Driver: San Francisco (2011 Video Game) User Reviews

Closest I've come to a video game blind buy . . . and I regret nothing.

[Mr-Fusion · 9/10 · 8 December 2013]

Any game that features a '70 Dodge Challenger on the cover is alright in my book. And "Driver: San Francisco" turned out to be one kickass bit of fun.

The game's selling point is the ability to "shift" into any car on the road. And while the premise is absurd (all of this takes place in the fevered dreams of our comatose hero cop), that ability is the key to the whole thing, and can change how the game is played at any given time. Pursuing a suspect? Shift into an oncoming car and plow right into him. Need to get to the opposite side of town? Shift over miles of landmass for a quick teleport.

And the game's heart is in the right place, as it mixes '70s muscle cars and style with modern vehicles and setting. What really tickled me was the array of movie-based challenges. You can play facsimiles of the chase scenes from all the greats: "Vanishing Point", "Smokey and the Bandit", "Bullitt", "The Dukes of Hazzard", "Cannonball Run", "The Driver" and even "The Blues Brothers" . . . that's one hell of an icing on the cake.

All of this makes for a terrifically fun game, and brings back the awesome playability of the original "Driver". The chases are fun, the cars are cool, and the cops are still maniacally destructive.

9/10

very unique and fun game.

[jdplife · 8/10 · 25 February 2012]

this game is unique because of the way your move around outside of your vehicle, you move around in the air through an eyeball looking camera, by doing this you can now take control of any car on the street. i have never seen such a thing but i like it, its fast and convenient. if you have to go way across town, just go to sky view and move the cursor to were you need to go then take a near by car, couldn't be more simple. the Graphics are absolutely stunning, and the cut scenes are even better, if you were standing 20 ft away from your TV, you wouldn't be able to tell if people were actually real or not during a cut scene. Online gameplay is a bit dull, but the single player is great is great, even if you do nothing but play multiplayer games, (like me) if you don't like single player, you will like this i promise. if your game does not come with the online pass, don't spend Microsoft points to buy it, its not worth it. but i still do HIGHLY recommend this game for any person who likes racing games, cause it has nothing but cars from real life, and the graphics are epic. i would buy this over need for speed or any other racing game with real cars simply because you can free roam any time your not doing something. there are lots of challenges to do around the city. you will be occupied for awhile. and 1 last thing, this is a good driving simulator too as it has TRUE 1st person view, i always drive with that on, its like really driving.

A good game, playable by people who are new to driving games.

[connahbrown-558-545027 · 5/10 · 17 December 2012]

I found San Francisco to be a bit of a disappointment to the Driver series to be perfectly honest. The story wasn't as advanced as I first expected. Up until now, each driver game got more and more sophisticated the leap from one to two was you could get out of your car. Leap from two to three was a change of console. (Play Station 1 to PS 2 and Xbox) The leap from Driver 3 to Parallel lines was you now had a garage open to you. Parallel lines was also the first time in the Driver series you changed character. for the previous three you were John Tanner, a police detective chasing down Charles Jericho. Parallel lines was also the first Driver to be set in only one city, which I thought was a bit more realistic. Then came San Francisco... back to John Tanner, still trying to catch Jericho. It's almost like they took a step backwards.

The controls are easy... probably too easy. You can pull off perfect drifts in almost any car. And that is not realistic. Not with the power some of the cars have. Which makes it a great game for people who are new to driving games, but not so good for those who are experienced, and like to challenge themselves.

Another thing is the car selection was far too small only about 100 cars. It got boring after a while, that you're stuck with seeing and getting the same cars over and over again. If you want a different car, you need to go into the map and search for one you really want, or you can go into a garage, and you can get one from there. Provided you've unlocked the car, and the first time you go to get it, you have to pay for it. Even if you've brought it into the garage previously.

Another thing I didn't like about this game is the way you change cars, outside of the garage. You press the A button (X for P.S.) and you zoom out to a top-down view of San Francisco. You then hover over the car you want, press the button again, and whoosh! You're suddenly the driver of it. Not only that, but any passengers in the car still think you're the same person who was always next to them. This can be fun to start with, but after a while, the dialog gets repetitive, and you meet all the passengers who are in the game far too quickly.

I know I've been bringing up a lot of points that I don't like about it, and there's still one more to go. Invisible barriers. They're everywhere. To me, this isn't a genuine sandbox game. For it to get to have that title from me, it needs to be more like Test Drive Unlimited 2, no invisible barriers at all. Complete freedom.

Warning, the next paragraph contains a spoiler, skip it if you want to read my review, but don't want to read a spoiler. All it is saying is I like how unique the story is. (A spoiler for a spoiler) Something I DID like about this game now is the fact that it was a bit of a unique story. The hero, John Tanner is in a coma, which he goes into after a crash with Jericho while he was trying to escape from the prison convoy which was transferring him to a maximum security prison.

This game is one you can play again… but with exactly the same experiences. So for most people, they'd only play it once.

Because of all the negative points, and the one good point that I've listed, I've rated this 5 out of 10.

Thankyou for taking the time to read my review.