Compensates for the awful third game (Driver - Parallel Lines (PS2))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Driver - Parallel Lines (PS2)
Date:	12/09/09 (2 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gameplay and graphics

Disadvantages: Still just a GTA clone

The Driver series started off so promisingly, with a great first installment, a solid sequel, and then a third game that was, for want of a better word, tosh (so bad, in fact, the developers bribed a few notable gaming publications!).

Parallel Lines, the fourth game in the series, tries to go back to basics, with a fairly routine revenge plot, in which you play a youngster named "The Kid". The game begins as you've been turned on and banged up in prison for someone else's mistake. After years in prison, you emerge and want to take revenge on the people who put you inside. Presented like a film, with a rather good cinematic style, it gets you in the mood to kick some butt!

The driving is the best aspect of the game - it has been refined and tuned to feel quite realistic, more like GTA4 than any game before it. Also, you can crash into a good amount of the environments with your car, causing unspeakable bouts of chaos and mayhem. Given how dire it was in the last game, it's no surprise that the shooting has also been revamped, and now the baddies actually respond to the bullets! Also, escaping the heat is now not as impossible as it used to be - you can hide and change cars in an attempt to escape the fuzz.

I must commend the game from a graphical perspective also - they've done a very good job bringing New York to the PS2 - all of the main monuments are there, and from my understanding they did a very good job recreating it. The vehicles are also excellently modelled and greatly resemble their real counterparts. From an aural perspective, things are also quite pleasing - the vehicular sound effects seem very realistic, and there is also now a radio station system much like that of the GTA games.

This is a solid game that doesn't have the "oomph" factor to make it something to compete with GTA. Rather, it feels more like a decent copy of GTA than anything else. That said, there's a lot to do here and I enjoyed the game as an improvement on the dreadful Driv3r.

Summary: GTA lite but fun