WeView Verdict: Driver: San Francisco

Initially looking at the comments for Driver: San Francisco, I thought few of you had decided to give your opinion of the game. However, it seems it just generated less discussion than other titles have for some reason, with very few of your opinions being graced with replies. So content in the knowledge that I haven’t picked a game which no-one cares about, lets take a look at what you had to say about the game.

First off it seems well worth noting that the game’s demo failed to impress quite a few of you (although there were some who felt it sold that game well), to the extent that some of you who commented were simply saying that the demo put you off the game completely. Fortunately some of you did decide it was worth grabbing in spite of the demo, Crazy_Del amongst them.

“When I first played the demo of Driver SF my attention and hype turned into a waste of time!” He noted, sounding disappointed. However, it seems the full game managed to put the demo issues aside, as he stated that “…playing Driver the full game itself is far from better than the demo, I was so glad I risked my wallet to get Driver: San Francisco, it is indeed a great game.”

The other element that cropped up more than once was the game’s shift mechanic, a pretty core concept of the gameplay. Essentially it grants you the ability to jump into the bodies of other drivers on the road, transferring the consciousness of lead character John Tanner. As theaface noted “…the premise is all a bit daft, [but] the shift mechanic actually works extremely well as a gameplay device, and makes things feel nicely varied.” Forrest_01 was also enamoured with it after getting past the demo, saying that the full game “turned out to be absolutely brilliant in the end”.

As for the game’s multiplayer, it seems that developers Reflections were onto another winner here with freezebug2 saying that “Online play is where the game also excels with loads of event types and variations of the Shift mode to play with as you reach certain EXP levels these new modes unlock”, whilst tonyyeb said the local multiplayer was the “best split screen multiplayer I have seen for ages!”

Those of you who read these verdict articles every week will know that I like to round things off with a comment that sums up the whole game nicely, and this week is no exception. This week I selected jikomanzoku, and I believe this is the first time I’ve used one of their opinions of a game. Here’s how they felt about the latest Driver title:

My favourite driving game since Burnout Paradise, the sheer fun to be had in San Francisco was a breath of fresh air. The “chase movie” car phsyics were exceptionally well judged, the rosta of cars extensive, the side challenges varied and the soundtrack possibly the most fitting in video game history.

So with that high praise duly noted lets move onto the community’s verdict of the game. There were twelve of you who decided to give your opinions this week, and the result was nearly unanimous. Whilst there was one rating of Avoid It, and that only based on the demo, eleven of you rated the game as a Buy It, a fairly overwhelming verdict.

That’s it for Driver, but we’ll be back tomorrow with a new title. Remember, if you have a game you feel is worth the community taking a look at just drop a comment below.