Let me get this out of the way right now, Driver: Parallel Lines is better than Driv3r in almost every way possible. Sure, just about every review of this game is going to mention this somewhere, so I figured I get it out of the way early.
For years the teams at Reflections and Rockstar North have been in a tit-for-tat war of game design featuring unflattering cameos by each of the other’s game stars in their own. Grand Theft Auto has long held down the fort as the best open-ending, nearly-never-ending video game series on any platform and the Driver team, responsible for birthing the whole genre in 3D on the PSone and PC, has been playing catch up.
Parallel Lines changes up the typical driver formula by dropping Tanner, the series former protagonist, and replacing him TK, a teenager with a knack for driving cars and ending up on the wrong side of the law. The story isn’t much to work with and those looking to escape with some side missions here or there will be sorely disappointed that the fat has been trimmed in this addition to the franchise with even the much lauded Director Mode receiving a cut.
The game starts you off in the mid-1970’s where disco rules, New York, the game’s setting, is a hotbed for hot women and lots of drugs. TK makes his way through the ranks, befriending and offending characters along the way till the game’s half way point where he’s double crossed and thrown in jail only to be released in the present day City that Never Sleeps. Then the revenge aspect takes gamers where we’ve been many times before, but it’s oh so much more blatant that you realize.
Driver: Parallel Lines is like a poor man’s Grand Theft Auto, in fact, the game blatantly rips off elements from Rockstar’s series either intentionally or inadvertently, that much may never be known, but its bad enough when Rockstar is forced to rehash gameplay elements, its even worse when another company does it.
Missions in Parallel Lines range from racing through illuminated checkpoints on crowded streets, picking up cases of money only to be ambushed by unknown assailants, collecting items dropped from a flying vehicle before the police get them, traversing through Central Park hitting more checkpoints, or putting together a huge job by completing a series of smaller jobs If you can’t name another game where all these elements are present, you obviously haven’t been playing video games very long. Even the sound effects when collecting items sound eerily like those from the GTA series.
After the dismal reception to Driv3r you’d think that Reflections would have learned to tone up on the game’s namesake action, which it did wonderfully, but then proceeded to mess it up by including John Q. Law in the mix. The police officers are relentless, overbearing, and kill any sense of fun you might have with the completed game. Driving from mission to mission becomes an exercise in tedium as police officers will begin chasing you for the smallest thing, like running a red light, or breaking the speed limit. It is so ridiculous that easy missions should take five minutes but end up taking well over 15 as you struggle to lose the cops and make it back to the end point without picking them up again. Even the ability to tie your criminal actions to either your person or your car makes driving around nearly impossible with all the traffic in NYC.
The inclusion of cops in the GTA series has worked wonderfully through all three 3D installments, if Reflections went so far to copy just about everything else from that “other” series, why not the parts that made the gameplay so popular and easy to pick up? After driving 35MPH and obeying every light you’ll grow tired of Parallel Lines in no more than five minutes.
Driving itself is the second best part of the game, when you’re able to open the engine up a little bit and escape the five-o. The physics engine has been toned down from the flippy-floppy previous installment but still has the tendency to over-exaggerate your metal-crushing mayhem. The handbrake is a little loose but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be gliding around corners in no time, but because of the cops and endless streams of traffic you’ll most likely end up gliding into the back of a bus.
The much-maligned on-foot sequences are back, although not as prevalent as they were in the third installment of the franchise. You’ll still have to learn to shoot a gun and move around, where choppy character animation and questionable collision detection come into play, but the targeting system isn’t completely broken. You’ll also have the ability to shoot from your car, and not just from the side as GTA would have us believe is the only way, you can hang out the window and let ‘em have it much like Streets of LA did.
The game offers a fine collection of different automobiles which are present in both settings and as mentioned before, they drive pretty easily, and you’ll even get to “pimp” them out if you wish. The only problem with this is why spend money pimping out a car when you can easily jack a better one for free? It seems a game built on theft has no place for gameplay mechanics which make you actually pay for things.
The best part of the game is its excellent selection of music from a bevy of licensed artists it shines above and beyond the similarly themed soundtrack from San Andreas, but not even good music can save this game from the doldrums of mediocrity and borderline piracy.
There’s a lot more to say about Driver: Parallel Lines, but most of the important stuff has been said. There’s enough material here to warrant a weekend rental, but the questionable design decisions and been-there-done-that gameplay elements will have you yawning before the first third of the game is completed. True fans of the genre are better off playing through San Andreas once again, its guaranteed to be more fun and doesn’t mind you breaking a few pithily traffic laws.
