Let’s all face it, Driv3r on the PlayStation 2 was a terrible game. Loads of technical issues, stiff controls and bland visuals. I actually once owned the GBA version though. I was impressed by the way you could drive around the quite large city on the little portable computer called the Game Boy Advance. I learned of the game being playable in the Retro Game Room, and decided to try it out again. See if I still had the Driver blood in me. I made a file, and started a game.

The Graphics

As I said in the introduction, the world around you is impressive. It’s not clean at all, and the buildings sometimes take bizarre forms though. This is because the game tries to give you that ‘3D’ look. And for the most part, it actually works. The draw distance is nothing worth complaining about as well. There’s a good amount of traffic and civilians present, too. Overall, Driv3r GBA just looks ‘wow’. But that’s only in the first three minutes or so. After a while, the visuals starts to hurt your eyes. It gets annoying to look at quickly. What’s more irritating, is that every now and then everything eight feet before you completely vanishes and you’re looking at (and driving towards) a completely grey void. The pretty visuals obviously don’t come without problems. But still, it’s amazing to see that the GBA is actually capable of this. The map (which you can freely explore btw, in true Driver style) is quite large, and obviously isn’t just the same building over and over, with the same convenient store tiles. There are actually landmarks you can view. If you can make them out, of course!

The Sound

And here is where my praise for the game ends. The only tune you hear throughout the entire game does sound cool for a couple of minutes. But, as with the game’s visuals, it becomes tiresome pretty quickly. The sound effects aren’t something to be proud of either. The cars sound terrible (counting out the fact that drifting sounds different on each kind of surface), and every female pedestrian moans like a man when you nudge them with your car. It’s funny for a moment, but nothing lasts forever. Furthermore, there are no ambience sounds, apart from the obnoxious music heard throughout the entire game. Except for during the slideshow cutscenes, in which a different, more irritating track is played. And it only gets worse from here.

The Addictiveness

I now remember why I didn’t stick to this game for long when I was younger. The graphics start out good, but get worse and worse by the minute, the music is obnoxious, the cars drive as if you’re skating on ice, the shooting is terrible because you’re not able to move the camera around (there are just some things the GBA can’t do), and really cheap Mission Failed’s. I did manage to beat this game in the Retro Game Room, but I have to tell you, there have been times where I was just like: “the heck with it, I’m gonna do something else”. The only redeeming factor about Driv3r GBA is the free-roaming, which is fun for about 15 minutes, if not less. Even though I actually managed to get good at driving after a while, it took excruciating patience to get to that level. Mastering the terrible physics didn’t feel rewarding. Just like completing the mini-games. I’ll get to that in the Depth paragraph.

The Story

You’re Tanner, a cop who’s task it is to infiltrate a Miami car thief ring. That’s it. The story is told through these slideshow cutscenes with subtitles at the bottom of the screen. I skipped through it all. It’s just not interesting enough to follow. If you actually feel like following the story, play the PS2 or XBOX version. This just didn’t get my attention at all. Perhaps I’m just a lazy reader, which is actually quite probable…

The Depth

There is actually an auto save feature, which saves your progress after completing each main mission. Neat! The map is quite big, and it seems like the developers actually did their best generating it. Every location on the map is different, and not just the same copied section over and over. Unfortunately, the missions lack in variety. Most missions have you dropped in gang territory and shooting all the baddies you stumble across. For a Driver game, there aren’t an awful lot of missions that involve ‘driving’. There are some other blips on the map which pose as mini-games which have you driving through all the checkpoints in a certain time limit, smashing crates or driving over cones. It gives you a couple of things to do. If only it were actually worth it to complete these mini-games. Completing these missions reward you with nothing but the text: “You did it! Good job.” That’s literally the text that appears on screen. Just a simple pat on the back isn’t enough, guys. I would’ve liked to have unlocked something, as this game is challenging as all heck.

The Difficulty

This game is difficult, and often frustrating. The second mission has you following a fellow police car to a criminal hideout. The game is relentless. One screw-up and it’s Mission Failed for you. Even though the game is quite generous with checkpoints and replays, this still becomes an annoyance, due to how often you will wipe out. Your vehicle steers like Bambi on ice, hitting another vehicle or obstacle will bounce you back several feet, while the police car (or any other car you’re chasing) will cartwheel through traffic like it isn’t even there! There are missions in which you will have to trash stuff by driving over it, but this is insanely difficult due to how bad the hit detection is on those things you have to run over. You often obviously hit the cones, for example, but you simply drive through them and the game somehow thinks you didn’t. Recovering your health is no easy matter (you already start the game with half a health bar), the only ones I’ve been able to find is in combat missions. While I was being shot at by goons! And restarting the mission doesn’t replenish your health. You’ll restart your mission with your health being just as low as it was when you began. And you can’t drop out and go back to free-roam once you’ve started a mission. Once you started the mission, you’re stuck there until you beat it. Yeah, this game… It’s hard.

Believe it or not, Driv3r GBA is actually better than on the PS2 and XBOX. But that’s not saying much. While the visuals may look pretty the first few moments, it will quickly annoy the heck out of you; driving is not fun due to how awkward the steering is; combat is a hassle due to you not being able to turn the camera and the mini-games are unrewarding to do. Driv3r is just a game which shouldn’t have been on the Game Boy Advance, due to the handheld’s restrictions at the time. Want to give it a try? Go ahead, but I’m warning you. You’ll come back disappointed.

Pros:

-          The large map can be freely explored

Cons:

-          Pretty visuals and sound quickly get tiresome

-          Driving physics are terrible

-          Shooting is terrible due to camera restrictions

-          Some visual bugs and glitches