Driver: San Francisco - The fast, the furious, the unconscious

Of course that's only natural, since you're in a coma.

Perhaps I should go back a little way and explain. Shortly after the game begins, protagonist John Tanner suffers a pretty serious collision – even by his relaxed standards – which knocks him straight out of the waking world and into a hospital bed. However, it's from here on out that things really start to get strange. Once unconscious, Tanner discovers that he actually has psychic powers – powers that allow him to possess any driver in the city. So, once he gets over the initial “freaking out” period, he sets about using his abilities for good. That, and good times.

Sure, the premise seems a bit outlandish - In fact, scratch that, it seems very outlandish, but it actually turns out to make an excellent gameplay mechanic. Reflections were prepared to take a strange road for the sake of a great game, and it paid off marvellously.

Say, for example, you're in one of Driver's classic high-speed car chases. You and the other members of the police force are tearing down the highway, only inches behind the boot of the latest felon's souped-up sports car, when suddenly, disaster strikes. Your car is sent spinning off into a concrete barrier while the criminal races off towards the horizon, grinning into his mirror.

Well, no worries, that other police car is right behind him. One tap of a button, and you're driving that car instead, sitting beside a bemused fellow cop who's wondering where you learned to drift a corner like that. However, even this is only the beginning.

Many other uses of what the game calls “Shifting” are possible thanks to the ingeniously implemented auto-drive system. Simply put, this ensures that you're free to conduct all of the paranormal hijinks you wish, confident that your car isn't going to tear off the road without you driving it. With the freedom granted by a semi-autonomous vehicle, the gameplay possibilities are both numerous and hilarious.

Maybe you're in a race, but stuck in a frustrating second place, and no matter what you do, you just can't seem to overtake that one leading car. Shift up the road a little way and you can find a bus heading in the opposite direction. Possess the driver, and you can smash that bus head-on into your rival. He won't be making the finish line, let alone first place. Not very sportsmanlike, but definitely very entertaining.

So yes, the “Shifting” makes for some great gameplay, but that's not all. The developers have also done an excellent job of exploring the other possibilities of their idea. Missions are wonderfully varied – everything from helping a street racer pay for his brother's tuition fees to aiding a struggling film crew who are trying to make a “worst drivers” show. Even the standard events are spiced up, with variations such as team races, in which the player's two cars have to finish together in first and second places.

Particular mention should also go to the dialogue, which is consistently entertaining, and manages to make the very most out of the game's crazy premise. Tanner wisecracks his way through every twist and turn, and has some very funny conversations with his various unfortunate passengers along the way. This isn't limited to missions either, as many of the drivers you possess while wandering the sandbox come with passengers in tow, and there's a huge variety of characters to hijack. Will you ride with a vicar in a hurry? A petrified driving instructor? Or maybe a rich kid who's only letting you drive because “Daddy said so”? Each one has their own conversations with Tanner, and they respond to his driving style with all of the indignation, fear, and howls of financial suffering that you could possibly hope for.

Such cries are usually justified as well, since the driving mechanics in San Francisco are well designed to produce some wild vehicular action. Although the shift mechanic (as well as the abilities to boost and to ram other cars) moves the game away from a pure driving experience, the developers haven't let the quality of this aspect slide at all. They're even eager to show off how effectively the game functions without Tanner's special abilities, offering a number of challenges where such things are either unavailable or unnecessary.

With its core driving still at such high quality, Driver: San Francisco never feels like a gimmick game, and supported by a genuinely enjoyable driving experience, the thrills of “Shifting” never seem fleeting or cheap. Combine this excellent gameplay with a huge selection of missions and challenges, a staggering number of cars to collect, and a robust selection of online game modes, and Driver: San Francisco is powering along at full speed. Get behind the wheel, you won't regret it.

Driver: San Francisco is available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and PC (360 version reviewed).

Written by Aryn Clark

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