Introduction

With crime lord Charles Jericho now on the loose, San Francisco faces a terrible threat. Only one man can stand against him. He has driven the streets of a hundred cities and spent his whole life putting criminals behind bars. But to take Jericho down, there can be no turning back, and he knows that this may very well be his last ride. His name is John Tanner. He is the DRIVER.

Developed by the original creators of the franchise, what remains of Reflections Interactive, Driver: San Francisco is the sixth entry in the series of action games with a heavy emphasis on burning rubber and catching bad guys. The studio is now known as Ubisoft Reflections, following their acquisition by the publishing giant back in 2006. As it happens, Atari sold them and the Driver IP following the third game's abysmal sales performance and universally poor reception by critics. Follow-up spin-off Parallel Lines fared somewhat better, but both Ubisoft and Reflections have no doubt been aching to recreate the success that the first game in the series enjoyed.





Toward that end, DSF has been in development for at least five years and has likely undergone multiple revisions throughout that process. Its final incarnation was officially unveiled at E3 2010, but was later delayed multiple times and is only just making its way to stores. Does it live up to the expectations established by the classic Driver games? More importantly, is it worth the price of admission on its own? Read on!

Gameplay

The main attraction of Driver games is, of course, the opportunity to freely cruise around an open, urban environment. This time around, that experience includes an entire fleet of over 120 officially-licensed vehicles, so no more guessing the make and model of those wheels you just hijacked. That is, were you even able to do things the old-fashioned way, like some kind of nameless thug or ex-military immigrant… San Francisco gets a little meta with the ability to magically transfer yourself into any car you want. No, you’re not a ghost, but you are basically possessing unsuspecting motorists -- it turns out that the playable character, John Tanner, is in a coma and nearly the entire game takes place in his lucid dreams. I wish I was making this up!