Driv3r is, without a doubt, one of the worst games I've had the misfortune of playing, and I've played Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, so I know crap when I play it.
That being said, I enjoyed the first two installments of the Driver franchise. I found them to both provide an entertaining experience.
This game however, is so broken and fraught with error that the only purpose it could serve without failing is that of a coaster.
That, and it's extremely difficult.
It's not difficult because it's intelligently designed to provide a challenge. No, it's extremely difficult because the whole game is just broken and fundamentally flawed on every level.
From a visual standpoint, it's harsh, grainy, flat and dull. You see recycled models everywhere, stilted animation abound, and textures so bland everything looks like it's made of cardboard. Not to mention the pop-up and scenery collapsing...
From a gameplay perspective, the controls are slow and lumbering, with what appears to be a delay in commands no matter what you're doing or where you are. Objects are constantly clipping each other, and Tanner has a habit of falling through nearly everything, then popping out of the ground and either dying, or emerging with half of his life gone. In addition, both Tanner and the enemies can kill each other through environmental structures. All you need is for your targeting reticle to turn red, regardless of what you're aiming at, and fire away.
In terms of driving, the cars seem to be using the exact same control and physics engine that was used in the previous game. Only they've somehow ruined it's responsiveness when they tried to convert it to work with the analog controller. So why not use the D pad and face buttons?
Well, because unless you press the buttons really, REALLY hard, the command simply wont register.
Also, when driving, you simply don't know what you can and can't run over. For example, you can plow through a wooden sign no problem, but you cannot run over a sapling. Running into the sapling will yield the same result as running into a streetlight, the result of which is your car bouncing off of it with such force that you will be turned completely around. Add to that the sidewalk has a bad habit of clipping your wheels so you'll flip over when you run over them, so you're constantly balancing on this nebulous invisible line of what you can and cannot do.
Combine all of that with nearly constant slowdown and random game crashes, and you have one heck of a broken game.
This game had me so infuriated that for Christmas I'm now wishing for an appointment with the entire developmental team that worked on this game. That way I could punch each team member in the face and actually get SOME enjoyment out of Driv3r.
You might think that if Atari and Reflections had enough time to litter this game with Nokia and Sobe advertisements, they would have enough time to put some effort into making the game playable. But, that is clearly not the case. It seems as though they just shoved their two-month old Driv3r demo out to market, and then ran home to enjoy their lifetime supply of Sobe energy drink and Nokia cellphones.
In conclusion, I would not recommend this game to anyone, except if I hated them. Then Driv3r would make a terrific torture device.