll soon come to a road shaped in a semi-circle and a road going through the middle of the semi-circle. At the end of the middle road is a very fun jump that will keep you amused for hours. It's more fun on two player mode of course.
So now to the specifics...the music is terrible I have to say. You can barely hear it most of the time and the rest of the time it sounds like slow jazz with a beat-up guitar. The sound effects are the only thing that keeps me leaving sound on. The car effects mainly are very good, very realistic. The crashing sounds much better than the original and in Story mode, the voices and other effects are very clear and are worth watching. The graphics couldn't be improved, as the game has a slow frame rate, lags a bit at the action parts and improved graphics would slow it down more. The game is slightly unrealistic as when you take someone's car, they run off in any way they can, sometimes through walls, making no attempt to stop you. The cops, like the original, are sometimes unfair, and they go after you even if another car hits you, not the other way around. They say "Stop your vehicle" long after you've stopped it, but they keep ramming it, making it move. That's the only stupid part i found. There are a few minor glitches but you'd be lucky to find one, as they're rare. The plot isn't bad, gangsters threatening to kill people with explosives and stuff, worth listening to. Battle system, well, I'll assume the battle system to be how you wreck enemy cars, and it's pretty average, unrealistic.
All in all, if you liked the original or are a fan of driving games, this is for you. If not, have a try, at the Take a Ride at least, you might like it. Good job all up.
| Game Stats | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action |
| Platform | PlayStation |
| Format | CD-ROM |
| # of Players | 2 |
| Released Jap | N/A |
| Released US | 11.14.2000 |
| Released EU | 03.26.2001 |
| Aprox. Length | 10-15 hrs. |
| Reviewer Rankings | |
| Battle System | 6.0 |
| Gameplay | 9.0 |
| Music | 3.0 |
| Originality | 9.0 |
| Plot | 7.0 |
| Replay Value | 8.0 |
| Sound | 8.0 |
| Visuals | 7.0 |
| Difficulty | Hard |
| Overall | |
| 7.1 | |
Driver 2
By: Reflections InteractiveReviewed By: Kie
At last, a 3D driving game was made where you could get out of your car and take someone else's. Driver 2 sort of got the idea of GTA and took it to the 3D world, revolutionizing the limits of the PlayStation console. But enough small talk, let's get into detail.The game revolves around being in a car mainly, and doing various missions and things in the car. Of course, the fact that you can get out of your car expands the limits of the missions you do. In the Undercover mode, which is generally the Story mode, you undertake several missions in a total of 4 cities, Chicago, Havana, Vega and Rio respectively. The storyline is based on a few gangsters with very illegal stuff and your guys have to stop them, of course, your guys are not cops, so as well as having the enemy gangsters after you, you also have the cops, but anyone who's played the original Driver would say "What's new?"
Besides the obvious part of getting out of your car and taking any other car that's lying around, there are new Driving Games to play, such as survival. Now this is very annoying unless you've found the Invincible cheat in Vegas, because 4 cop cars immediately come crashing at you. They're much more powerful than normal cops and are invincible themselves. If one gets flipped over, another comes. A lot of the Driving Games are from the original such as escape from the cops and also, catching another car. Of course, all of that is one player.
The 2 player mode is another new feature and really adds more gameplay. There are multiplayer games such as Capture the Flag, which is quite amusing. You can also do the escaping the cops where one is the cop (first player) and the second player is the escaping car. And of course, you can do a battle, where the first car to take full damage loses. But on those ones, there's no other cars, no cops and you can't get out of your car, so it's more fun to just drive around and just mess around.
On to the missions. The one player missions involve many scenarios, including Catch a person, meaning you have to smash the car up before they escape you. This might be a truck instead of a car and you might only have to smash it enough for the person to give up and make a run for it. Some missions involve you having to follow a car carefully, so they don't see you. On one those ones, the car turns around and comes straight at you so I suggest you learn how to reverse ha ha. Some of these will have you throwing the PlayStation out the window because they're so damn hard, but then there are easy ones, where you just drive around avoiding the random enemy gangster or cop car. There is one problem, most of the missions have time limits making it a little harder each time, but you'll usually make it with a few seconds left.
And now we come to the Take a Ride section, which if you've played the original Driver, you'll know is the most fun, because all you do is drive around, no missions or anything, just drive. There are hidden cars, areas and cheats for you to unlock in each of the 4 areas and on a personal note, if you head East from the start of Havana, you'll soon come to a road shaped in a semi-circle and a road going through the middle of the semi-circle. At the end of the middle road is a very fun jump that will keep you amused for hours. It's more fun on two player mode of course.
So now to the specifics...the music is terrible I have to say. You can barely hear it most of the time and the rest of the time it sounds like slow jazz with a beat-up guitar. The sound effects are the only thing that keeps me leaving sound on. The car effects mainly are very good, very realistic. The crashing sounds much better than the original and in Story mode, the voices and other effects are very clear and are worth watching. The graphics couldn't be improved, as the game has a slow frame rate, lags a bit at the action parts and improved graphics would slow it down more. The game is slightly unrealistic as when you take someone's car, they run off in any way they can, sometimes through walls, making no attempt to stop you. The cops, like the original, are sometimes unfair, and they go after you even if another car hits you, not the other way around. They say "Stop your vehicle" long after you've stopped it, but they keep ramming it, making it move. That's the only stupid part i found. There are a few minor glitches but you'd be lucky to find one, as they're rare. The plot isn't bad, gangsters threatening to kill people with explosives and stuff, worth listening to. Battle system, well, I'll assume the battle system to be how you wreck enemy cars, and it's pretty average, unrealistic.
All in all, if you liked the original or are a fan of driving games, this is for you. If not, have a try, at the Take a Ride at least, you might like it. Good job all up.
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