It was 2006, been enjoying some decent games and gems on the PlayStation like “megaman 8”, “Tekken”, “Tony Hawk Pro Skater”, and “Twisted Metal III”. Name a few but we’re not talking about these games today (well Tony Hawk already done) but there was another game that was part of my small collection of PSX games. This particular game for today, which is called “Driver: You are the Wheelman” or simply put “Driver” for the PlayStation is the focal point of our interest. This was a classic for its time when released and helped paved way for sandbox car games in some way. I’ll try to be short and sweet as this car revving, police chasing, city exploration, President saving(?) mission based game is the one we are reviewing today.

Graphics: 9
The graphics are beautiful for the PlayStation hardware. It does suffer the same trope with pixelization, polygons, and draw distance… yet it doesn’t need no flashy gimmicks or models to make the cars and buildings look great. The scenery and how the sun glares to your screen is so vivid and the colors look natural for the surrounding area. Pedestrians, tho are 2-D pixels, react whenever you get close to them or about to crash them (you’ll never hit them. I tried). Trees and objects like street lights or trash can be interacted to either be crashed or run over by. Birds present flying around, rain, even glass breaking seem to be realistic for its time. The stop lights actually work turning red, yellow, or green. Another neat thing is that it offers night and day for the areas (more on that later) and helps create a more authentic experience when playing. One complaint is that sometimes the night driving might be too dark and must either rely on the brightness on your tv (adjusting it of course) or just get used to such a dark setting. Car damage look so good and detailed, although at times it can look a bit too jagged, especially when your nice vehicles at times look a bit blocky. Hun caps do fly out when your car is driving and goes to the air or sharp turns. Burnouts are a nice edition if you want a quick acceleration and skid marks on the road. With the draw distance being atrocious when driving, all you see is the 2-D background (which isn’t that bad) while the game loads the next set of roads and polygons while cruising around. Realism is what they aimed for and they did what they can with the hardware’s limitations and it’s not that bad. Flames and smoke look like the typical graphics the PlayStation output. Overall the graphics are pretty good for its time, the realism is great,

Sound: 10
BIASED! The music is such a great choice added into the game. Based on funky 70s car chase music, the use of synthesizers and piano makes the game feel like you’re in a chase itself or just taking a groovy stroll around the areas. Sirens and radios sound great and the car engine sounds decent. But can we talk about the music? I highly recommend listening to this if you’re into synthesizers and car chase music. One of the best soundtracks I heard in the PlayStation that aren’t licensed music.

Addictive: 8
Very simple game to drive around and explore around the areas. Though only one area is available at the beginning there are other modes (explained later) to help you squeeze out replay value and enjoy for hours on end. One neat feature can make you become a director making your own films. More on that later

Story and Depth: 9
This game offers a few game modes and some enjoyment to have when starting up the game. Loading though can be a hassle at times, taking from 10 seconds to a whole minute. While driving around, the HUD offers a mini map to know where you’re going, a damage bar where once full your car breaks down from all the damage accumulated. There’s also a felony bar where if it grows the cops become more aggressive and harder to escape. Also, regarding to cops, if you break a law or damage a vehicle, the cops will be alerted and come after you once you get seen by their cone of view. They will ram you over and over until your car breaks down and flames pop up. Never get your car upside down! It’ll cause a quick game over with your damage bar growing quickly until the wheels touch floor again or the bar fills up and the vehicle catches fire. Here are the game modes.

Undercover: Career mode of the game. You are an NYPD detection named Tanner. You went undercover as a chauffeur to investigate a crime syndicate and find out what they’re planning. As you prove your worth in the underground crime scene you become they’re getaway driver and help them with missions unraveling their plans. Would you disband the syndicate or will your cover be blown and become a victim? As you are the gateway driver you will travel throughout the United States in four cities. Note : these cities aren’t actual representations of real life and just be like what the PlayStation can handle.

Miami: the beginning of the game and the only city available to play unlocked. A beautiful scenery with roads in the middle of the water (with concrete railings as the boundaries) that leads to an “island” and Miami Beach. The cops aren’t as bad and the streets of course look clean and with a large area to explore. It offers a day or night mode.

San Francisco: Golden state bridge? China town? Claustrophobic buildings and a trolley? Count me in as San Francisco is quite a busy map with the narrow roads and streets going up and down the hills. Cops are smarter and the trolley can be your friend to use as a roadblock when chased. Overall not a much larger map but the scenery is beautiful and the day and night modes are available.

Los Angeles: a map that’s night only as you drive through small roads and “Beverly Hills” and other landmarks. I felt like it was one of the smallest maps in terms of driving but with highways and such it’s not a bad map overall. Cops aren’t a joke but AI is still predictable.

New York: the final city to unlock and one of the biggest. Highways and tunnels is what makes this city look nice and with the skyscrapers and sharp turns, it is one of the most difficult places to maneuver when chased by cops. It is notorious for the night setting like you’re driving blind in the darkness. No lights and you only rely on your headlights which aren’t that great. The final mission is also located in this map.

As you progress through the story you have a small hotel room as your menu. VCR tapes to save your game. An answering machine to hear what missions you have and choose to accept. Car keys for a Joy Ride without the need to play missions and be at your leisure at the current map you’re in. And a door to exit career mode and go back to the main menu.

Once you unlock all these maps you can replay them in the Take a Ride mode on the main menu. No missions, no worries. You can choose day or night and just enjoy the ride. Not much to say other than it’ll give you familiarity to each cities in the game.

Training: this is one thing that’ll help you hone your skills and learn how to drive your vehicle in a dirt road setting. Ghost car is present and you can set records in each training, though don’t hit the cones or you get penalized by the time.

Getaway: you evade from cops and try to escape from them and set a record time

Pursuit: you chase after a vehicle and damage them in order to complete this.

Checkpoint: race through checkpoints around the cities and try to beat the times

Quick replay and Director mode: now this is a juicy concept. Quick replay is basically a replay of your gaming session (I think up to five minutes? Starts at the latest point it recorded within those five minutes?) and Director mode makes your driving session feel like a movie. Different camera views, editing each time stamp to a specific camera and cutting. Able to make a simple car chase become a brilliant work of movie art and the best part? You can save your replay on to the memory card.

Difficulty: 20
Actually: 8
This is a 20 for a reason. The infamous training mission. The first mission you do is notoriously difficult for any new comer and honestly it took me two weeks to beat it when I first started. This really put people down and others gave up. Those who made it are rewarded to a great game and it’s worth it if you ever beat the first mission alone. I’m telling you this isn’t for the faint of heart… until the second mission.

Overall: this is a game worth playing, if you ever beat the first mission. It’s fun, it’s chaotic, it was a good fix for years until better games came in and made the formula a lot better (GTA III). This was another childhood game and I do own the disc. I still play it at time and it really never gets old to be honest. The music is a masterpiece and the whole 70s aesthetic in car chases makes this game something to come back for

Overall: 10.6 with that first mission difficulty. Kidding kidding
Actually: 8.8
My rating: 9