Previews// Driver: San Francisco

I almost got confused which time period I was in when playing Driver: San Francisco.

Just like the past games in the series, Tanner’s latest undercover jaunt may well be set in a modern-day version of the Golden City, but there are so many throwbacks to 70s' cop shows that it almost hurts. My face, that is, from all this grinning.

To start with, the music is very jazz-funk in style at times. Then you have the plot, which mirrors that of TV show Life on Mars (minus the political incorrectness). Add Tanner’s partner Tobias Jones, who provides classic afro-dialogue and looks a little too much like Sazh from Final Fantasy XIII, and you have one big bowl of cheesy goodness. Or badness, depending on your tolerance to that sort of thing.

The story kicks off following the events of Driver 3. Mass-murdering nastyman Charles Jericho has been placed on Death Row, and day of his execution has come. The only thing left to do is to transfer Jericho over to his final destination - a journey that will require cordoning off a large chunk of town. Tanner trails the convoy, a little bit paranoid that things may go horribly wrong.

And wouldn’t you know it? Things certainly do go Pete Tong, when an elaborate escape plan hatched by conspirators on the outside helps Jericho run into hiding. When Tanner pursues, he gets wound up in a car crash that slams him into a coma. From that point onwards, you play through Tanner’s subconscious through a rather humorous plot twist. The good news is, it allows for some rather interesting new gameplay.

You won’t be able to move outside of your vehicle in Driver San Francisco. But that’s okay, because using the power of Shift, you can ethereally jettison yourself out of whichever car you happen to be controlling at the time and switch to another one at your leisure. The city zooms in and out like a world map, with certain cars offering various kinds of missions.

These range from the traditional Driver-style stunts, races and chases that you remember from the ‘good old days,’ to Dares and Activities that earn you rewards for completion. All of the objectives I played through took a very light-hearted approach to the game world, courtesy of Tanner’s comatose state.

As the protagonist hops into a car, he possesses the driver who was previously controlling it. In one of the first missions, Tanner jumped into the body of a timid businessman who was taking a sports car for a test drive before being tasked to utterly mince it through a series of jumps and drifts.

Completing City Missions will allow you to progress through Tanner’s coma, but taking the time to explore other types of missions and areas of the city will reap various benefits. You earn virtual currency called Willpower, which you can spend in garages to buy new vehicles - of which there are around 70-80 licensed cars including the Cadillace DTS, Chevrolet Impala and Dodge Viper Challenger SRT8 - and upgrades for those rides.

There’s a lot to discover in this world map, and I wasn’t even able to see the whole of it at this stage - as you complete various sections of the main story, you get the ability to zoom further and further out of the world map to other destinations. The brilliant thing is that no matter how far away you decide to Shift to, there’s barely any loading or popup. The proprietary engine used to power this game does a great job in handling NPC cars and all kinds of environmental effects on a macro level.

The dialogue appears slick, as long as you love cheesy 70s cop shows, and the controls are as initially-drifty as ever. Fans of Driver will feel right at home, and may find the plot and setting a bit far fetched, but that’s also part of its initial charm. When Driver San Francisco is released on 2nd September, we’ll know whether that charm can carry the rest of the game through.