Driver 2

I enjoyed Driver (on Playstation) despite its flaws, and this sequel proved a whole lot better, even if some of those flaws were not eradicated. Because Driver 2 was so ahead of its time on the Playstation console, it separated the undercover missions onto two discs. It's nice that the whole story doesn't only take place in America (hence Havana and Rio), and the fact you can drive a wider variety of vehicles, including buses, trucks, vans and even fire engines (something unavailable in the first game). Tanner can now get out of a vehicle, walk around the city and steal another if needs be; great! The graphics to Driver 2 is actually worse than the first game: it seems as if the designers simply rushed the job, and has resulted in slightly disappointing game-play in some areas. The undercover story is just as good as the first game, especially now as Tanner has a new partner in tow, and some of these characters actually make their presence felt in Driv3r. A good ending to this story too, and at least not all the undercover missions involve simple A-B driving. Planting bombs is just one objective Tanner has to do.

As with the first game, damage sustained to vehicles is poor, and cars can still 'pop up' from nowhere straight in front of you. But at least you have bends in the road, and motorway bridges etc, making it slightly more realistic than the first instalment. You even have vehicles parked at the side of the road! Overall, this is an enjoyable and improved sequel to the first Driver game that I still love even seven years later.

The game is more linear than Driver, but it has a much better gradation of difficulty than Driver, as well. It starts out easy and gets harder until the last mission is very difficult, unlike Driver where some in the middle were next to impossible and had to be circumvented by going through an alternate plot line.

Multiplayer is fine, you can have fun with it, but it's not really a type of game play that lends itself to multiplayer.

The voice acting is good, Tanner and Jones do great together, the cut scenes are less confusing than the original Driver.

You can now steal cars. You still can't run over pedestrians or shoot, this is not Grand Theft Auto, the focus is on driving, and in that it succeeds. The locations are better than Driver, the cities are more open, Chicago in the game is the Chicago I remember from having been there, and it's interesting to drive around in Las Vegas (although all the missions are in daylight so it doesn't feel like THE Las Vegas) and Havana. Despite the other user's comments, I found less glitches in this than Driver, although I played the Playstation version where bugs are generally less common because you don't have to make it work with hundreds of video cards and half a dozen CPUs on three different operating systems, all at varying speeds.

You can drive some bigger cars including school buses and trucks, and there is actually a helicopter though not in the story portion of the game. It probably represents the limit of what you can do with a driving game on the Playstation hardware. Most definitely worth picking up if you are a fan of city driving games (as opposed to closed course racing games).

The first was DRIVER was excellent, but it had many flaws. DRIVER 2 corrected them by adding some great additions to the game. Now unlike DRIVER (1) you can now get out of your vehicle and switch to another car before your totaled. There are also great 2 PLAYER options. The game is probably one of the best ever made. But, there are still some corrections to be made. I don't like how they shrink the maps on the 2 player games and the fact that there are no cars, let alone no police cars either on the "TAKE A RIDE" mode on the 2 PLAYER setting. Also you should be able to swap cars while the police are in pursuit of you. My only other problem is I wonder how accurate the maps are. It would be great if they could accurately map the whole USA. Anyway the game is excellent as is, I highly recommend it.

The original Driver was brilliant: it brought movies like Bullitt to your computer or PSX, so you could be a Steve McQueen doing handbrake turns in '70s American muscle cars. Its only (major) glitch was the poor performance on the original Playstation. Far too many times the ruddy thing crashed, because it couldn't cope with more than three active police cars. The traffic consisted of only two types of car per city (Miami, Sisco, LA, NY), so the PC players had a big advantage here. (I'm actually considering grabbing a PC copy out of the bargain bin.) Driver's sequel (called Driver 2 - how original is that?) was also released on PSX. Sadly, the original game showed that the Playstation had reached its limits, but that didn't stop the developers to go over them. Driver 2's main feature is Detective Tanner's ability to get out of his car. The only times you will ever use this option, is when you change cars or open a garage door, which makes this option quite pointless, especially because Tanner is all but able to do a decent job at walking. Firing guns? No way, Jose.

The storyline takes Tanner to (again) four cities: along with Chicago and Las Vegas, it also features Havana and Rio de Janeiro - Havana boosting most of the fun, since you can do your Handbrake 90's with old Volkswagen vans and Bel Airs here. The driving missions are still the daddy, and I was able to do all of the missions without cheats (unlike Driver 1, where the final mission was anything but possible).

When you need a taste of the Driver feel, buy the PC game of the original and leave the PSX games.

Compared to the weaker final title in the original Driver trilogy, Driver 2 seems to do a fantastic job at implementing new features and mechanics that make the gameplay experience more enjoyable.

I found myself being hooked on the narrative of the game, and I was charmed by the many FMV cinematics in-game, which I viewed as a great reward along with the vast unlockable content available.

My only complaint is the sheer spike in difficulty compared to the previous title, but each challenging mission can be overcome with time and patience.

Overall, Driver 2 is a really great title, and I would suggest playing this game over Driv3r, any day of the week.